"Cleansing operation": Party close to Putin wants to identify opponents of the war with artificial intelligence
Created: 2023-01-09 16:18
By: Andreas Schmid
Vladimir Putin at a United Russia party event.
© IMAGO/ITAR-TASS (archive photo)
Anyone who rails against the “special operation” online cannot be a voter for the party United Russia, which is close to Putin.
With AI, critical voices are now to be identified.
Moscow – Anyone in Russia who condemns the Ukraine war as such must expect problems.
Criticism of the "special operation", as the Kremlin usually calls it, is unwelcome.
Local authorities therefore take strict action against critics.
Therefore, unlike at the beginning of the invasion, there are hardly any demonstrations.
In many places, the protest is shifting to the digital world.
War critics are now apparently to be identified there with the help of artificial intelligence.
"United Russia" wants to identify opponents of the Ukraine war with AI
The Russian ruling party "United Russia" is apparently currently working on a "cleansing operation".
This is how Putin opponents in their own ranks are to be identified - by artificial intelligence and algorithms that track the activities of voters in social media.
This is reported by the
Moscow Times
with reference to the business
newspaper Vedomosti
.
The tools trawl two popular Russian social networks, VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, for "politically significant actions."
This includes, for example, "Like" information for anti-war contributions.
"If the algorithm detected party supporters opposed to the special operation and a second review confirmed their views, they were excluded from our database," an unnamed United Russia source was quoted as saying.
"United Russia"
United Russia is the party with the most members in Russia.
The party has a two-thirds majority in the Duma, the Russian parliament.
Vladimir Putin is not a member of the party, but United Russia supports the president's course, so the Kremlin chief is seen as the de facto leader.
The official party leader is Dmitry Medvedev, a close friend of Putin.
“Cleansing” in Putin-affiliated party: support falls
Another interviewee speaks of a "cleansing" of party supporters who have publicly expressed doubts about the success of the special operation, in particular through negative statements on social media.
According to Vedomosti
, the supporter base of "United Russia" has
dropped from 25 million to 13 million as a result of the surveillance campaign.
According to reports, United Russia had set a goal of increasing its following to 30 million by 2024.
AI in use against critics: How is the step to be classified?
For the scientist Konstantin Kostin, head of the Fund for the Development of Civil Society in Russia, the move is primarily a campaign tactic.
"It's a criterion used to study moods in their support group, refine communication strategies and find opinion leaders," he said
.
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It's more of a political move, aimed primarily at increasing party supporters' loyalty in the public eye, says Rostislav Turovsky, vice-president of the
Political Techniques Center
: "It's unlikely that an algorithm analyzing social media in is able to determine the exact political position of each.
Supporters of the military special operation could also support other parties, says Turowski.
But United Russia is interested in getting them on its side.
(as)
