Slashdot Mirror
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.
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?
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.