Peak Oil News and Message Boards

I didn't see this mentioned previously and it seems to me it has some importance in terms of global oil and gas markets given how much influence the US has had of late due to the shale industry. This is from a government paper:

United States House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Majority Staff Report, Russian Attempts to Influence US Domestic Energy Markets by Exploiting Social Media. March 2018

https://science.house.gov/sites/republicans.science.house.gov/files/documents/SST%20Staff%20Report%20-%20Russian%20Attempts%20to%20Influence%20U.S.%20Domestic%20Energy%20Markets%20by%20Exploiting%20Social%20Media%2003.01.18.pdf

The paper suggests that a group called IRA had significant activity in social media, lobbying against US oil and gas interests. The IRA refers to Internet Research Agency, supposedly a Russian company based in Saint Petersburg established by the Russian government for the purpose of deceptively using various social and traditional media platforms to advance Russian propaganda.

from the report:

Findings

Between 2015 and 2017, there were an estimated 9,097 Russian posts or tweets regarding U.S. energy policy or a current energy event on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Between 2015 and 2017, there were an estimated 4,334 IRA accounts across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

According to information provided by Twitter, more than four percent of all IRA tweets were related to energy or environmental issues, a significant portion of content when compared to the eight percent of IRA tweets that were related to the election in the U.S.

Russia exploited American social media as part of its concerted effort to disrupt U.S. energy markets and influence domestic energy policy.

The IRA targeted pipelines, fossil fuels, climate change, and other divisive issues to influence public policy in the U.S.

Russia is being crippled by an economy that is stifled by greedy oligarchs. However, they are nostalgic for the days of the Cold War when the USSR confronted the USA/NATO. However thanks to greed, Russia isn't even in the top ten economies:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/022415/worlds-top-10-economies.asp

It's a fact of life now that various political interests (globally) will use propaganda on social media to attempt to advance their agenda.

Just as they tried in the past with the old style media. Just as private businesses have always done (marketing) with any media available.

In the case of oil and gas, I'm not sure that it matters.

As long as they don't have better/cheaper alternatives, people will use FF's, if it will make their lives "better". Peoples' cars and lawnmowers don't care where the oil comes from.

The people who are "anti-oil" (but often don't behave like it, re their personal lifestyles) don't need to be told that US oil and gas is "evil".

...

Paraphrasing "The Who", "Meet the new media, same as the old media."

Hilarious, paranoid propaganda. Thanks to such cheesy, Sovietesque BS the US is losing its standing and credibility for most of the world.

1) Those cited figures make it sound as if they are verified and not pulled from some russophobe's anus. These numbers should be treated with a ton of salt since "Kremlin trolls" include Scottish mall cops and thousands of other posters not drinking CNN koolaid.

2) I love how some fraction of a percent of the total post volume are totally steering US public opinion. That must be some magic. How are Americans only affected by this fraction and not all the other posts. This retarded propaganda would have you believe that the information space of posts consists of a Russian delta function and not a nearly white spectrum distribution.

KaiserJeep wrote:However thanks to greed, Russia isn't even in the top ten economies:

But Russia doesn't try to be an economic threat really. The threat is a combined Russian/Chinese economy as each provides easily that which the other lacks. The two together have the potential to overwhelm the US economy in size while carrying no significant national debt.

Whether we get our game face on and stop pushing the two together is a question for our politicians; but taking for granted our place in the world simply because Russia and China didn't trust each other for beans a couple decades ago seems very unwise to me.

Hilarious, paranoid propaganda. Thanks to such cheesy, Sovietesque BS the US is losing its standing and credibility for most of the world.

You seem to be living in some dream world where Russia is full of politicians who do not want power and only want to do what's right for the world.

Here is the federal indictment for Internet Research Agency and the individuals involved.

https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download

Those cited figures make it sound as if they are verified and not pulled from some russophobe's anus

there were federal indictments....I have a hard time believing that could be achieved without some substantive proof of involvement.

I love how some fraction of a percent of the total post volume are totally steering US public opinion. That must be some magic. How are Americans only affected by this fraction and not all the other posts.

the point is not how effective the social media effort by IRA was but just the fact they did it, which according to the indictments is illegal.

rockdoc123 wrote:Between 2015 and 2017, there were an estimated 9,097 Russian posts or tweets regarding U.S. energy policy or a current energy event on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The IRA targeted pipelines, fossil fuels, climate change, and other divisive issues to influence public policy in the U.S.

The thread is a bit stale and I'm not sure if rockdoc posted this tongue-firmly-in-cheek, but if not:
are you aware that pstarr alone could have single-handedly outperformed the evil Russian bots? Now imagine the effect on US energy markets if we send the entire ETP crowd to Facebook and Instagram: WTI futures crash within days, rig counts drop to zero in a week!

rockdoc123 wrote:Here is the federal indictment for Internet Research Agency and the individuals involved.

https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download

Those cited figures make it sound as if they are verified and not pulled from some russophobe's anus

there were federal indictments....I have a hard time believing that could be achieved without some substantive proof of involvement.

OTOH, there's the canard from various media that "A grand jury would indict a ham sandwich. Getting a federal indictment is a FAR different thing than getting a conviction. (There's a surprising amount on this, if you google it.)

I'm not taking one side or the other for the issue -- just disagreeing that indictments should hold a lot of weight. All they mean is that a jury agrees there is enough substance to justify holding a trial. That's a HELL of a long way from a criminal conviction by the "beyond a reasonable doubt" American standard of criminal justice.

Outcast et al - Exactly. The only way I can not take this thread as a waste of space on our site is to assume it's meant as sarcastic humor. To think that such tweets could effect the actions of our gluttonous fossil fuel consumers and the politicians forever begging for their votes is truly laughable.