How Russia Harvested American Rage to Reshape U.S. Politics
YouTube videos of police beatings on American streets. A widely circulated internet hoax about Muslim men in Michigan collecting welfare for multiple wives. A local news story about two veterans brutally mugged on a freezing winter night.
All of these were recorded, posted or written by Americans. Yet all ended up becoming grist for a network of Facebook pages linked to a shadowy Russian company that has carried out propaganda campaigns for the Kremlin, and which is now believed to be at the center of a far-reaching Russian program to influence the 2016 presidential election.
The Fake Americans Russia Created to Influence the Election
The Russian information attack on the election did not stop with the hacking and leaking of Democratic emails or the fire hose of stories, true, false and in between, that battered Mrs. Clinton on Russian outlets like RT and Sputnik. Far less splashy, and far more difficult to trace, was Russia’s experimentation on Facebook and Twitter, the American companies that essentially invented the tools of social media and, in this case, did not stop them from being turned into engines of deception and propaganda.
Dem has “more questions” after Facebook discloses Russian-bought ads
The top Democrat in a congressional investigation of Russia’s influence on the election wants more information from Facebook following the social giant’s disclosure that thousands of ads focused on divisive issues were likely purchased by a Russian operator between mid-2015 and earlier this year.
Fake ads, Russians and regulation: Facebook, Google and Twitter face a moment of crisis
We’ll never know how much Russian ads and fake news impacted the 2016 election, but it’s probably inaccurate to say there was no impact.
How Russia Harvested American Rage to Reshape U.S. Politics
YouTube videos of police beatings on American streets. A widely circulated internet hoax about Muslim men in Michigan collecting welfare for multiple wives. A local news story about two veterans brutally mugged on a freezing winter night.
All of these were recorded, posted or written by Americans. Yet all ended up becoming grist for a network of Facebook pages linked to a shadowy Russian company that has carried out propaganda campaigns for the Kremlin, and which is now believed to be at the center of a far-reaching Russian program to influence the 2016 presidential election.
‘The Russians Have Succeeded Beyond Their Wildest Expectations’
Former intelligence chief James Clapper says President Trump is dead wrong about Russian interference in America’s elections. And they’re going to get away with it again, he warns.
Google uncovers Russian-bought ads aimed at influencing U.S. election
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.
Mark Zuckerberg’s “Dismissive” Election Comment Wasn’t A Mistake — It Was A Strategy
The Facebook chief called the idea that his company influenced the election “pretty crazy idea.” The same talking point came from a top PR exec the day before.
Experts: Facebook’s Russia disclosure unlikely to hurt its brand
This week, Facebook faced questions over whether it was overstating its audience reach and admitted it ran election ads from fake Russian accounts aimed at influencing the U.S. presidential election.
Since Facebook’s announcement, more than 55,000 people took to social media to comment on the scandal, with 80 percent of the mentions containing a negative sentiment toward Facebook, according to Brandwatch. Yet, even with all this negativity, branding experts say Facebook’s brand is intact.
Facebook, for the first time, acknowledges election manipulation
Without saying the words “Russia,” “Hillary Clinton,” or “Donald Trump,” Facebook acknowledged Thursday for the first time what others have been saying for months.
In a paper released by its security division, the company said “malicious actors” used the platform during the 2016 presidential election as part of a campaign “with the intent of harming the reputation of specific political targets.”
Facebook’s Russian Ads Disclosure Is Putting The Company Under Intense New Scrutiny
Sen. Mark Warner suggested that Facebook should disclose the same information about political ads that radio and TV stations are required to.
How Russian trolls can slip ads past Facebook
To Facebook’s dismay, Russia is trending. On the heels of a report that revealed Facebook overestimated its reach, the company admitted on Wednesday that a Russian “troll farm” spent $100,000 on ads on its platform between June 2015 and May 2017 to influence U.S. politics.
Both of these blunders are minor given the scope of Facebook’s ad business, but the Russian operation in particular is noteworthy as it illustrates the perils ad platforms face when they are engineered to have as many advertisers as possible.
Russia’s Facebook Fake News Could Have Reached 70 Million Americans
Facebook acknowledged that Russian propagandists spent $100,000 on election ads. It neglected to mention how many millions of people those ads reached.
THE DARKER TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIA’S FACEBOOK OP—AND WHAT IT REVEALS ABOUT AMERICA’S CULTURE WAR
This issue isn’t how Russia made fake news, but how weak and divided Americans have made themselves.
Why we can’t trust Facebook’s story about Russian ads
Beyond a blog post yesterday and some tersely worded statements to reporters, Facebook has done little to put Russia’s purchase of political advertising in perspective. A foreign country’s use of Facebook’s vaunted targeting capabilities in an effort to sway a close election is deeply disturbing. And yet Facebook, in its public statements so far, has been coy about sharing details.
Melber: How Facebook failed to stop Russian ‘fake news’
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is zeroing in on Facebook in his Russia investigation and may be using a subpoena or warrant to have them cough up more information. Ari Melber breaks it down.
Facebook Faces Increasing Scrutiny Over Election-Related Russian Ads
Facebook is under increasing pressure to scrutinize its advertising content after it discovered that at least 3,000 ads on the site had been placed by a Russian agency to influence the 2016 presidential election. The revelations about the ads came after months of denial by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that Facebook played any role in influencing voters.
Facebook, Elections & the Spin
“Having followed Facebook for a long time, I know what really plagues the company is that being open and transparent is not part of its DNA. This combination of secrecy, microtargeting and addiction to growth at any cost is the real challenge. The company’s entire strategy is based on targeting, monetizing and advertising.”
Facebook is now stipulating that targeted political ads on its platform undergo human review, which could slow down how quickly marketers can get their Facebook ads up and running. While the change in ad reviews will have the biggest impact on political advertisers, it is notable because it shows the pressure Facebook is facing for letting a Russian troll farm buy ads on its platform is leading the social giant to make adjustments
Exclusive: Russian-linked Facebook ads targeted Michigan and Wisconsin
A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump’s victory last November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation.
Some of the Russian ads appeared highly sophisticated in their targeting of key demographic groups in areas of the states that turned out to be pivotal, two of the sources said. The ads employed a series of divisive messages aimed at breaking through the clutter of campaign ads online, including promoting anti-Muslim messages
Alex Stamos
Who is Alex Stamos, the man hunting down Russian political ads on Facebook?
How much did Russia use Facebook during the campaign? Stamos is trying to find out.
Facebooks Response
Zuckerberg’s Preposterous Defense of Facebook
Responding to President Trump’s tweet this week that “Facebook was always anti-Trump,” Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, defended the company by noting that Mr. Trump’s opponents also criticize it — as having aided Mr. Trump. If everyone is upset with you, Mr. Zuckerberg suggested, you must be doing something right.
“Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don’t like,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “That’s what running a platform for all ideas looks like.”
Deleting the Data
Facebook scrubbed potentially damning Russia data before researchers could analyse it further
Facebook removed thousands of posts shared during the 2016 election by accounts linked to Russia after a Columbia University social media researcher, Jonathan Albright, used the company’s data analytics tool to examine the reach of the Russian accounts.
Where some see data suppression, Facebook says it was only following privacy policy
CrowdTangle tool enabled social media analyst to access cached pages from inactive or deleted accounts tied to Russian election meddling.
AFTER THE RUSSIA SCANDAL, IS FACEBOOK GROWING UP?
Is the Russia scandal an ultimate comeuppance for Facebook? Will its reputation suffer real harm as a result, or will it rise to the occasion and grow up?
Two popular conservative Twitter personalities were just outed as Russian trolls
Jenna Abrams and Pamela Moore were followed by tens of thousands, including members of Trump’s campaign.
Twitter latest to be slammed for deleting Russian fake account data
Twitter doesn’t preserve data from deactivated accounts for privacy reasons, but it didn’t anticipate interference in the 2016 election.