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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."

4 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The Russians Didn't Care Who Won by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They didn't want Trump. They didn't want Clinton. They wanted discord and wow did they ever get it.

    More importantly, they were sure (just like the Democrats, all of the media, most of the pollsters, and pretty much every foreign government) that Clinton was going to win. Their modest pot-stirring prior to the election was simply meant to chip away at any wider national support behind her when she took office, making it harder for the US to act cohesively against Russian shenanigans elsewhere in the world. When she lost, the troll operation simply realigned itself towards trying to stir up liberal haters against the incoming Trump administration.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  2. Re:Something to bear in mind by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Also "Trump is not my President" is fake news. Well it is if you're American, I'm not, so it's true when I say it.

    Mind you it reminds me of a line from an Ozzy Osbourne song

    It's been confirmed that Ozzy Osbourne is not the Antichrist. We reached the Devil at his home in Las Vegas. When asked for a comment, Satan said, "No, he's not my boy. But I love him like a son!"

    http://www.dailymotion.com/vid... 3m in

    And now we find that "Trump is not my President" is something the Russians were pushing. Because their goal is to delegitimize the US political institutions. Also from Dugin's Foundations of Geopolitics

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements - extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics."

    African American racists = BLM. Secessionist movements are like the one in California. The left have been the ones encouraging "ethnic, social and racial conflicts". And having Richard Spencer on the news all the time is supporting "extremist, racist, and sectarian groups" too. If the media ignored him he's be in a room with half a dozen people LARPing. The media have built him up as a boogeyman who has seems to have much more influence than he really does.

    White Nationalist events struggle to fill a meeting room in a hotel and even then most of the people there are journalists and FBI agents. The Right Stuff organized an event in New York and ten people turned up. I could get more than that by just saying 'Anyone fancy a pint?' on social media.

    President Trump said it best when he said

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/bri...

    President Trump says, "it is more important than ever before to come together as Americans. We cannot allow those seeking to sow confusion, discord, and rancor to be successful. It's time we stop the outlandish partisan attacks, wild and false allegations, and far-fetched theories, which only serve to further the agendas of bad actors, like Russia, and do nothing to protect the principles of our institutions. We must unite as Americans to protect the integrity of our democracy and our elections."

    Quite right too. Americans need to reject false, Russian planted narratives that try to divide them based on race and ethnicity and ignore irrelevant fringe loonies like Spencer. And all come together and unite around America's institutions like the Presidency.

    Trump will be out of office in two terms. It's not that long to wait.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  3. Re: Clinton Lost Because of Clinton by Train0987 · · Score: 3, Interesting
  4. Re:Something to bear in mind by greythax · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think what they underestimated was the fact that the right will vote for anything that screams guns and abortion. Lets take a quick look at the things that we knew about your fantastic candidate at the time he was elected.

    Never served in any form of governmental position.
    Dodged the draft. No military history.
    Long history of indictments and out of court settlements over corruption charges.
    Known public association with mobsters.
    So many bankruptcies that it was widely known he could not get a line of credit from U.S. banks.
    Bragged on tv about selling a property to a "very nice" russian oligarch for 60 million profit. By the way, that house was never even seen by the oligarch in question and was later torn down.
    Bragged about meetings with the "very top" of the russian administration on his trip to russia for the mrs. universe contest.
    Had a fake university.
    Gave press conferences surrounded by his friggin steaks.
    Was caught on tape admitting to attempted affair, and bragged about pussygrabbing.

    Can you blame us for assuming that the only reason to elect the least presidential human on earth, who's literal only public agenda was screaming "MAGA" and "Build the Wall!', was basically racist backlash to 8 years of a black president?