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Facebook VP of Ads Criticised For Tweeting that Russian-bought Ads Had Not Been Designed to Sway the US Election (bbc.com)
Facebook's vice-president of adverts has been criticised for tweeting that Russian-bought ads had not been designed to sway the US election. From a report: Rob Goldman's tweet was retweeted by President Donald Trump. His view contradicted special counsellor Robert Mueller's recent indictments, in which 13 Russians were charged with meddling in the election via social media and other means. Mr Goldman is reported to have apologised to Facebook staff. In a series of tweets, Mr Goldman said that Russia's misinformation activity had been designed to "divide America" but added that "the majority of the Russian ad spend [on Facebook] happened after the election." However according to the indictment, the ads were only part of Russia's activity on the social-media platform. In the document, Facebook is mentioned 35 times. According to Wired, he sent a message to staff that read: "I wanted to apologise for having tweeted my own view about Russian interference without having it reviewed by anyone internally. The tweets were my own personal view and not Facebook's. I conveyed my view poorly. The special counsel has far more information about what happened [than] I do -- so seeming to contradict his statements was a serious mistake on my part."
Stop trying to make excuses for the Democrats' horrible candidate who couldn't win even though the entire establishment was behind her.
From the indictments:
"In or around late June 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the Facebook group "United Muslims of America" to promote a rally called "Support Hillary. Save American Muslims".
"Defendants and their co-conspirators, through another organization-controlled group, organized a rally in New York called
"Trump is NOT my President" held on or about November 12, 2016. Similarly, Defendants and their co-conspirators organized a rally entitled "Charlotte Against Trump" in Charlotte, North Carolina..."
They were trying to help Trump by supporting Progessive causes? Face it, they were just trying to create confusion and unrest - a trap you have fallen right into.
They didn't want Trump. They didn't want Clinton. They wanted discord and wow did they ever get it.
Damping absorbs vibrations. Dampening is caused by moisture.
Or you know, man wanted to tell the truth about get the facts out, and now he's being criticized because the truth doesn't align with the agenda one side wants to push.
People are being used as pawns and acting like tools, not even realising how they are being manipulated.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
The left has this entire narrative either muddled and wrong, or sometimes precisely backwards. And they're hanging onto their inverted interpretation of reality because they simply cannot accept what a horrible choice they made in a candidate, and how their general take on things has cost them a thousand legislative seats, most of the governorships, both houses of congress, the White House, and indirectly the Supreme Court. To say nothing of the millions of two-time Obama voters they ran off with their unhinged vitriol. Pointing out that their self-perception as the smartest people in the room is in danger because they've turned out to be not only total suckers for the Clinton Machine's manipulations but also shown themselves willing to be led around by the nose by Russian trolls is so painful that all they can do is sputter about how much a racist you probably are for pointing it out.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
How is telling the truth about when and how an insignificant number of Russian-bought pot-stirring social media ads were purchased "currying favor?"
If he'd remained silent and allowed the left to continue to mischaracterize the situation, THAT would have been an example of currying favor - with the politically liberal monoculture that runs his entire industry.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Your post is the definition of irony
If you think so, you're truly living in the post-fact world. The indictment and Rosenstein were clear. The data on the ads was clear. The post by the Facebook VP was clear. Unless you're implying he was lying and that the data is forged.
You are a Russian pawn at this point if you keep pushing for division and hate towards a dully elected President.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
This whole "Russian Interference" paranoia is nothing new. The platforms have changed from Radio Free Europe/Voice of America to NGOs and Social Media. They do it to us, we do it to them and it's extremely cheap to do it because of social media. Take out an ad, program a few bots.. you have a disinformation campaign. The fact that this was overblown into the need for a special prosecutor is that we have a government run by idiots who were raised by TV programs and not by parents. Our new so-called leaders are caught up in endless tirades looking for anything that'll get them that 2 minute soundbite on the news but screw that, there's social media which greatly democratizes anyone's opinion no matter how ridiculous it is. Shit, 90% or more of what news puts out there is now social media generated or comes from so called journalists. Hey podcaster, blogger out there. Journalism, real journalism requires that you investigate, question and then publish not publish and hope it sticks.
Yes, I'm an older American and the way our political system, our FBI, our DOJ, Congress, the WH and especially traditional media, all of it has been thoroughly adolescent and they all need to grow the fuck up. Our peaceful transition of government has now been forever affected because regardless of what party wins or who gets to sit in the WH, the other side will resort to crybaby, seditious tactics to get their way. Instead of being constructive and working on finding common ground we're all about lunatic has-been comedians holding up beheaded effigies for shock value.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
"being too stupid to know you are being used, does NOT mean that you were not involved it just means you are stupid AND a participant."
And that goes for half the country.
There is a half of the country that is doing exactly what the Russians wanted, and that is be mad at the other half and not be behind the president. That's exactly what they wanted, a weakened president. They just thought it would be Hillary. Doesn't really matter to them as long as the country is divided.
The rest of the world should care. Putin is willing to use his propaganda capabilities to tear apart any and every Western democracy from the inside if he thinks it could buy him even a tiny morsel of regime survival. Forget Kim Jong-Un, Putin is the #1 threat to free societies across the world right now.
Turns out that Mitt Romney was only wrong about the nature of the threat Russia poses, not the magnitude. It's a threat that needs to be fought with improved education and regulation of advertisements rather than battleships from Romney's pal...but I sure wouldn't complain about some propaganda return-fire aimed at ousting Putin and his cronies.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Two terms? My God, I hope you are wrong. Neither America nor the world can take two terms of this narcissistic sociopathic moron.
According to the most recent public intelligence, this assertion is technically true as far as it goes. The goal was to call the election's legitimacy into question and undermine the Hillary presidency that basically everyone thought was inevitable. The Russians got half their wish: they did indeed call the legitimacy of the election into question. The Trump victory was an accident: unanticipated, unintended, and frankly undesired (because they spent all this effort to delegitimize an enemy, but wound up delegitimizing an asset instead).
And if you think about it, Trump's collusion with the Russians makes more sense in this light. It is a very poorly kept secret that Trump didn't want to win: he got into the election for the lulz, but didn't want the responsibility. He had no reason to collude with people who wanted him to win, because that wasn't his goal. But undermining a seemingly inevitable Hillary presidency? That's something Trump would be 100% on board for. This brings the goals of Trump and the Russians into alignment, and then collusion makes sense again.
It has another effect, too. If we look at the goals in this way, Trump wasn't a mere colluder, giving aid and comfort to someone who might or might not qualify as an "enemy" depending on legal definitions. These circumstances would make him an active participant in the operations: a centerpiece of the psyops that went along with the hacking and fake news. That means he personally committed acts of war against the US, which is treason whether or not the people helping you count as an "enemy" for legal purposes.
In other words, sure; the fake news and meddling wasn't architected to help Trump win. This is actually worse for Trump than if they had been, because it leads to a more solid argument for a treason charge: one that doesn't let him hide behind technicalities.