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How To Check If You Interacted With Russian Propaganda On Facebook During the 2016 Election (recode.net)

Posted by BeauHD on from the heads-up dept.

Facebook has rolled out a new tool to help some users figure out if they interacted with Russian propaganda during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. "The social giant's tool -- available here, through its Help Center -- specifically allows users to see if they followed or 'Liked' any pages and accounts set up by Kremlin-backed trolls on either Facebook or Instagram," reports Recode. From the report: Over the course of the 2016 election, Facebook estimates that roughly 140 million users may have seen Russian propaganda in their News Feeds or on Instagram. Much of that content sought to sow social and political unrest around divisive issues like race, religion and LGBT rights. But only a small slice of those 140 million affected users can actually take advantage of Facebook's new tool, which it first previewed in November. That's because the portal only aids those who directly followed one of the accounts or pages set up by Russian sources on Instagram and Facebook. It does not help users who may have simply seen Kremlin-sponsored content because their friends "Liked" it and it subsequently appeared in their own News Feeds. Facebook's new service also doesn't allow users to check if they saw some of the roughly 3,000 election-timed ads purchased by Russia's notorious trolls, known as the Internet Research Agency. About 10 million users saw those ads around the election, the company previously has said.

13 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. Need this for friends by profet · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Would be lovely to see a list of posts shared/liked by friends to your timeline rather than just things you've clicked on.

    1. Re:Need this for friends by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Simple rule of thumb: If you know that Hillary colluded with the DNC to sabotage Bernie's campaign, then, directly or indirectly, you were exposed to Russian propaganda.

      The dastardly Russians used a sneaky and underhanded technique called "telling the truth".

    2. Re: Need this for friends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's truly weird how over a year after President Trump won the election, and nearly a year since he assumed power, the left is still oblivious as to why they lost the election. They keep blaming 'Russians' and 'Nazis' and whoever else they can scapegoat. Yet they never look at themselves! They lost because they ran a candidate who was widely disliked. They lost because they didn't have a positive and encouraging vision like the one that President Trump presented to the nation. They lost because they tried to use identity politics to divide the electorate, instead of uniting all Americans like President Trump did. They lost because of themselves and their own actions. Yet they refuse to understand and admit this, and instead blame literally everyone and everything else for their total failure. It's truly weird!

    3. Re:Need this for friends by easyTree · · Score: 5, Funny

      The dastardly Russians used a sneaky and underhanded technique called "telling the truth"

      There's no precedent for it and it's not wanted. This red threat will be stamped out.

      --
      Requiem for the American Dream
    4. Re:Need this for friends by sycodon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When are they going to release a tool that lets you see if you have been exposed to domestic propaganda?

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    5. Re: Need this for friends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm a Latino and I proudly voted for Trump.

      He never pandered to whites. He pandered to anyone who loves this country, works hard, and doesn't want to be on the Democratic welfare plantation.

      And fuck you for pretending I don't exist. It's a big reason why I voted for him. Tired of you smug, condescending liberals talking for me.. And so were about 30% of people like me.

    6. Re: Need this for friends by Mashiki · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Both sides ran unpopular candidates. It's not like Trump had mass market appeal either, and in fact he lost the popular vote.

      What screwed the Democrats was playing defence. They tried to defend Clinton, but Trump and the far right never do that. They always attack.

      The popular vote means squat in US elections, so that doesn't matter. The democrats weren't playing defense, the democrats believed they had it in the bag. They believed the polls, they thought that she wouldn't need to head to the rust belt or some fly-over country state. The people in the party told her that.

      You know what Trump's attack was? Pointing out her failures, what was the democrats response? BUT YOU CAN'T DO THAT, SHE'S FEMALE! And people looked left, and they looked right, and picked the person that wasn't playing identity politics, but pointing out serious flaws. It also helped that even when Trump made an ass out of himself, he rolled with his own mistakes. Self-depreciating humor is a selling point for a lot of people. I know that you really think that the "far right" is this gigantic great machine, but it's not. It's just that you're so far to the left that anyone to the right of Trotsky seems like they're right-wing.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
  2. HA! HA! HA! Told you so!!! by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Joe McCarthy was right!!!!!!

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
  3. What about the others. by labnet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While they are at it, can they show me NSA, CIA, FBI, Plus every other propaganda agency of every other government. Why just single out the Russians.

    --
    46137
    1. Re:What about the others. by techno_dan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree. I want to know about all propaganda, not just Russian. I feel that most of the propaganda is from the U.S.

    2. Re:What about the others. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why just single out the Russians.

      Russia has by far the largest propaganda team that is focused on affairs of foreign nations (China only gives a damn about China related stuff). Additionally, the effect (if not also the intent) of their propaganda is causing civil unrest. This is why Russia is being singled out.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  4. No tool necessary by RyoShin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Answer this simple quiz to know if you've encountered Russian Propoganda:
    1) Have you ever been on the internet?

    If you answered "yes", then congratulations!? You've encountered Russian Propaganda. And American Propaganda. And probably Botswana Propaganda. Maybe some Klingon stuff, too.

    I guess if you want to know if you interacted instead of just encountered you'll have to use that tool, and another for Twitter, and another for Tumblr, and another for LiveJournal[1], etc. I'm not trying to dismiss Russian interference (it's not good, and no, neither is American interference in foreign elections), but propaganda without direct interactions (such as, say, talking to certain members of a certain transition team for a certain President-Elect) has been blown out of proportion for their effect. With or without that interference, >40% of American voters didn't vote (or were blocked from voting), and about ~50% of those who did are idiots[2].

    [1] Yes I know LiveJournal is owned by a Russian company.
    [2] I leave it to the reader apply this assessment to whichever tribe they don't belong to.

  5. We ... didn't ... need ... any ... propaganda ... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... when will you get it?

    Hillary Clinton was unlikable, had nothing positive going for her, was a terrible campaigner, and oh yeah, both horrifically and comically mishandled classified information. And that's just for starters.

    All that was real, no Russian anything needed. You lost because you sucked.

    But please, keep deluding yourselves. It can only make your next loss more likely.