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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.
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/
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
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.