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Google Uncovers Russia-Bought Ads On YouTube, Gmail and Other Platforms (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Google has discovered Russian operatives spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads on its YouTube, Gmail and Google Search products in an effort to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a person briefed on the company's probe told Reuters on Monday. The ads do not appear to be from the same Kremlin-affiliated entity that bought ads on Facebook, but may indicate a broader Russian online disinformation effort, according to the source, who was not authorized to discuss details of Google's confidential investigation. The revelation is likely to fuel further scrutiny of the role that Silicon Valley technology giants may have unwittingly played during last year's election. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow's goal was to help elect Donald Trump. Google has uncovered less than $100,000 in ad spending potentially linked to Russian actors, the source said.
Adblockers have to become mandatory, let's say 4 years before each election.
American companies will gladly take your money to influence an election.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
These people do realize that $10k to $100k, compared to the $1.2 billion spent on the election is chump change and couldn't have effected squat, right?
Ban ads everywhere!
They are all lies.
There is no second amendment protection for ads. Ban ads!
When it's true.
1. How many adds CNN/MSNBC/MSM/YOUTUBE/ETC buys that show up to Russian viewers.
2. How many adds may have been bought by Russians that show up to Americans.
Stop the Russian xenophobia.
So, $100,000 of ads in Google and Facebook was enough to counter over ONE BILLION DOLLARS of ads that the other candidates spent? If this was done through an ad agency, someone is proud and happy.
I run U-Block Origin.
#DeleteChrome
Why no outrage for David Brock's admitted troll army (Media Matters) that he was funding at $1 million per month during the campaign? Hell, they were proud of that, until Trump won of course. Much of this "outrage" is by the same paid Brock trolls.
The problem is lazy, disengaged, stupid voters who vote the way Facebook tells them to. Banning Russian ads (or corporate ads, or any other kind of political ads) won't change this.
And the sore loser Democrats know this. They don't want to change how it all works. They just want to change who gets to manipulate the voter.
Can someone explain to me why Russians buying advertising to influence the US election is wrong, but Americans buying advertising to influence, well, pretty much every election or political body in the world, is perfectly fine?
What is this absurdity that it's only by Russia doing it that makes it wrong? What of the massive influence American/European NGO's have in politics? What about the giant Israeli lobby in the American political system that some would say has massively influenced American intervention in the middle east?
If I buy an advertisement supporting tomorrow's politician and they become a media/political/public Pariah, am I going to be prosecuted for supporting the 'wrong' candidate? Do I get to lose my job like Brendan Eich did for a donation I made ten years ago that went against modern sensibilities?
What the fuck is this orwellian dystopian bullshit and why are so many people just passively nodding their head along to all this shit? What the literal fuck is happening to western democracies and media?
Hillary had over one billion 200 million dollars. Trump had more than 500 million. And there are all these crocodile tears over $100,000. Remember corporations are people even if they are Russian. Who needs fake news when you have this?
How many other countries or surrogates thereof did the same for any candidate? Or funneled contributions to campaigns?
I seem to remember a China/Clinton issue way back when.
If true it doesnt seem like anything new.
For something like a year now we've heard nothing but accusations of "Russians! Russians! Russians! Russians! Russians!" spewed again and again by left wing politicians and the media, Slashdot included.
Shit, it's like there's a Slashdot submission on the front page about this alleged matter every other day, it seems!
Yet despite so many left wing politicians and media talking heads putting so much time and effort into crafting this "Russia" narrative, we haven't seen any significant evidence of any sort presented to back up the claims.
Just look at what we have here:
Notice that it contains the word "potentially", and the very vague term "Russian actors". There's not even any certainty here, apparently! And the amount of money involved is absolutely trivial when it comes to online marketing.
If something actually happened, and so many left wing politicians and media personnel are so sure of it, then why the hell can't they present some compelling evidence?! They've had a year to produce something, yet they haven't been able to. All we get is really half-assed and very uncertain "evidence" like in this case.
I think we're well beyond a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" situation at this point. This, of course, is dangerous, because it has now trained most Americans to not trust such claims in the future.
If Slashdot has any integrity, I think the editors here should stop wasting our time with these nonsensical submissions unless some substantial and conclusive evidence is presented.
What has the world come to? Communists acting like capitalists...*faints*
My initial reaction to this article is that the google's "confession" is highly suspect. I suspect Putin could have afforded a MUCH larger investment in what now looks like a decapitation strike against the US.
Mostly I'm laughing at how slow I was to realize "Don't be evil" had become a joke. The current motto might be "All your attention are belong to us." However it all comes down to a religious issue:
There is no gawd but profit, and the google is gawd's true prophet.
Of course the joke is that ALL the giant soulless corporations think the same thing. According to Fortune for 2016, the main prophets of profit are Apple, Gilead, Google, Exxon, and some gamblers (AKA various financial organizations playing games with other people's money). Amusingly enough, Trump's laundry receipts for dirty rubles don't count as real profits.
Constructive suggestion time? Seems such a waste on today's Slashdot, but:
Solution involves reputation. Use the public information about us that the corporations are already collecting, hoarding, and hiding and make it usable by US for OUR purposes, not just for secret manipulations to sell toothpaste and political candidates. DSAUPR, atAJG.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
Anybody else notice the hordes of Russian shitposters on Youtube, posting the usual talking points (complete with foul language) to any video having anything to do with American politics?
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
It seems to me like the CIA has been influencing elections around the world for decades. What is with all the NIMBYism all of a sudden?
And on a related subject, where is all the outrage about Palantir and Cambridge Analytica influencing elections via Social Media?
And on another related subject, does anyone really believe that elections in America are anything more than reality TV-esque "news" programs designed to present the illusion of control to an electorate that is bought and paid for by corporations?
The same intelligence agencies that said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq now say that the Russians wanted Trump to win? Really? After the Russians put so much effort into the dossier to try to discredit Trump? And after they poured so much money into the Clinton Foundation? They had Hillary already bought and paid for and they supported Trump? And which administration would have raised the price of oil by shutting down all our exploration and drilling?
No one can logically look at the facts and think Oil Billionaire Putin wants Trump to win and make the US competitive in both business and military again.
They're sore losers because they lost, and they're sore about it. The only reasons the Republicans aren't sore losers right now is that they didn't lose. Had they lost, they'd be the sore losers, and they'd want to change who gets to manipulate the voters instead.
There's no difference between Republicans and Democrats any more. They only thing any of them want is to go through our pockets for loose change they missed last time.
everyday leftists try turning a multitude of things into politics that have nothing to do with politics. football, computer programming, dr suess books, etc etc.
The election was over with almost a year ago. you lost. get lost creeps.
all the USA has spent on foreign elections? Are the media outlets making that completely transparent to Joe Sixpack? I am no fan of any foreign influence in any election - ever. But for f--- sake, can we understand the realities of the problem in a "Fair and Balanced" way?
The problem is lazy, disengaged, stupid voters who vote the way Facebook tells them to. Banning Russian ads (or corporate ads, or any other kind of political ads) won't change this.
No, the problem is that the current US voting system mathematically favors only having two candidates on the ballot. Another problem is that campaign financing gives a significant amount of influence to the rich on who will be the party candidate which allows them to only have representatives that favor their interests.
And the sore loser Democrats know this. They don't want to change how it all works.
Actually, neither side wants this to change because the current system gives them a stranglehold on power.
They just want to change who gets to manipulate the voter.
The Kremlin has an opposing interest, isn't this the lesser evil?
If we want to actually change how things work on the state and federal level then we need to start demanding change at the local level.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Actually only about 50% of the American population votes.
So no, only half the people are stupid loser voters, the other half are just stupid losers.
YMMV
Fixate on ads at Google and Facebook. To distract the actual content on Wikileaks.
Spoiler: It was a Dem staffer that sunk Clinton - and they had him shot.
This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
Russians made my loaf of bread go stale! It was just fine when I left it sit out on the table last week - but now it's hard as a rock. I blame Russia! And Trump, I know Trump was working with the rooskies on this one. Bread is good therefore Trump hates bread!
Aside from the fact that the entire "Russia meddling" narrative is BS, they are using extremely poor definitions to make the claims. What what I've been able to tell, "Russian actors" refers to anyone browsing from a Russian IP address or anyone who has their language preferences set to Russian. A random people in Russia placing ads is worlds away from a coordinated effort by an intelligence agency or some other state actor. In addition, many of these "actors" may be US citizens. I myself am a natural born US citizen who currently lives in Russia and often browses with my language set to Russian.
I can't be bothered to answer this nonsense, to be honest. I was originally attracted to slashdot because it was about technology, and you would often come across comments from people with real insight into things, but it has gone downhill - and now it is dominated by people, who prefer to deny simple, observable facts, and who display a strange sort of impenetrable stupidity, assigning perversely twisted meanings to words - like in this comment, where "leftist" apparently means "doesn't agree with me", or perhaps even just "bad". Who knows? Who cares?
One can only waste so much time - I don't mind losing arguments or being proven wrong, but I do mind wasting my time on blind, wilful stupidity. So, I will now log off, delete the bookmark that points to slashdot and move on. I leave without anger or bitterness - so why the parting shot? Well, I know there are some that will agree with me, and who knows - maybe this can be a small nudge in the right direction, and though it is very unlikely, perhaps it can eventually be part of something that will lead to a change I won't know, but others may benefit. That's it - bye now.
People have been screaming about the reliability of voting machines and voter fraud for years, but they where dismissed as paranoid.
Now, when it's in favor of their political interest, the establishment suddenly cares about the reliability of elections.
They're talking about thousands of dollars in an election where Hillary spent more than a billion dollars, 550 million more than her opponent.
https://www.bloomberg.com/poli...
Yet somehow a couple hundred thousand dollars from Russians flipped the election...
Also, why would we trust these establishment companies who have a huge political bias?
It's so obvious that they're just pushing this bullshit to excuse Hillary's failure.
Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
companies, technologies and countries do not have wits.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
People don't vote "the way Facebook tells them to". Facebook posts normalize extreme views and make candidates like Trump seem like a plausible, even good idea. It's the power of peers and large numbers of others appearing to confirm your biases and fears.
Check the recent Brietbart email leaks. They detail this strategy of normalization in detail. It's why the opposition tried to de-normalize Trump, and why they even now keep repeating "this is not normal".
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
That a $100,000 or $200,000 spending by Russia on limited ad buys on Facebook and Youtube somehow swayed people to vote against Hillary, who spent $1.2 billion on her campaign...(and lets ignore for a moment that the Facebook ads supported Hillary). I'm a bit...skeptical.
How about, instead, the Democrats and the left face up to the fact that Hillary was an extremely unappealing and disengaged candidate who assumed her victory was a foregone conclusion and thus failed to campaign in rust belt states like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
For every single dollar Russians supposedly "spent" on these nobody-ever-watches-ads, Hillary to had spend $7000 to be counter effective. Now who's the stupid one here? Media? Hillary? Slimey Demon-crats?
Okay, so tens of thousands of ads were bought thru Russia.
$80,000 (tens of thousands) = 0.000016% of $5 billion
= 0.00014149% $563,756,928 Hillary's direct funds
= 0.00024% 333,127,164 Trump's direct funds
If you think tens of thousands of dollars influenced the election in any decisive way, you're a moron. Second, these are merely adds purchased from Russian IP's. I would wager, that most of these were in fact purchases by American's who had donated their legal limits to campaigns, and went thru darknet options to buy them (routing thru Russia).
The fact that the media is working so so so so so hard to convince American's that the election was lost/altered due to the Russia's would almost be comical, if the media wasn't trying to take it so seriously.
Actions like blaming everyone but herself, and her getting caught trying to cheat with the DNC.
First off, no, not every head of every agency. Rather, the single political head of the U.S. intelligence community, which includes around 17 various agencies claimed such.
Second, they published a report, it was a few dozen pages long. Did you read it? I did... their evidence largely amounted to the Russian Times publishing articles with a pro-Russia bent. Duh...it's the Russian Times. And on that point, compare the U.S. readership of the Russia Times to even Huffington Post, let alone CNN, NBC, etc. All of which were complicit in actively campaigning for Hillary Clinton.
Third, we have a constitutional protection of the press and free speech. Guess what, Kim Jong Un could start publishing a newspaper in the U.S. that has article after article praising him. And it's totally legit, not unconstitutional, nor does it count as altering the election anymore than it does the likes of CNN or HuffPo, publishing repeatedly false and misreprentative articles.
Fourth, as for the hard IT end of things. The only real evidence we have is that there was some Russian based malware on DNC servers, And probably on about 20% of the servers on the web. That two groups supposed to be Russian actors, and possibly in collaboration with the Russia government...mostly due to their activity during the Ukrainian/Russian conflict. However, in counterpoint to this, we also learned that several tools once thought to be of "foreign actors" turned out to be from U.S. NSA/CIA, and a couple of unnamed hacker groups once associated with Russia have not been recognized as state agents, just agents of the United States. The so-called sophisticated tools and methods only an agent state could be responsible for, was thoroughly debunked. And shown to in fact be outdated versions of hacker malware available on the dark web. And common hacking techniques.
So please....show me an actual single piece of evidence....thank you very much.
Let's assume that the evidence of Russian involvement in the election is a fact. Thus far, it seems that less than a million dollars in advertising has been uncovered. In an election where billons were probably spent in advertising and where it would be a kindness to refer to most political communication as drivel, misinformation, propaganda, outright lies, or evidence of mind numbing ineptitude, the only response worthy of the situation is "and this is a problem because ...". I suspect that the number of players at this spending level lacking anything amounting to a moral compass or that can be classified as a wack job is legion (I know we are talking about politics and some may think this is a distinction without a difference, but somedays I just want to be irrational). Of course, there is that Slavic part of the family with funny names of which one might be suspicious, but their origins are Slovenian not Russian. In any case, current Russian meddling in the political process through advertising seems to be at an order of magnitude that falls below that of a roundoff error. Which means the current fixation on Russian meddling is a red herring (of course the Russians might be fueling this fire for their own evil purposes). Nonetheless, Russian meddling, or that of any other nation-state, for the purpose of disruption to the point that we are ungovernable is a clear and present danger that the internet makes all too possible. We only have ourselves to blame, however, for our sensitivity to such meddling, for we have created a political environment rife with discord that makes us brittle and prone to distrust -- fertile ground indeed for those that wish us ill.
Im sure in other countries the CIA is buying ad's as well. Why people are getting surprised is the media leads them like sheep.
So, of $4.400,000,000 ad money the Ds & Rs spent on advertising, apparently Russians purchased a bit more than $100,000 on FB and a bit less than that on Google...let's just say ~$200k total. Or, .0454% of the advertising budget that the campaigns spent. Well, that certainly explains why HRC lost.
Just another day in Paradise