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Google Investigates Facebook's Russian Political Operatives, Will Address Congressmen (recode.net)
An anonymous reader quotes Recode:
Facebook has shared some details about the Russian-operated profiles it discovered on its platform with Google, as the search giant -- with the rest of the tech industry -- continues to probe the extent to which Kremlin-backed misinformation spread through their websites during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It is unclear if Google has found any suspicious ads or other content after evaluating Facebook's data, an exchange of intel confirmed to Recode today by three sources familiar with the matter. At the very least, Google's investigation appears to be much broader in scope than a similar one by Twitter, which had drawn the ire of Congress for appearing to be incomplete. A Google spokesperson declined to comment for this story, as did a Facebook rep.
For now, though, Google is slated to deliver a private briefing to U.S. lawmakers studying Russia's political tactics in the coming weeks, additional sources told Recode. A date does not appear to have been set. And the search-and-advertising giant has been asked to join Facebook and Twitter at two upcoming hearings in the House and Senate where the industry will face questions -- out in the open -- about its safeguards against Russian political interference in the future.
For now, though, Google is slated to deliver a private briefing to U.S. lawmakers studying Russia's political tactics in the coming weeks, additional sources told Recode. A date does not appear to have been set. And the search-and-advertising giant has been asked to join Facebook and Twitter at two upcoming hearings in the House and Senate where the industry will face questions -- out in the open -- about its safeguards against Russian political interference in the future.
Yeah, that'll be unbiased.
You'll see them crying whataboutism and "but the NSA!" in each and every thread.
The whole thing is absurd. The very idea that Russians are pretending to be other people on the internet, I mean who would believe that? Our great president Putin i mean Trump says it's nonsense and that should be enough for any rational person. Those Chinese though, I wouldn't trust them.
Now that it's come out that the ads the Russians paid for were to support BLM and were issue only ads and not pro/con of any campaign they were entirely legal.
It's fascinating that leftists scream "net neutrality" and "free speech" except, of course, when people are actually, legally, executing it but they don't like it. Then it's hate speech or political interference and should be banned and prohibited.
Hypocrites all.
in private briefings, with government officials, about *Russia*... Sounds like a match made in heaven.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
If we don't, Democrats might have to face the possibility that Hillary Clinton lost because she was a horrible, corrupt human being and that the Democratic Party's ideas are deeply unpopular with the American public.
And we can't have that.
Why cover the corruption trial of a sitting Democratic U.S. Senator when Trump's doorman's cousin might have talked to a Russian once?
No, by all means let's talk about RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! more, no matter how many anonymous leads turn out to be bunk, how many dead ends and retractions, no matter how many "smoking guns" that turn out to be neither smoking nor guns.
Anything to avoid rethinking Democratic dogma and admit that Donald Trump will be President of the United States of America for the next 3+ years and there's absolutely nothing they can do about it.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Google will prove once and for all, that Donald Trump is not a crook, that he is not in bed with Putin, and that he isn't a senile time-traveling Nazi Space Whale.
Then:
In 2008, Trump took over the licensing and management of a Puerto Rican golf resort, the Coco Beach Golf and Country Club. But the resort filed for bankruptcy in 2015, leaving Puerto Ricans with nearly $33 million in outstanding bond payments.
Now:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'll once again point out that no one has never been able to conclude that Facebook advertising even works at all, thanks to recent internal findings from Procter & Gambles. So if basic advertising on Facebook doesn't work, then how exactly do you expect a major election to be swayed by that same mechanism? Since we can't at all prove that anyone has been hacked, then how exactly is 'The Russians' going to do anything?
Now please, tell me exactly how 'The Russians' are going to influence a US presidential election and more importantly: can that influence be explained without bringing up the extreme levels of corruption that took place within the Clinton campaign. Corruption that has been verified already by several third party as well as proven by the fact that the DNC had to fire just about everyone for said corruption.
And that's before we have to have a discussion about recent leaked information about what the CIA can do with spoofing the originals of hacking attempts.
whataboutism
Yeah, that'll be unbiased.
Russia isn't a competitor to Google. Not a serious one anyway; they're just a country.
There is a big difference. When you see an ad for dish soap, fast food, or the newest SUV you're probably not emotionally invested and so those ads have little effect. But politics is like religion for many people, so the emotional response can be much greater.
As an example, I'm sure we have seen someone who scoffs at ads in general get all worked up about a new Android/IOS ad IF they happen to be fanboys.
$100k? That's it?
Hell, I dropped a $1,000 personally out of my own down pocket advertising last year on politics. And the closest I ever been to Russia is New Hampshire.
Caution: Contents under pressure
In an unprecidented level of political corruption, Hillary Clinton took over $100 million in bribes to approve sale of a uranium company to Russia while secretary of state.
Story
Then she rigged a national primary election to ensure she was going to be the nominee. The argued in court that fair elections are not a concern to the DNC.
Story
Meanwhile...
The imbicle that is PopeRatzo thinks the above is perfectally acceptable, but the "accusation" of Russia buying Facebook ads by Zuck (without having yet shown proof) means Trump should be removed from office.
Yes, PopeRatzo IS that stupid.
Well then, Trump and his apologists like yourself, will have nothing to worry about now, won't they...
> I'll once again point out that no one has never been able to conclude that Facebook advertising even works at all
I don't give a rats ass what P&G says. I burned through $1k in FB ads last year and I averaged one page "Like" for every $0.06 I spent.
Facebook even congratulated me and noted my ad performed in the top 92% of all ads on FB during that time.
I created a good advertisement that interested people in a good product. P&G got nothing for their money because they have a BORING product.
Caution: Contents under pressure
> I'll once again point out th..
Nobody should listen to a person that can't figure out quote tags on a tech site.
Shhh, shhh. There now -- quiet down sweetie. It's just a nothing burger. Nothing to see here.
Apparently the Russians were advocating for BLM. But now we're told that BLM is bad, because it causes racial division. And they sent the ads to people who don't like BLM, that is, the ones who actually need convincing.
It seems that literally anything is counted as evidence in favor of "collusion" any more. And we don't care about any other countries. So it's just fine if Comey pays 100k to British spies for dirt on Trump that contain 4chan piss fetish hoaxes. And it's totally fine if the Democrats sell our uranium to Russia. But if someone in Russia wants to encourage America to value the lives of black people, then even if they're unconnected to Trump, that's somehow treason?
The entire story doesn't add up. It started with a forest of stories referencing each other based on nonsense. The Crowdstrike, Trend Micro & ODNI reports are pitiful, the supposed "attacks on election systems" were retracted, and now you're in full blown confirmation bias mode where all that matters is generating headlines because you're lucky if people even read that much.
Well then, Trump and his apologists like yourself, will have nothing to worry about now, won't they...
I agree with this sentiment entirely.
I would *love* to have our two parties compete for leadership in this country, but by now I'm convinced that it's never gonna' happen.
I'm dismayed that we (the government, through our taxes) are paying for an investigation with negligible chances of finding anything, but at the same time I realize it keeps "them" busy and out of trouble.
I'm also dismayed that there's an apparent double standard in legal consequences, where James Comey can admit to leaking and gets to write a book about it, while Reality Winner (a commoner) sits in prison denied bond.
I think we may be seeing the death of the Democratic party, to be quickly followed by the death of the Republican party.
It used to be that "money buys votes", through advertising and endorsements, but the internet has managed to break through that barrier. Looking at the recent Alabama special election (to replace Jeff Sessions' vacant Senate seat), the "establishment" candidate spent about $137 per vote on the election, and still lost. Hillary Clinton spent about $1.4B against Trump's $1B and still lost.
No longer can people get away with outright lies - it's too easy to look up the primary source. No longer can people get away with puffery or exaggeration - it's too easy to look up the primary source. News sources who have previously survived on making exactly those sorts of techniques are becoming irrelevant.
We seem to be transitioning from "Republican vs Democrat" to "Populist vs Globalist".
Let them have their investigation, it doesn't really matter. They're not taking responsibility for their actions, they're not making any change to *themselves* to compensate.
They're not going to evolve, and we all know how that works out.
Nobody should listen to a person who is so chicken shit he is afraid to post under his own name.
Caution: Contents under pressure
Sure thing Ivan.
So that 100k vs the DNCs 1.5 BILLLION and they STILL lost? Damn really? That is how much it takes to buy a presidential election? What was the DNC wasting their money on?
There are 105 women in the U. S. Congress. You can do better than that, headline scribe.
And your passport says "OYAHH" on it, right?
Moron.
Facts and evidence are facts and evidence unless you're a Republican, then they're "fake news" or "biased" by default. Why not just wait to see what they come up with? Oh right, you're running a smokescreen/distraction, you don't care.
From what I've been hearing Russian operations have been more to sow strife than to support either candidate. But don't trust me on that research it yourself.
The title alone implicates Zuckerberg in paying for, setting up and running the operation!
No Russians involved, just a rented server in Moscow and Zuckerberg!
Google investigating Facebook reads very foggy. Is Google the FBI? No!
You're just jealous that they outsmart you.
... to foment animosity towards other countries and brand some undesirable politicians as foreign agents and collaborators. I wonder where whcih regimes this reminds me of. Hmm, can't remember.
Still waiting for that evidence of hacking of the DNC servers by agents of the Russian government. It ought to be really great, with the famed 17 intelligence agencies putting their finger on it. Although, I guess if there will not be 17 Internet companies claiming the Russians subverted web ads, maybe that will be even more impressive.
Russians Ate My Baby!
Russians Hacked My Bank ATM And Spent My Money On Boooooze!
Russians Shat Into My Underwear!!!!!!
These libtards are god damn idiots.
PS: this EditorDavid dude comes off as some buttmad Hillbot nuthugger. He constantly posts these idiotic libtard conspiracy theories and is killing off this sorry-ass site that's been on its death bed for 3-4 years.
Now that it's come out that the ads the Russians paid for were to support BLM
How fucking stupid do you think we are? You target BLM ads at people who hate BLM all you will do is motivate them. Everybody knows that. Throwing up a smokescreen of stupidity to cover for you Trumpin/Putrump bosses
The Russians were advocating BLM to a bunch of racists in order to get them to vote for Trump out of blind supidity. We understand that, you can't fool us.
So you're telling me that the product that BLM offers is so bad at anybody who sees it instantly hates it. Wouldn't you think this is BLMs fault?
So far, they've discovered 100k worth of ads on Facebook, which were supporting BLM / identity politics. Thus so far, the Russians have been helping the Democrats (who are also furiously into race/identity politics).
Blah blah blah.. And yet you know 100% that they were BLM adverts targeted at people who hated BLM designed to enrage those people.
"It is unclear if Google has found any suspicious ads or other content after evaluating Facebook’s data, an exchange of intel confirmed to Recode today by three sources familiar with the matter. " - direct quote. Move on, nothing to see here.
Hillary was supposed to win. Hillary didn't win. The Russians are evil. Since the Russians are evil and Hillary didn't win, the evil Russians manipulated the election to allow Trump to win. QED.
Ah yes, the whataboutism cry, the equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears and screaming "LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOUR!".
Unfortunately for your narrative, the facts are that the ads were almost entirely pro-Hillary and pro-BLM, with the intent to drive traffic to monetized blog posts. There's not a single piece of evidence pointing to a conspiracy.
Your team lost so embarrassingly, with 1.3 BILLION in funding pissed away, that they are desperately grasping at anything to explain why they failed that doesn't involve blaming themselves.
No, dipshit. You target ads at people who you want to get monetized blog clicks from. Why the fuck would you target BLM supporters with BLM ads? They're already bought in to the propaganda.
Not only that, but they lost because the Russians were running pro-Hillary ads...
Like you can't make this shit up... These people actually believe this...
You sure they were _actually_ pro? Or perhaps designed to look convincing but issuing forth subtly manipulated positions that reinforced existing bias in the viewer?
The actual ads haven't been released publicly as far as I know.
Yeah, that'll be unbiased.
Leftists investigating leftists will find nothing wrong.
Just like the police do."We investigated ourselves."
I've had my money on the Vatican being the source of our great interweb trolling. Small country, but their ambitions are just too big. Considering there's a picture evidence, it must be true. http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr...
What I keep wondering is.... is this truely illegal? I can say anything I want.... âoeHillary Clinton used to be a man, and had gender reassignment surgery! Donâ(TM)t vote for her.â and that would be completely within my rights thanks to the first ammendmant.
Iâ(TM)m free to say whatever I want. Now advertising.... that is just paying others to say it for you. But letâ(TM)s forget about that (for the moment). Letâ(TM)s assume Russia paid to advertise something online. Fine. Whatâ(TM)s the charge? Tampering with an election? No. They didnâ(TM)t. They didnâ(TM)t change peopleâ(TM)s vote? They changed peopleâ(TM)s mind. We donâ(TM)t get to decide what criteria people use to formulate their decision, or where they get their criteria. We only have the obligation to count the votes of those who are legally allowed to participate in the vote. So far, I havenâ(TM)t heard of anyone actually doing anything illegal. Shitty? Yes, but why are we investigating when we canâ(TM)t even identify the law that was broken?
This is all just theatric, and with a president like Trump in the WH, the last thing we need is more theatrics. Stupid people watch the news, and believe what they are told. Other stupid people will read an ad, and believe what they are told.
The only way you could have changed the outcome is to teach people critical thinking. Unfortunately, that doesnâ(TM)t seem to be happening.
What I keep wondering is.... is this true illegal? I can say anything I want.... âoeHillary Clinton used to be a man, and had gender reassignment surgery! Donâ(TM)t vote for her.â and that would be completely within the rights of the first ammendmant.
Iâ(TM)m free to say whatever I want. Now advertising.... that is just paying others to say it for you. But letâ(TM)s forget about that (for the moment). Letâ(TM)s assume Russia paid to advertise something online. Fine. Whatâ(TM)s the charge? Tampering with an election? No. They didnâ(TM)t. They didnâ(TM)t change peopleâ(TM)s vote? They changed peopleâ(TM)s mind. We donâ(TM)t get to decide what criteria people use to formulate their decision, we only have the obligation to count it. So far, I havenâ(TM)t heard of anyone actually doing anything illegal. Shitty? Yes, but why are we investigating when we canâ(TM)t even identify the law that was broken?
This is all just theatrics. With a president like Trump in the WH, the last thing we need is more theatrics.
Democrats have spent $100k on hot dogs. If you think I'm kidding, go look it up. It's hilarious to me that they're mad they couldn't buy an election.
I'm also amazed that pro-BLM ads are now Russian collusion? So are they saying that black lives don't matter? Or maybe the ads should have been targeted at people who already agree with BLM and don't need convincing? It's very, very confusing.
I also like how they retreat to racism instead of arguing with logic. They'll mutter some nonsense about "Ivan" instead of bothering to contest. This truly shows their KKK-founding, Civil Rights Act-fillibustering roots.
They managed to find their way here and into a job you seem to want.
Let's assume Russia paid to advertise something online. Fine. Whatâ(TM)s the charge?
That's forbidden by the FEC. A quick search found the FEC page on foreign nationals. Since the FEC, of course, can't prosecute foreign nationals (at least if they never enter the US), it's unclear what power they actually have. For buying advertising, it may be that the advertiser (Facebook in this instance) as a US entity is responsible ensure they do not accept money for advertisements violating this rule... but that page does not say that and it would be a difficult thing for an online advertiser to enforce because they do not tend to manually inspect ads.
Additionally, while it may not be illegal, the US government definitely has an interest in investigating foreign interference in its elections. This goes for any government, including, of course, those whose elections the US has interfered with. The Russian campaign of fraudulent social media posts is definitely a problem that Congress should care about, although making new laws may or may not be the appropriate response. Facebook and Twitter are US corporations which have a profit motive for having more user accounts on their servers and therefore have a disincentive towards banning users lying about their identities, which is what makes this type of social media campaign effective on those platforms in the first place (notably, on platforms like here or Reddit with less of a real-name culture / profiles with information, the case for the posts being fraudulent is a lot less clear), which Congress could put pressure on them about. As researchers have been able to identify thousands of obvious Russian troll accounts on Twitter, it's absurd to claim those companies don't know about them. And it's not just Russia; we know China runs a similar program on Chinese social media sites, it would frankly be a little surprising if China weren't doing the same on English-language ones.
... then the report is simply not trustworthy. Anyone reading slashdot comments has been reading paid american propaganda, government or corporate, regardless of whether they know it or not.
Street shitting monkeys from hindustan that never cared to build their own stupid country will come and build mine? Are you fucking retarded?
Look up the music video to "The World Is Not Enough" on You Tube. Carving it up, not building.
There is a segment of American society that thinks:
1. Illegal aliens should be allowed into the country in spite of there being laws against it.
AND
2. Foreigners shouldn't have free speech in America in spite of there being no laws against it.
Seems to me the Russian goal of divide and conquer is working very well on that segment of society.
The Majority of thinking Americans wanted neither Clinton or Trump!!
You're so brave OYAHHH...so very brave.
How do you know that their name isn't Anonymous Coward?
So now every single IP in Russia is the Kremlin, every single one. No Russian individuals have IPs in Russia, no companies have IPs in Russian, no Foreign companies operating in Russia have IPs. Every single internet protocol address leads to KGB headquarters in Moscow controlled by Vladimir Putin himself personally, whilst he sits half naked astride a Kodiak bear, he needs no keyboard, he controls the entire internet more than Google, Twitter, Facebook, and all the other American media corporations and not to forget all those media stations in the rest of the world owned by US corporations, behold the power of Putin as he kicks all their asses, by the power of his mind alone.
Just like NATO fears the Russia military with something like twenty times the funding of the Russian military (I know that's not really fair because the bulk of NATO military funding is stolen by corporate profits, so whilst they spend twenty times as much, they only get something like three or four times the military and a lot to that stuff doesn't work that well, because profits strip quality, reliability and durability and operational use of that equipment is demonstrating exactly how much usability corporate profits have stripped away, can't even hit the targets any more in the majority of instances).
I think the US government has lost the plot entirely. You are meant to make them look powerful and evil, not just make yourself you pathetic, incompetent and corrupt. Obviously the corporations know full well they do not need to defend themselves from Russia or China, hence crap broken equipment with massive profit margins and a broken military (cruise missiles fall out of the sky, ships can't steer properly any more and run into things, they continually hit civilian families instead of the targets they are aiming at, their claim not mine and in the event of natural disasters the US military is completely and utterly incapable of assisting the public, simply too small and ineffective to be able to help).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
So now every single IP in Russia is the Kremlin, every single one. No Russian individuals have IPs in Russia, no companies have IPs in Russian, no Foreign companies operating in Russia have IPs.
Do you know any Russians? They don't give a rats ass about the US election.
If you see a Russian posting about US politics you can be pretty sure that it is from Kremlin.
Even if they weren't, that they consistently push for an agenda that makes things bad in the US while not really improving anything in Russia apart from taking the spotlight away from Putin should be pretty telling.
No matter how much NSA operatives want me to believe that the Russians are evil and ruin everything, i still wont believe a single word that comes out of their mouths.
Leftists investigating leftists will find nothing wrong.
You are arguing that two really large multinational corporations are leftists.
Unless you are of the opinion that Hitler didn't go far enough you should realize how absurd your statement is.
Straight from the article you linked
In AO 1989-32 (McCarthy), the Commission concluded that a foreign national could not contribute to a ballot measure committee that had coordinated its efforts with a nonfederal candidate's re-election campaign. Also, in AO 1984-41 (National Conservative Foundation), the Commission allowed a foreign national to underwrite the broadcast of apolitical ads that attempted to expose the alleged political bias of the media. The Commission found that these ads were permissible because they were not “election influencing” in that they did not mention candidates, political offices, political parties, incumbent federal officeholders or any past or future election.
In a decision that was later affirmed by the Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the foreign national ban “does not restrain foreign nationals from speaking out about issues or spending money to advocate their views about issues. It restrains them only from a certain form of expressive activity closely tied to the voting process—providing money for a candidate or political party or spending money in order to expressly advocate for or against the election of a candidate.” Bluman v. FEC, 800 F. Supp. 2d 281, 290 (D.D.C. 2011), aff’d 132 S. Ct. 1087 (2012).
Highlights mine. So if the ads did not specifically endorse a candidate, but instead presented information on potential bias for or against a candidate or shenanigans by others then the spending has been judged legal by the Supreme Court.
$100k? That's it?
It might have been as much as $200,000!
Seriously, though, the linked article is quite comprehensive (and long ... if the last 25% is awful, I don't know it yet).
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
It's like Julian bought Slashdot accounts just to cry it out a little.