Objective

1. Update the authority value of each node to be the sum of the hub values for every node it has a link into.

• Update the hub values for each node to be the sum of the authority values that it has a link into.
• Normalize the hub and authority scores for all nodes by normalizing each value by the system sum for each value.
• Repeat these steps (assumingly until the values no longer fluctuate).

Source code

Acknowledgments

Implemented Algorithm

Reference

• http://www.math.cornell.edu/~mec/Winter2009/RalucaRemus/Lecture4/lecture4.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HITS_algorithm

Neither the U.S. nor allied governments have publicly identified The Duran as having direct ties to Russia’s spy agencies. But the site is where Russian state-sponsored disinformation and fringe theories come together, according to a NATO cyber-analyst who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Fringe non-Russian, pro-Russian outlets include places that have no direct (but perhaps indirect) institutional ties to Russia but are nonetheless generally favorable to the Kremlin. These outlets include websites legally registered all over the world, such as The Duran, GlobalResearch.ca, and Infowars.

Correctly describing the media outlet producing disinformation is extremely important and will prevent mistakes such as misattributing the actions of a Swedish man running a small pro-Kremlin aggregation site to the Russian state and a massive energy company headquartered in Moscow, as we saw with The Russophile.

The podiatrist, Dr. Vladimir Zeetser, owns a minority share of DRN Media, the company behind the Duran, a website promoting false conspiracy theories echoing Russian state messaging.

Third, mutually reinforcing digital entities pick up and perpetuate the narrative, whether they are ideologically friendly or simply fall under the category of “useful idiots.” These entities include news aggregators, far-right or far-left sites, blogs, and users drawn in by clickbait headlines that reinforce their previously held beliefs, in addition to media outlets that frequently echo the Kremlin line but are not obviously affiliated with Russia, such as Zero Hedge (pg 30-31)

Zero Hedge runs political news and commentary that “frequently echo the Kremlin line,” as a 2018 RAND Institute study put it. Among Zero Hedge’s most Russia-friendly fare were stories depicting the Mueller investigation as a hoax, pieces claiming that the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal was staged by British intelligence, and posts asserting that the Steele dossier was a work of “fanfiction” by internet trolls on 4chan. Andrew Weisburd, a private intelligence analyst who has done work for the U.S. intelligence community, has found that Zero Hedge is at the center of a web of conspiracy sites with spokes extending out into the darkest fringes of the internet.

U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday accused a conservative financial news website with a significant American readership of amplifying Kremlin propaganda and alleged five media outlets targeting Ukrainians have taken direction from Russian spies.

The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence. The officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia.