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Facebook Says 126 Million Americans May Have Seen Russia-Linked Political Posts (reuters.com)
Facebook said on Monday that Russia-based operatives published about 80,000 posts on the social network over a two-year period in an effort to sway U.S. politics and that about 126 million Americans may have seen the posts during that time. Reuters reports: Facebook's latest data on the Russia-linked posts - possibly reaching around half of the U.S. population of voting age - far exceeds the company's previous disclosures. It was included in written testimony provided to U.S. lawmakers, and seen by Reuters, ahead of key hearings with social media and technology companies about Russian meddling in elections on Capitol Hill this week. Twitter separately has found 2,752 accounts linked to Russian operatives, a source familiar with the company's written testimony said. That estimate is up from a tally of 201 accounts that Twitter reported in September. Google, owned by Alphabet, said in a statement on Monday it had found $4,700 in Russia-linked ad spending during the 2016 U.S. election cycle, and that it would build a database of election ads. Facebook's general counsel, Colin Stretch, said in the written testimony that the 80,000 posts from Russia's Internet Research Agency were a tiny fraction of content on Facebook, equal to one out of 23,000 posts.
I am beyond sick and tired of Slashdot trying to push the "Russians influenced the election!" BS that the left has been pushing. It's fake. It never happened.
Who cares if they bought ads on Facebook? Does it matter? Does anyone seriously think people voted for Trump because they saw ads from Russians?!
The thing that caused Hillary to lose more than anything else is likely her shady dealings involving her email server and the FBI "investigation" into it. An investigation that could still be restarted as it's becoming more and more clear that one campaign did, in fact, have dealings with Russia: the Democrat's.
overwhelmed the $1.2 billion Hillary spent, so this is concerning.
was that it wasn't covered by existing disclosure rules. So folks could pour money into it with impunity.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
My virgin eyes!!!! Why Facebook why didn't you protect me from the interwebs. I so was going to vote for Hillary until those adds showed me that Trump was a kind hearted, attractive, beautiful haired, honest, intelligent, and amazing guy. I was duped.
oh no I may have seen something from russia! am I tainted?! whatever shall I do?!?! I am doooooomed to a life of trump. I am dooomed I tell you.
or DNGAF....
126 million accounts != 126 million individual users.
Considering over 90 million eligible voters never bothered to,
in fact the US experienced voter turnout @ 20 year low,
(even if) 126 million individual users != 126 million voters.
And considering those 18 and otherwise ineligible to vote,
(even if) 126 million voters != 126 million votes.
So this # of accounts seems rather meaningless.
The real question is how many unique views were served for each ad and how many ads there were total. 126 million people seeing one silly racist political meme one random afternoon is nothing to panic about, and certainly they'll try to spin this revelation as nothing more than that. But 126 million people being immersed daily into an advertising environment that's completely saturated with unregulated foreign propaganda, rubber-stamped with approval by an ostensibly loyal, United States citizen-owned publicly traded corporation... now that my friends, that right there is how you sew destruction throughout the minds of an entire population. That is how you fundamentally pervert the perception of reality of an entire social class. That is how you sever friendships and turn families against each other. That is how you topple a government. That is how you start a civil war. That is something worth panicking about.
Please stop this Russian Election Narrative Fake News
No matter how many times you repeat "russian" + "election meddling" to condition us its just a nothing burger.
Mueller and the FBI have been digging for months and the very best they can do is indict Manafort on not filing some Ukrainian investments way before the election. That is all.
Its a nothing burger. Stop trying to make ham.
-Kaex
i just knew it wasn't my fault
First, they tried to say the advertisements promoted Potus Trump, now "Divisive" ads. Divisive is code for Hillary and Bernie.
And if we are only talking Divisive advertisements, what about ShareBlue or Correct the record? How many millions did these companies pay to change social media, 50 Million? 100 Million? How much did the DNC and related political pacs pay, 500 Million?
And 80k from Russians is a big issue vs a billion?
Wag the dog indeed. If you are still blaming Russia for Trumps win, you still haven't learned. Nobody liked Hillary and Bernie only ran as a Democrat to get on the stage.
This two party system is a problem with all the money is funneled into 2 people. WTF, All that money into 2 parties. When vary widely on so many issues, 2 parties don't cover everyone. I have no idea how, but wish we had a multiparty system to stop this "us vs them" tribal cultural war. We got Democrats voting Republican for financial issues, and Republicans voting democrat for social issues. Libertarians, Socialist, Communists, etc, its a clusterfuck.
Because while they may THINK they are passing, they aren't. Then again, FB. Idiots by definition, so hopeless there.
Yellow journalism and propaganda have been around far longer than the USA has. Propaganda works because of social fragmentation and group think. Facebook and its social media ilk have made it easier to mine data about social groups and manipulate them through propaganda. So who cares about what ads were bought and how many people viewed?
Mark Zuckerberg trolls . . . you!
That's how you sell bubble gum. Nobody changed their mind on who to vote for based on a facebook ad. If you think someone did, prove it.
Plenty of other European countries seemed to be shilling for Hillary and ripping on Trump.
Why is it ok for them but not for Russia?
Legitimate question, but I'm sure I'll just be called an "astroturfer" because I want to ask questions to expand my understanding.
Those pesky russians are smart! They can change an election outcome with just an ad! I wonder why US politicians did not think about doing the same.
You just proved it for me.
I'm surprised Facebook and Twitter are so aggressively pursuing this.
The white-supremacist meme that the unarmed black men shot by the police deserved to be shot by the police?
Or the BLM meme that the unarmed black men were shot by racist cops?
But that the cops are racists may encourage the white supremacists because they want the cops to be racists who shoot black persons for no apparent reason?
Or the BLM view that the cops are indeed racists despite their denials because of the white supremacists wanting the cops to be racist?
Clearly we need a Federal Fact-Checking Department, to let us know what is real and what is fake.
Or do we just have to take their word that they've fortuitously found exactly what they set out to look for, from people who are supposedly foreign operatives but apparently are too dumb to cover their tracks?
Russians? I am mad at the Germans too! They are all strange-talkin' ferriners.
All this Trump-Russia stuff is just to distract us from the fact that on November 4th, Antifa super-saiyans are going to kill all the white people. I don't know about you all, but I'm going to stay home with my guns and defend my family and the President of the United States that day.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.co...
http://www.wnd.com/2017/10/ant...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Hillary lost.
She lost because she is an arrogant idiot who thought herself invincible, rather than campaigning in WI, MI, PA.
Not because of russia, Russia, RUSSIA!
But keep telling yourself that.
NT
if you don't use Facebook.
Or anyplace else if you have an adblocker.
You can count the number media items shared by 126 million Americans on one hand. And none of them are on Facebook.
This "news" is damn marketing campaign.
Mueller found such strong evidence of trump colluding with Russia that he decided to chase down a couple of tax evaders from a decade ago instead.
This is FB advertising the cost effectiveness of placing inexpensive ads on their service. And they're doing it "for free" by "revealing" the information to a willing press.
"SEE HOW MANY IMPRESSIONS RUSSIA GOT FOR ONLY $[insert current estimate here]. YOUR AD COULD DO AS WELL!"
These ads are getting more play now than they got before, most likely.
Apparently you are not aware of how U.S. civics works since the purported loser actually won and is in the White House.
You know what? I don't remember seeing any political ads on Facebook at all. I'm sure there were some; but who even notices ads any more? How much influence do you really think a handful of Facebook ads really brought in such a contentious election?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Save some face before all these indictments drag you in, too, you complicit via negligence fucks.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Another spoonful of 100% pure cow tongue and stomach trimmings...
Facebook has nothing to lose and everything to gain by going along with the Democrat's nothingburger Russia narrative. It actually works in favor of Zuckerberg's ideological and political aspirations to create the perception that Facebook was a hapless tool in Russia's propaganda arsenal. It would work in Zuckerberg's favor to "admit" that the Russians did all kinds of things using his platform, whether or not any of it actually happened. It doesn't hit his bottom line, and if there were any legislative fallout, it would be another barrier to entrants and competition in the ad space more than anything. We're getting played by creatures from DC and Silicon Valley, not Moscow.
Absolutely !
Three thousand ads,only half before the election, some were for Hillary ! Many were issue ads , not favoring a candidate, at least not explicitly. Where is the real media investigating these things.
To think 100k$ would be a drop in Hillary's Billion dollar campaign ocean !
This is just continued media persecution of Trump, there is no Russia story, except the Clintons, with Bill getting 500k$ just before Dept of State signed off on the Uranium deal. And the Russian sources for the infamous Trump Dossier, now paid for by the Clinton campaign, the real Russian meddling in the election.
And what was the real story or motive behind the Las Vegas shootings? The time line inconsistencies, weird behavior of the local sheriff, looking more like a government operation or cover up. Again, where are the real investigative media?
Now that Moscow Donald's campaign manager has been charged with crimes related to his treasonous collusion with Russia's attack on America it's clear that Donald Trump is going to prison for TREASON
"an advertising environment that's completely saturated with unregulated foreign propaganda, rubber-stamped with approval by an ostensibly loyal, United States citizen-owned publicly traded corporation."
So, if Facebook ads effect non-US politics, it's all fine, because "USA, fuck yeah!"
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Isn't that always the trick with Putin? Divide and country and conquer it using its own people against it?
I see Fox and Russians have converged on "blame Hillary Clinton" as the deflection, but more telling is the united nature of the two parties.
Looking through these comments, I think every single Russian misinformation point has now been posted by some AC.
--
"No Branch" - Poppi, Trolls
If you don't think fake news changed the outcome of the election, it's because you're inside the bubble. So the proof is irrelevant, I couldn't convince you the sky is blue if Fox and Friends told you it wasn't.
What an incredible moron you are. You post those links trying to mock the right wing sites that posted it, but THEY'RE NOT THE ONES WHO SAID IT! It's Michael Moore and your team of Social Justice Ninjas who think the best way to combat speech they don't like is to burn down your local college. Your own deranged brethren are the joke!
Still, super saiyins are pretty tough. If they have even *one* of those it could wreck the entire planet.
It's worth getting worried about.
Trying not to feed the trolls but... If we didn't have the electoral college and the vote was pure popular the turnout would have been completely different. Not guessing who would have won but a whole bunch more it other people would have voted.
The 50k is just a drop in the bucket compared to the total the Russian government spent. No campaign spent billions on Facebook alone. Believe it or not but people are suckers for propaganda and ads were just a small part of the overall campaign.
It's time Americans put politics aside and wake up to what really is going on. Look at who we really got representing us on the works stage. The greatness of America is dying and we are helping it. Unfortunately people won't get it until we end up in the White nationalist civil war paid for my Russia.
Fools.
My neighbor's dead dog voted for Gary Johnson. Just sayin'...
Did the fake news make YOU change your vote? Are you really that weak-willed? That's pretty awful. In the future, please don't vote. You're not up to it.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
That dastardly Boris and Natasha!
They made those Hillary and DNC staffers send all those DKIM-verified unforgeable e-mails! The only explanation: Russia used mind control to make them write the e-mails, then made sure they got to Wikileaks complete with DKIM verification.
What will we discover next? Putin is an inter-dimensional Lizard Lord and has come to steal our fidget spinners to power his planetary reactors?
"You people who voted for Trump are still completely deplorable with such simple minds that you let the Russians fool you into voting for Trump and not me.
I'm doing all this now so you understand just how completely hated you are by me and my fellow Democrats. I never wanted your vote anyway you awful people, who let your retardedly small brains get swayed by the Russians - when it was damn clear that it was my turn be president after Obama. Because it was damn time that a vagina finally make it to the White House after a black.
Every single one of you people are misogynistic racist white men who contribute to the rape culture that plagues this great nation of ours. Not to mention that just because your white patriarchy ass manages to breath you're also completely responsible for the wage pay gap.
Go eff yourselves, I never wanted your vote anyway. Hillary Rodham Clinton."
At some point Slashdot stopped being true to tech and went all-out SJW trying to push globalism and human extinction. Was it when the site first got sold? When did it happen? Because this is ridiculous.
An interesting movie to have seen is Generation P(2011) because to what degree the average (young) Russian can be familiar with US culture far outpaces any reciprocity. Not because of any superiority, but because western advances in terms of technology and modernity have had a primacy since WWII. Someone had to come first. Which produces ironies, such as Dan Ackroyd's (Zalinsky) line from Tommy Boy(1995): What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public. Such precedence is realized and actualized by markets and most often expressed in terms of consumer goods. But their design and production will not forever remain America's providence, nor should they, and this is understandably frightening to many and exploited by some for many reasons.
Would were! Should is! Could be! And live a hundred times three.
Maybe you've never heard how effective propaganda can be.
Here is a hint. If it didn't work, no one would waste their time doing it...
They didn't get the memo did they? Russians weren't hacking the election anymore. It's only election hacking if they supported Republicans. All the money Russians spent on the Democrats clearly shows that they were not hacking the election.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
The real question is how many unique views were served for each ad and how many ads there were total. 126 million people seeing one silly racist political meme one random afternoon is nothing to panic about, and certainly they'll try to spin this revelation as nothing more than that. But 126 million people being immersed daily into an advertising environment that's completely saturated with unregulated foreign propaganda, rubber-stamped with approval by an ostensibly loyal, United States citizen-owned publicly traded corporation... now that my friends, that right there is how you sew destruction throughout the minds of an entire population. That is how you fundamentally pervert the perception of reality of an entire social class. That is how you sever friendships and turn families against each other. That is how you topple a government. That is how you start a civil war. That is something worth panicking about.
Paid for by the Podesta Group and the DNC.
There... fixed it for you.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
about 107,000* nutjobs to take the bait and believe the bullshit to get where we are today.
(the combined margin in PA/MI/WI)
With all the other lies, corruption, political swaying, and what not that Americans are subjected to, what damage could a few adverts that essentialy take an opposing view possibly do?
You make it sound like irreversible damage has been done to the pure and innocent American minds, and that Americans are never supposed to hear alternative views, only those propagated by their own government.
If anything, this circus makes the U.S. government look bad, because it again says that Americans are supposed to listen and do what we say, and nothing else.
Oh Nos! All those Special Snowflakes who can't make their own decisions saw Bad Things! We must Reeducate them! Get the accounts list from Faceplant and start up the trucks! Seriously? If you're the kind of person who votes based on political ads, would you please STOP VOTING!? Democracy needs a well educated, involved voter base to work. It's a given that neither side WANTS a well-educated voter base, but surely adults (that want to) can find out things for themselves? Even biased news, once the amount and direction of the lean can be determined, can be informative. But, hey...obviously cat videos and get rich quick schemes have a higher priority over figuring out who to vote for. Scotty, beam me up. There's no intelligent life here.
Does anybody actually look at an Ad on facebook, or any other site, and actually put thought into it to believe anything the Ad even says? Granted there are people who fall for the tax scheme or the Windows PC virus phone calls, but c'mon.....
If you don't think fake news changed the outcome of the election, it's because you're inside the bubble.
The outcome of the election was the result of two opposing forces: the repulsion for Trump that made a lot of people vote Hillary, even if they didn't like her, and the repulsion for Hillary that made a lot of people not vote her, even if they do not like Trump. Eventually the second force prevailed, and that was thanks to all the media that endorsed Hillary: the media fanfare made alot of people think that Hillary's victory was obvious and so they voted libertarian or something else and that was fatal in swing states.
Wtf?
First of all, who said the point of the ads is to get people to change their mind? This is what the Trump team itself was doing with ads/targeting before the elections:
All you need to dö is get enough people in the key demographic of your opponent to stay home in key areas.
Second of all: many people don't recognize sponsored content/ads in social media, or elsewhere. You'll see a news article or a blog post that has above it something like '[Your friend name here] also liked [our site]' and that's in fact a paid ad targeted to you because someone you know has liked the page and they've targeted their promotion that way, but really people generally don't think of these as ads but just another part of their newsfeed which actually makes them more effective.
Third of all: ads (both direct and sponsored content) do affect people's decisions. That's why they exist and why companies are pouring money into them but you obviously will have a hard time finding anyone who says they bought any opinion/product/service because it was advertised to them, partly because people don't often recognize the impact ads have on them. Chances are high advertising has affected your behavior during your lifetime without you being directly aware of it. You see ads and at some later point when you're making the decision of what to buy, the ads play into your preconceptions and decision making process at a subconscious level. Hardly no-one is at the store like 'I'm going to buy this product because I saw that ad last week" but there is still is an increase in sales following a successful marketing campaign.
So no, if you poll people and ask them 'did you see any paid for articles in your news feed about either candidate and if so did they effect your decision on whether to vote or not and for which candidate?' you're likely going to get a 'no' on all 3 of those from most people but that doesn't mean there was no effect, it just means most people can't recognize well placed ads as ads anymore and that like always, people think they're immune to the psychological effects of ads/sponsored content when they provably are not.
Human beings on average are much more easy to influence than we tend to admit, and the marketing industry has been honing their skills for way over half a century at this point becoming more and more successful at it.
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
US may have won the battle (1991); but it's not going to win the war (2016 election). This is great; seeing capitalism turned against a far right nation. I thought the US supported free trade? What, little old Russia cant BUY ads? Aww.
The electoral college was won by only 80 thousand votes, so yes a few ads could have tipped the scales. I can't understand why republicans of all people aren't more concerned by the manipulation of the electorate from what was our enemy at one time,
You MUST believe and accept that there was no Russian meddling. JFK and 9/11 were big time conspiracies though. :confused:
You should have realized by now AmiMojo that on here, on this subject, there's a 90% chance you're arguing with a Putinbot.
Prove that it had zero influence on anyone. You can't, any more than I can prove that a specific ad influenced a specific person.
But it wasn't just ads of course. There was an army of fake accounts amplifying those messages and shitposting from 8 AM to 6 PM Moscow time every weekday.
Frankly the claim that it all had zero influence lacks any credibility. I don't think any reasonable person would contest that propaganda and fake news has zero influence on anyone.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Who looks at the ads on Facebook?
Perhaps, it would be a good idea to develop an Universal Code of Conduct? Similar to Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Otherwise the attempts to destabilize each other would only keep intensifying.
Mebby 126-million citizens have vomited over nibber-itch Maxine Waters .... which proves not all Bantu azzwholes and Pelosi pubes stay in the privy.
Really makes you wonder if all the foreign meddling in american elections is real or not.
You know? DO you think it IS REAL is a problem"
North Korea has its own opinions about what PR to give about Trump - from leaflets found appearing in central Seoul.
(so that's propaganda to South Korean citizens in the current pseudo-war situation, not propaganda that North Koreans might see)
Warning : it's incredibly graphical!!
https://www.rt.com/news/408163-north-korea-leaflets-seoul-trump/
Hitlery had 10X the campaign finaincial power of the Trump campaign. She was an overconfident, half-assed loser. THE END
RUSSIANS NOT NEEDED. HITLERY SUFFICED.
That's a cynics view; people are so out-of-touch they thought Hillary was a shoe-in and squandered their vote. Not that I'm opposed to being cynical when its appropriate.
See? Facebook is bad for you. Delete your account and never go back there.
I mean, they dumped millions on ads on Facebook and Twitter for Hillary and didn't get even close to the supposed depth that the Russians achieved for a tiny fraction of the cost. If I ever run for president I want to hire these guys for sure.
Are you saying ads don't work? You could earn billions by selling your idea to companies on how to cut their advertising budget.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
This: Many people got convinced not to vote for Hilary for whatever reason and she lost.
The media fanfare is fueled by what people are interested in and if that is her emails, that is what they will write about.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
A typical email marketing campaign might have an open rate of 5% and a closure rate of 10% (of those 5% who opened the email). So in all, half a person bought your product out of every 100 people you marketed to. I'd expect rates are similar or worse in facebook ads. Honestly, only targeted ads get better open and conversion rates. So did it affect the election? Yes. Did it determine the outcome of the election? I doubt it. Pretty much all the flyover states voted from Trump overwhelmingly and pretty much all the metro pockets voted for Clinton. The real story of the election is that the only reason Clinton had a chance at all is because California is a winner take all state.
Honestly, who cares? Why not let the market of ideas sort itself out? After all, its the merit of the policy positions that matter, not just the logistics of who is going to implement them.
If you think someone did, prove it.
Proof: the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on advertising each year. Folks don't spend that without proof it sells the product.
And if you think reading a fake article about how candidate ____________ made some illegal _________ when they were ___________ can't affect someone's vote, you're mentally handicapped.
Did it determine the outcome of the election? I doubt it.
The issue is that a foreign power even attempted to influence a US election. You're being fed information telling you this is a witch hunt to reverse the election result or impeach Trump. It's not. That's not going to happen any sane person knows that.
Also extremely biased.
So 100,000 dollars nets you 120 million influnces. Facebook is going to sell a lot more ads in the near future. I didn't see the ads as I dumped Facebook during the primaries due to what I perceived as inherent bias on the part of Facebook itself.
I had no likes, entered no work or education history, rarely followed anyone but tech pages, and I was being inundated with pro Hillary and anti-Trump rhetoric.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
Foreigners are trying to brainwash the American people - that's OUR privilege alone!
Requiem for the American Dream
Not really caring how "sick and tired" you are of the Russian story.
It happened. There is loads of evidence of it. Supporters of the Big Giant Orange Head claimed there was no evidence. Now there is evidence.
The evidence of your two-faced point of view on this is contained in your post. At one and the same time, you state "It's fake. It never happened." Then you do on to admit "...they bought ads on Facebook". So which is it Vladimir?
And yes, I seriously think you voted for Trump because you saw ads from Russians on Facebook. Also, you read leaked e-mails which came from Russians. Also, you read with and agreed with Russian trolls who posted opinions on social media which you agreed with. They fed you a story you really, really wanted to believe was true. It's called confirmation bias and you fell for it hook, line and sinker.
When Trump was caught "grabbing pussy", you dismissed it. When Trump spread his birther lies you gleefully agreed with him. When Trump told you he would get you healthcare "much cheaper and much better", you decided that was possible even though logic says otherwise. When Trump told you he would build a wall and the Mexicans would pay for it, you decided that was great and not at all unlikely.
Can't fix stupid. You fell for a Confidence Man's patter and cannot accept that. Trump is incompetent and won't deliver for you, no matter how much you want him to. And you'll try to blame others for his failures and yours.
Delete your Facebook account, if you don't want to be manipulated. Facebook tracks your habits, likes, etc. They build profiles about you that allow marketers to target you based on your biases, and that makes you prone to manipulation.
I've been off Facebook LinkedIn etc for several years and don't miss it one bit.
Facebook is probably 1/3 fake accounts so I wonder how they came up with this "126 million Americans" figure? I'd put the number closer to 85 million, which is still substantial, but fb has a fake account problem.
I'd like to know the substance of the ads. no one seems to be talking about what the actual ads were, just automagically assuming the ads were in trump's favor. wouldn't it be ironic if they were pro clinton ads ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum
Yawn.
I've not been following this too closely. Apparently the problem is that voters are sheep that can reliably be lead by advertising to vote for whoever advertises at them the hardest, most often, most effectively, or most recently. Or something like that.
And instead of domestic scoundrels doing it, it was the Roooskies!
As long as they're using their fiendish mind control to support a candidate of one of the statutory duopoly party candidates, what's the problem? What makes them worse than the Democrats and the Republicans who were attempting the exact same thing?
Did I miss something?
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
Voters had to choose between terminal cancer or Zika virus. So they went with microcephaly . Russia is being vilified for coming to the aid of the Syrian people and that is all. Faceboot says what they are told to say, otherwise they just sell info about you. Hillary needs to blame someone because