rokkerkory
Member
Great job FB
What the hell is wrong with you?
What the hell is wrong with you?
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Facebook handed Russia-linked ads over to Mueller under search warrant
- Thread starter Shard
- Start date
Phoenix RISING
Banned
Good stuff.
Master Yoshi
Member
Did they hand over the election to the FBI as w.. oh wait. They already gave it to Trump.
Right on the money. Mark Zuckerberg is complete scum. Sadly by 2020 everyone will have forgotten this. This will NOT effect his presidential run in the least. Look at everything Trump got away with during his run and is still getting away with today.
Also if Mark Zuckerberg runs for president, I am nearly certain he will win because of facebook. I would be legit shocked if he didn't win.
SolarPowered
Member
Mueller's justice league is about as far removed from "typical" law enforcement as it gets.
Facebook could be in trouble here since foreign powers aren't allowed to spend on US elections. So if Russia bought campaign ads, which we know they did...
I find it hard to believe Democratic voters will support an outsider billionaire just because he runs Facebook.
What the hell is he going to do to appeal to black voters in the South?
SolarPowered
Member
What the hell is Zuckerberg going to do to appeal to Bernie voters? Their disdain for the rich, powerful and corrupt is only surpassed by the blood red KKK Republican districts that hate Jews unless it has something to do with Israel. They'll probably hiss and toss rotten vegetables at him during the debates.
Also true. Who exactly is this dudes base?
Just wealthy white Democrats? Good luck.
It's not like their company grew due to the resources and stability of the United States or anything... oh wait.
Totally agree with you on this being his fault. The lack of foresight and any sense of responsibility coming from the big companies in Silicon Valley just blows my mind. If you contribute to destabilizing the US as a country, then good luck continuing to operate comfortably.
But nah, gotta get the money now. Can't worry about later.
I mean, sure they could move to another country if the US got really bad, but that's a lot of infrastructure and beneficial tax/law structure they'd be throwing away. It really pisses me off to see these companies grow and benefit in this country and then pretend like their role in operating these huge social networks is neutral.
I doubt they'll learn anything even if the investigation shows evidence that yes, Facebook DID significantly contribute to putting Russian propaganda in front of Americans.
jellies_two
Member
We get to the chewy caramel center of this thing.
The Russians were buying test runs on FB for memes. Which Americans (apart from Facebook) were helping them? What happened to the successful ads, did they inform the 100 million bucks trump spent on FB campaigns inside USA?
There are connections here it's inconceivable to believe that a Russian active measures group was doing what it did in a total vacuum. They need someone like Roger stone to help invent the nasty messaging.
The Russians were buying test runs on FB for memes. Which Americans (apart from Facebook) were helping them? What happened to the successful ads, did they inform the 100 million bucks trump spent on FB campaigns inside USA?
There are connections here it's inconceivable to believe that a Russian active measures group was doing what it did in a total vacuum. They need someone like Roger stone to help invent the nasty messaging.
Yeah. This is why I'm not worried about him running in the primaries.
He's an unrelatable, uncharismatic dope. Not only that, but he doesn't have any galvanizing qualities like Trump had in racism, as sad as that is.
BrassDragon
Member
I'm really surprised the money trail leads directly to Russia. Always figured that the propaganda was drafted and published by Trump-aligned and US-based groups (like Kushner's outfit) and then spread and amplified by Russian trolls and botnets. That would've given the Kremlin more plausible deniability.
Also, did Facebook just look into the 2016 campaign? Because how do we know these efforts have stopped? (See the sudden trending of anti-HR McMaster sentiment on social media recently.)
Trump has been building his brand for decades culminating in an entire reality show built to make him look like one of the most successful businessmen in the US with strong, decision-making ability. I don't see any other "celebrity" candidate working that out in the same way.
SuperBanana
Banned
I wouldn't be surprised if Reddit is targeted next. The amount of very obvious russian astroturfers was astounding.
Zero chance Cambridge Analytica isn't involved.
thought the same actually
Chaos2Frozen
Member
I'm surprised Reddit wasn't first. Seems like the obvious place to look.
They didn't have a problem with it. They'll take your money, any currency. All about value for the shareholders.
yo.. the fuck
CarbonatedFalcon
Member
Demographics of the userbase and systemic design of the platform in question:
Facebook likely had far more actual voting users that would be susceptible to this type of operation, along with a more effective/persuasive method of dissemination.
jellies_two
Member
Yeah Reddit may have been an engine room but to reach the *cough* easily swayed voter with preconceptions primed by Fox news, nothing would beat Facebook.
I mean imagine: you listen to hannity etc hint darkly about clintons evil tricks (nothing specific of course because Fox is very public) and then use Facebook to talk to your kids and, bang, there is a targeted ad that confirms your worst fears leading to a large exciting group that will "keep you informed". You like the ad and the group, and your friends (the FB algorithm detects are likely to also like it) see it pop that into their TLs too.
There was a reason "Those awful right-wing Facebook pics your friends/family share." was such a long running gaf topic.
Shit. Now I want him to run.
No, no, no. Remember what happened last time.
Been thinking this too from the start.
Wonder how likely this is.
Security experts from intelligence agencies have remarked that this was too coordinated, targeted and sophisticated to be an outside job.
dragonelite
Member
Isn't the ads engine only showing those ads to people who are already anti Hillary.
Social media creating echo Chambers is not a new phenomenon.
Beer Monkey
Member
There's literally no way the Trump campaign didn't provide them demographic data for targeting purposes.
Collusion.
Collusion.
jellies_two
Member
You think everyone made up their mind A year before the election? Even if 95% of people did those who were not sure would be a priority target.
Kill Your Masters
Member
I don't know how ad companies and targeted ads work exactly but if they can target anti Hillary people they probably can target pro Hillary or undecided voters as well. Or key states and cities.
BrassDragon
Member
It's very hard for people to wrap their heads around the effectiveness of microtargeting. These cyberpropaganda efforts don't care about what you actually believe, they only care about subtly changing your behaviour.
The algorithms start with broad demographics and then drill down to thousands of factions within that segment until they can tailor the message to individual influencers (like say, a reporter, a community organizer or a union leader.)
So while it looks like one big 'echo chamber' to those not targeted, there are subtle psychological variations within the messages directed at the people within that bubble. You have look beyond the meme image - that's the catalyst sure, but also consider that the comments, likes and shares of that meme have been engineered to push you in a certain direction. It's more sophisticated than just the blatant message.
There is also variation in the behaviour they're trying to engineer; it's not always 'Hilary bad, Trump good', that's way too simplistic. Maybe they want you to google pizzagate, or question the credibility of real media sources, or believe conspiracies about the primary race, or think the system is rigged and voting is pointless, or believe the intelligence community is out to get Trump etc.
The new development is not that cyberwarfare creates echo chambers but that it weaponizes these echo chambers with a level of sophistication that is hard to imagine.
jakonovski
Member
There need to be modernized legislation for sure.
But in this case if Russian businessman Pudimir Vlatin comes with a suitcase of rubles to buy "vote Trump!" ads during election season, you should probably say no and notify the authorities.
BrassDragon
Member
You also have to consider the global reach of Facebook et al. These things didn't just happen in the 2016 US election but also in the Brexit vote, the Dutch Ukraine referendum and general election, the French election etc.
It's a huge headache for intelligence services to see this happening and being unable to get some cooperation from Silicon Valley because it's all American and religiously 'free speech' and 'neutral'.
Everyone thinks this impacted Trump voters (and it did) but I know two Bernie "bros" (one is a girl) who were lapping up stuff that I wasn't seeing, and they were being laser targeted. I think that's part of the stupid civil war we're in right now, as well as the Fanta-hued clownbus running the country.
Beer Monkey
Member
Foreigners buying political ads is already illegal.
What eclipse image?
DerangedHermit
Member
DietRob
i've been begging for over 5 years.
OléGunner;249079210 said:
I would be very very surprised if it wasn't the case. There is absolutely no way that they didn't have help from someone deep within the GOP or Trump's campaign. Way too coordinated and apparently they knew exactly which demographics and districts to hit hardest.
Cambridge. Analytica.
Darryl M R
Member
I have a feeling the advertising industry will be getting some restrictions and policy reforms after this is all done.
Also Facebook decided not to vet the sources of ads? Really? Do they not have an office of risk for advertisements? Policy reform is going to bite back hard.
Also Facebook decided not to vet the sources of ads? Really? Do they not have an office of risk for advertisements? Policy reform is going to bite back hard.
They already dropped their government info request "canary in the coal mine" from their ToS.
If this happens, no, If zuckerberg wins the presidency with or without thanks to Facebook, it will show that becoming president of the United States is no longer something serious and professional, instead it's going to look like becoming president of the United States is a show like American idol or Americas got talent
BrassDragon
Member
It's assumed Facebook is far more complicit/negligent than they have so far admitted. They're definitely obtuse and mealy-mouthed about the misuse of their platform by foreign and domestic entities.
The one thing that worries me about the Mueller investigation is that all the known top investigators are financial, legislative and organised crime experts. Important expertise, to be sure but they really need a cyberwarfare perspective at the top as well. I suppose the House or Senate could subpoena Zuckerberg, Dorsey and such but that seems unlikely in the current political climate.
When the full details of the active measures become public, there needs to be a reckoning in Silicon Valley.
With Facebook ads, they give everything to you already.