“Ein Trommelfeuer der Desinformation”: German Investigation of Russian Influence Campaigns on X Twitter

Interesting phrasing can be found in Der Spiegel (original report in German)

Specialists from the Federal Foreign Office have identified a systematic Russian campaign on Elon Musk’s platform. In the federal government, concerns about electoral influence are growing.

The story is titled “carpet bombing of disinformation” (“trommelfeuer der desinformation“) referring to German psychological operations and artillery tactics of WWI to demoralize soldiers in trenches.

“Trommelfeuer aufs Trommelfell Der Erste Weltkrieg…” Source: BPB.de

A huge number of deceptive messages launched from Russia seemed to carry some common threads. The meticulously crafted military intelligence propaganda was tossed into the rising hot air of trending generic hashtags like #Oktoberfest or #Bundesliga, to shower influence over the widest possible audience.

The gravity of misinformation reached a zenith with a particularly impactful fraud targeting the personal account of Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister. A special counterfeit text in her name being promoted by Elon Musk’s platform suggested that backing Ukraine was a threat to German prosperity. This deceptive Russian government campaign, however, embedded a Cyrillic anomaly that presented investigators with an obvious marker and inadvertently exposed Elon Musk’s growing links to deception.

Any investigator who delves into the labyrinth of deceit on the “Swastika” site (formerly known as Twitter), can see how an orchestrated effort seeks not only to distort public perception but also to undermine the integrity of critical political figures and any government’s stance on international affairs.

In the case of Elon Musk already promoting Nazi political candidates in Germany, a prevailing undertone emerged in this Russian-backed propaganda campaign as reported in Der Spiegel. Elon Musk’s platform generates the false narrative that the Olaf Scholz government is forsaking the welfare of Germans due to military aid and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, compounded by welcoming over a million refugees fleeing Russian aggression.

Der Spiegel highlighted the conspicuous resemblance in the discourse surrounding the counterfeit posts and the narrative espoused by Elon Musk’s favored party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD).

“Mit seinen klar definierten Elementen (Logos, Farben, Schriften, Sprache…) und deren Zusammenspiel transportiert unser Erscheinungsbild Botschaften und Werte, die uns Einzigartigkeit verleihen und eindeutig von unseren Wettbewerbern unterscheiden.” Source: AfD

This political faction, considered the modern Nazi party, staunchly critiques the government’s stance on Ukraine. Notably, the AfD maintains established connections with the Kremlin and adopts a sympathetic posture towards Vladimir Putin. This alignment in rhetoric and shared sentiments underscores a potential nexus between the disseminated disinformation by Elon Musk and the political leanings of the AfD, raising obvious questions about the influence and motivations behind such orchestrated Russian messaging campaigns.

SC Tesla Kills One in “Veered” Crash Into a Tree

Another day, another “veered” Tesla straight into a tree.

Troopers responded at approximately 12:20 a.m. to Spanish Wells Road near Marshland Road where a 2016 Tesla sedan crashed, killing the driver, Lance Cpl. Nick Pye said.

Investigators say the vehicle was traveling south on Spanish Wells Road when the vehicle ran off the road to the right and struck a tree.

Source: Google Maps

NHTSA Recall of 200K Brand New Tesla Cars Cites “Software Instability”

UK authorities had to issue a warning that listening to impatient and immature “life hack” fraudsters can kill you, your family and everyone around you.

Over the years, Tesla’s short-sighted management culture, characterized by a grossly negligent mindset to dump product into the market as quickly as possible despite known flaws (essentially, “burn toast now, scrape later”), has resulted in some troubling instances. A glaring example is evident in the recent NHTSA recall case.

Tesla, Inc. (Tesla) is recalling certain 2023 Model S, X, and Y vehicles equipped with full self-driving computer 4.0 and running a software release version 2023.44.30 through 2023.44.30.6 or 2023.44.100. Software instability may prevent the rearview camera image from displaying.

In this safety regulator’s report it’s clear how a giddy “science fiction” dream of abruptly eliminating physical mirrors to use only software for visibility turned up as a predictably stupid and unsafe implementation.

The 2023 Tesla manufacturing processes, while aiming for a sleek design, pushed 200,000 vehicles onto public roads with unsafe visibility issues due to buggy software, essentially rendering drivers blind.

“Software instability”

That phrase is a HUGE dig by the NHTSA at counter-safety culture of Tesla. The car brand often bleats and gloats about rapidly throwing problems into software development hacks, ignoring regulations, instead of using traditional multi-modal automotive safety practices.

Any guess how Tesla will address this recall? With… wait for it… just more and more and more software instability.

One of the first to report problems with the update was 2023 Tesla Model Y Long Range owner Brandon Yang, who told us he has owned his electric SUV for less than four months. Yang was driving his Tesla when he noticed the car’s active safety and driving assists weren’t working, so he arranged with a Tesla service center to have his car updated. But when the vehicle tried to update itself to build 30.8, Yang’s car got stuck downloading the update and wouldn’t shut off, repeatedly cycling through attempts that wouldn’t complete.

This occurred over a period of more than 72 hours, during which the car gradually drained its battery. Yang eventually disabled Wi-Fi to break the cycle, but the car enabled an internal LTE antenna to continue trying (and failing) to update. After much back-and-forth with the service center, Yang was told his car needed a new Autopilot computer to fix the problem—though on pickup a week later, he was told a software script had fixed it after all

While trying to sort it all out, Yang posted to Reddit for advice, and was met with numerous other owners with the same issue. {…] Tesla however has shipped bad updates before, in one case recalling a Full Self-Driving Beta update that caused cars to slam on their brakes with alarming frequency.

The ballooning technical debt that is producing amateur-level script failures in 2023 Tesla cars should be no surprise. The more they depend on “rapid patch” fixes all the time and everywhere, instead of sound engineering principles and safety regulations, the more likely this all ends for them in financial and moral bankruptcy. Tesla is digging itself into a giant predictable engineering disaster, placing everyone in and around the car in danger.

In related news:

Tesla hacked, 24 zero-days demoed at Pwn2Own Automotive 2024

TWENTY FOUR ZERO-DAYS.