You know, we interfere in our fake free market quite often under the guise protecting the nation. Forbidding sales, initiating boycotts (the good kind, I suppose), denying mergers and cooperative engagement, banning trade in "sensitive" materials.
Except for the fact that Trump and his woebegone minions welcome Russian interference in our elections (impeachable, yes?), there's no reason to refrain from forbidding Facebook and others from allowing any input into US political matters for the same reason.
Say it, government, and its done. Refuse, and we'll know instantly who's guilty and who should be shown the next stage out of Washington.
No surprise here. And Russia was proven to have had a major influence on the BREXIT vote as well.
The question is, what are we in the US actually doing to counteract? Likely little, as the GOP and Trump know full well that they are the beneficiaries of this "help".
For me, it's simple. Ask your congressman or senator if he or she supports much greater effort and funding to stop election interference. If they equivocate, vote them out. And certainly by now President Trump's stance on this is intolerable, so his reelection would be a guaranteed disaster for free elections,
Welcome to the modern version of "The Tower Of Babel". After all, isn't Facebook a vehicle of gossip? Gossip spreads like ripples of disinformation whether it's from Russia or your "friends" on Facebook. Metaphorically, Babel confusion consisted of many languages being spoken and misunderstood. Facebook may be the "tower", but it's our lack of discernment. dissemination and our gullibility that provides the mortar for the bricks.
In defense of Facebook, we live (USA) in a free society, a capitalist market with freedom of speech, etc... it is up to the "consumer" to evaluate Facebooks "product" or news-worthiness.
I hope opinions about the substantive content of articles will reveal that Facebook "News" posts will morph into a parallel opinion to ignore or at least dissolve interest in reading anything on Facebook pertaining to political information or anything posted and thus, taken as "truth".
It is my opinion that we have to examine or own intellectual base.
Do we need to curb the time spent on playing video games and watching reality TV? Are "we a people" gotten so lazy or so accustomed to being entertained that we no longer care to fact check anything?
I am optimistically waiting for a time when Facebook posts will be treated as nothing but tabloid fodder and users will revert back into what Facebook was originally intended for...a vehicle for keeping up with friends and family.
Time to take them off the internet, no?
Look at the Russian influence in Syria. That should tell the Africans what they might be in for? Wake up Africa. Surely, the USA and Europe did you wrong, but don't be under the false impression that Russians come bearing gifts. They do not. They will use and abuse you too.
Look at American influence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
1
Writing as a research with more than fifty years' experience in Africa, I have to say this is tricky, because there are legitimate criticisms one can make of US, French and other bi-lateral and multi-lateral policies and practices in Africa, and also criticisms of international non-governmental organizations. I refer specifically to the Russian-backed posting that criticized US and French policy referred to in the NYT article. This is not at all to condone that Russia appears to be doing, but just to say that platforms face a difficult task sorting legitimate, evidence-based criticism of policy and practice from false-news and false-critique. BEN
5
While Russia uses Facebook, the US has set up military bases all over Africa and supports mercenaries in many African countries. Additionally our NED funds all kinds of NGO's throughout the world. I'm sure we're in Africa, too. We are far more consistent and effective than Russia. Their most influential individual is President Putin who recently concluded some big business deals in his recent visit to Africa the other day. This is just crude campaigns. Who knows how many people in AFrica waste their time on fb ads? I doubt few.
3
@Iron Felix The US supports mercenaries in many African countries? Your source, please.
3
It's particularly cruel for Russia to target Africa, especially as these countries have no beef against Russia in the first place. Secondly, they have no institutions strong enough to withstand such onslaught against their already struggling societies.
Maybe this speaks more to what is really happening within Russia. Other than weapons, Russia has no consumer goods or services to export to the world. Unable to prove itself as a global economic power in the 21st Century, Russia seeks relevance by destabilizing other countries through disinformation, even if they are small, weak nations unable to fight back.
83
@Merlin Better to send bread than guns. At least China builds bridges, roads etc. Sure they want economic influence, but isn't that better than bloodshed?
15
@Rodrian Roadeye
Maybe not, just ask the people of Hong Kong.
5
@Rodrian Roadeye
You are presenting a false choice, one that reminds me of the kinds of arguments made by RT and Sputnik.
3
Radio africa, huh? Someone needs to note here: that is the title of an album by Aquarium (wonderful musicians!), an underground Russian rock group during the Soviet period. I think this is well known to all Russians. It's horrible and insulting that new state oppressors are appropriating the name.
the great implosion, easily predictable at the dawn of the WWW-era, begins
Progress against Russian tactics of disinformation will go nowhere while a Russian asset sits in OUR White House.
Zuk is missing a golden op to rise to this occasion. The Russians have us pretty well figured out.
2
Delete Facebook already.
2
Russia...if you’re listening. I’d be willing to post disinformation online (for a price). China...same thing for you. “Once you get rid of integrity, the rest is easy.” JR Ewing
I thought we won the cold war. Looks Putin is getting a mulligan, and getting away with it. As if the colonial powers had not done enough damage to Africa...And sorry Facebook, Putin is way smarter than your management.
Facebook is Satan via internet - - it will kill civilization, socialization, trust, truth, honesty and create a dystopian society in which no one knows what to believe so we believe in nothing and no one!
2
Does Mitch McConnell know? ;-)
If the Russians need some local collaborators they need to look no further than Fox News.
1
I would much prefer that the title reads "Russians Test . . . " to "Russia Tests . . ."
If Facebook is allowing Russia to undermine our elections and harm our democracy ... shut it down. Our brave men and women didn’t fight in wars and give their lives so Mark Zuckerberg can destroy our country’s elections for his profit ! What a coward he is not to try fix this and stand up for America against Russia.
28
Oh dear! Putin just hosted the heads of African News Agencies in Sochi. This can't be good. Also, commenters should take note of whatsup hacks on NGOs, journalists and human rights activists in Africa in today's FT.
RussiaGate 2.0. "Russia is always wrong! Russia is evil!
Give me a break.
P.S.: Notice how impeachment proceedings have nothing at all to say about Russian interference in 2016? This is just a rump case of Clinton-inspired hysteria. Really, the Times has got to get off this stuff.
1
After successive scandals and me realizing my leisure time was too important to spend so much of it on Facebook I decided to permanently delete my Facebook account last year. It was easy to do and I still manage keep in touch and communicate with the people I truly love and care about using other means. My experience has been nothing but liberating.
1
The Russians will try to influence the American electorate. So, probably, will China.
If they succeed , we have no one to blame but ourselves. Absent hacking into electoral vote processing itself to change results, there is only one way they can try to effect an election. That is through misinformation. We as a society have become easy prey to those who disseminate false and misleading information. We no longer exercise the initiative to critically evaluate what we read or hear. Rather, we lazily listen or read, then accept an repeat as fact that which we have been told, most particularly if the information reinforces our personal biases.
How many of us listen to our cable news channel of choice, whether that be Fox or MSNBC, then blindly repeat as fact anything our favorite host spoon feeds us ?
Since we do this, no wonder we fall prey to other sources which may reinforce our beliefs, even if what we read or hear is false.
The Russians and others know this, and exploit our gullibility.
If we allow this, we are at fault.
We have to take the initiative to question what we are told, to independently evaluate it. Otherwise, we become pawns to those who know our weaknesses and use them to undermine our democracy. Government cannot and should not protect us from ourselves. Only we have the power to do so. Anyone who believes Russian propaganda is not a victim, but is the cause, of any influence such propaganda may have on us.
The Russians can’t make you do anything
4
it is madness that Facebook is claiming to block foreign interference in our elections while at the same time allowing unlimited misinformation in American political ads which can be easily financed by foreign powers.
2
The most important question here: does Facebook have the right to decide which ads are in compliance with its policy and which are not WHEN such ads are distributed not in the US.
2
The big picture is troubling. Facebook looks more and more like an in-house propaganda arm of the Trump campaign. The Trump White House has pursued a years long effort to extort, coerce and otherwise convince any number of foreign nations, including Ukraine, Italy, Australia and China, to interfere in our 2020 elections. It is increasingly clear that the Trump campaign does not believe it can win without such illegal and unconstitutional foreign assistance. The McConnell Republican Senate has altogether abandoned its Constitutional oversight duties. This White House has done almost nothing to stop Russia from sabotaging our elections again. Trump would have removed all of Obama's sanctions had Congress not stopped him. Are they hoping it will happen again? In 2016, Russian sabotage of our elections was one of several things any one of each could very well have changed the election outcome. Mueller told us that the Russian sabotage of our 2016 election on behalf of the Trump campaign was sweeping and systematic. He told us that the Trump campaign welcomed the illegal help. And in Mueller's indictment of the 13 Russians, he told us that Russia also interfered on behalf of the Sanders campaign. Finally, as noted here, Russia has greatly improved and continues to improve its abilities to sabotage our 2020 elections. Trump looks more and more like a de facto Russian asset. And Facebook empowers lies, propaganda, gaslighting, and interference.
7
We have had 3 years of walking away from the fact that Russia influenced our Presidential Election. Lead by our Deny-er-in-Chief, the sole beneficiary of Putin's misinformation campaign.
$89,000 for propaganda is a great deal and hugely cheaper than boots on the ground. 2020 will be a mess.
1
What's striking thing here isn't how the Russians are doing this, or that they are doing this at all, because of course they are. So are many others. It's that it's Facebook vs the Russians! Not the US vs the Russians, or Africa vs the Russians. Facebook now has equal or greater power than most of the countries on earth. And through our clicks and screen time we've all elected a guy named Mark to setup defenses and decide what's in the best interest for the greater good, and what isn't. And all of these issues are far, far too complex for this Mark guy - yet alone anyone else. The Network is truly here and in charge. It'll be really interesting to see how this all plays out.
29
@Oban
I simply cancelled my FB account because I don't care for Mark Zuckerburg's opinion that privacy no longer matters.
10
Cigarette ads are banned from television. Political ads should be banned from Facebook. That wouldn't hamper free speech - political ads could still appear on television and on newspaper sites where gatekeepers could monitor disinformation.
101
@Cheryl
Very good suggestion!
5
political ads should be banned altogether. Money in political campaign should be limited and equal. Facebook should be taken down. and people should read books. paper books.
9
So now critics of American and French policies amounts to disinformation? How convenient!
2
I don’t get what you mean.
The test we now face is how to respond to life in the 21st century. Do we, for instance, blame FaceBook...? Russia certainly hopes we do.
3
That's one of the reasons why I deleted my Facebook account.
Where are Mr. Zuck and Mrs. Sandberg?
Cashing in on all of this. They can’t care less, as long as their user base goes up
Let's face it, Putin wants to destroy us because his beloved Russia was divided into tiny countries that had wanted out for years. Now he is really gone all out and wants it all, Emperor of the World. Not a joke. The US in his eyes has gone to the dogs, the corrupt Republican party which is happy to aide Czar Putin so long as they get their piece of the pie. What do we do with this digital attack on us, the masses who are always in the mud? We don't panic. We are exactly who we are, American no matter the color or if you're legal. We have never trusted Russia nor our politicians. So while they bicker on who is the big guy in the sandbox, we will carry on with the life we want, living free. We are vigilant always eyeing who wants to restrict us and making laws to put them behind bars. Who knows, in this unstable world Czar Putin and the Pretend King Trump has created, we are definitely going to come out on top since they are two people and we are millions.
FB provides options to hide ads, remove friend requests, ignore invitations to play those inane games, opt in or out of what to share and see - but you have to push the buttons to do it. Not all that difficult, people. The only thing I use it for is actual social media. I ignore everything else, esp from sources outside my friend group. It is idiot-simple to ignore all that garbage and still keep up w/friends who have retired, moved away, etc. I worry about the intellectual facilities of anyone who would actually read "news" on FB. That's like watching Fox "News" which itself even acknowledges that it is an entertainment network.
3
Why is Zuckerberg allowed to continue on with Facebook? Why is it not shut down and him put on trial? Money talks.
What next? Where next? Who next?
Facebook ran hate speech "social media" messages against the Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar, 2014 - 2017. The hate speech was fed to Facebook by the Myanmar military (Buddhists) in order to gain support for the purging the Rohingya. It ended with mass rapes, executions, destroyed villages, and the expulsion of 700,000 people, half of them children to Bangladesh refugee camps.
According to many observers, Facebook was apprised and aware early on of the serious crimes that were being committed as a result of FB's 90% dominant social media propaganda. Proof by human rights workers, insiders, and journalists finally led Facebook to commission a report in 2018 by the Business for Social Responsibility which concluded:
"The United Nations Human Rights Council study on Myanmar concluded that serious crimes under international law had been committed by military forces that warrant criminal investigation and prosecution. The use of Facebook to spread anti-Muslim, anti-Rohingya sentiment featured prominently."
The U.S. 2016 Election. Myanmar. Africa.
Back to the USA: It's Facebook's policy not to fact-check any U.S. 2020 political campaign ads!
1
Why is FB different? Don't believe anything you read, not in the NYT, the WP, nor the WSJ. Be skeptical of all news, as it is all biased.
2
The only certain way to stop news distortion on social media is to take every platform’s ability to make money by advertisement. Do you think Facebook will obliterate their bottom line for us? uh huh. Right.
1
"The agent, they said, had been ordered by his Russian handlers to 'find people in Ukraine on Facebook who wanted to sell their accounts or temporarily rent them out.'”
This should be made illegal in this country immediately, if not sooner.
In the meantime, let's all just abandon FB. We seemed to get by just fine without it in years past, and then there's its, what do you call it? ... oh, its destruction of our democracy.
20
Are current disinformation campaigns emanating from Russia, this article purports to fear, potentially in rehearsal to impact 2020 American elections, any different than the disinformation campaigns disseminated by the American media universally in support of the Democrat candidates? The problem is not the disinformation. It is who it benefits; not tactics, but impact and result and on which side.
The curious question is not the source of the diabolical disinformation, but how can these two obvious bedfellows be on opposing sides? That is where the frustration lies, but with Bernie Sanders as candidate, one can bet Russia is all in.
2
How is it that the minds that built a 700 Billion dollar company out of thin air can’t manage to control a technologically challenged nation’s ability to use their platform to spread propaganda?
The only way to make Facebook and company control themselves is to impose fines that would actually scare them and their investors.
I don’t like driving the speed limit but I’d rather drive the speed limit than face the consequences. If you get pulled over for speeding and you blame the car or your foot you still have to pay up. Why are these guys treated differently?
5
The 700 billion dollar company provides the tools and vehicles for the disseminator to do the bad deeds. All the bad guy does is pay for the space and provide their own content. IT IS CALLED BUYING ADVERTISING SPACE. NOT A NEW CONCEPT.
2
I deleted my FB account a few days ago and encourage everybody to do the same. Membership (= advertising money) is the only thing FB cares about. If enough people quit FB, we'd see a change of heart at FB, no doubt.
13
@Robert Thanks! But check every once in a while to make sure your account has not been possessed and repurposed.
2
@Robert
what if FB users would click hide to all political and "news" ads, would FB get the message?
1
"Russia has been testing new disinformation tactics in an enormous Facebook campaign in parts of Africa, as part of an evolution of its manipulation techniques ahead of the 2020 American presidential election."
So like, there's sufficient correlation between the political experience of Third World citizenry and voters and those in the United States that merits testing for equivalence? Who knew?
2
@G. Stoya
Yes, in some ways the third world citizenry is more sophisticated than us, they are not mesmerized by the kardasians.
2
Facebook is an irresponsible player on the world stage. They put profits ahead of their responsibility to behave in a moral way. With great success comes huge responsibility. Zuck & Co. don't seem to get that. I for one have cancelled my Facebook involvement and I actively encourage everyone I know to do the same. They don't deserve our business, money or involvement in their immoral enterprise.
11
If Facebook really wanted to control disinformation they should correct the posts and show how they are lies and where they emanate from. With power comes responsibility. Step up Facebook.
6
@Sarasota
Since when was FB the arbiter of truth?
1
@Sarasota
So FB should monitor all posts and fact check each one? Seriously?
1
Entirely missing from this otherwise solid (and alarming) story is reporting and analysis of the actual content and intent of these country-targeted Russian disinformation campaigns. Is it just political disruption for its own sake? intervention to favor specific commercial and/or security interests? Undisclosed Moscow ties to certain African officials and/or opposition candidates? Why these particular countries? All we are told is that the targeted African countries "includ[ed] Mozambique, Cameroon, Sudan and Libya" (so there are others, presumably) and "Some of the posts promoted Russian policies, while others criticized French and American policies in Africa" (which 'policies' precisely?).
10
Like it or not, this type of behaviour / subterfuge is here to stay. If it’s not Facebook it’ll be any other platform. 2016 was the thin edge of a wedge.
The only tool at our disposal is, as one politician once said, “Education, education, education”.
7
Sadly, most people think that if something is in print or online, it must be true. Worse, they pass it to others, assuming that a more diligent friend will expose it if it's not true. When that happens, most of the people they sent it to don't learn it was false. And the process continues.
Adults should know to check what they read from multiple sources, or to least fact check at a reputable site. It's our only hope as Facebook and other social media sites are developed more quickly than they are removed.
3
@Barbara
Or as they say, "A lie can run around the world in the time it takes the truth to put on its shoes."
2
Believe nothing, even if you see the video. Suspension of disbelief is a "willingness to suspend one's critical faculties and believe something surreal; a sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment". The most important act Americans can do to reject attacks on our elections is THINK critically. (We already know that bad things happen when we don't.)
14
I am so alarmed about Russia and Facebook that I get shivers down my back every time I hear about it. And the fact that our President is in cahoots with Russia is raising alarm bells so loud that I get the feeling every one has become stone cold deaf due to their ears plugged with iPods because we are sitting here doing nothing.
As John Adams said in "1776": Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what I see?
17
@DrG
You are not alone. There will be a new Silent Majority voting in the 2020 election.
2
It would be helpful if the NYT provides context for Russia's activities on FB. Specifically, when it states that Russia placed X many ads and spent X amount of dollars, we should be informed as to compared to what? Otherwise, these numbers don't really mean anything.
8
@Phillip Bruk
They do when the ads are targeted to influence groups. Russia as well as American political operatives use the analytics derived from companies like Cambridge Analytica, (a Steve Bannon company), to push disinformation based on their knowledge of FB users preferences. There is way more to it than just the ad money.
6
@David Russia did not invent this targeting nor did Cambridge Analytica. Everyone has access to this targeting ability and when the Obama campaign used it, they were celebrated for their digital prowess and forward thinking in reaching voters at a granular scale. So it's not just the Russians that are using this targeting but also other campaigns and other PACs in numbers much greater than the Russians, so... let's understand the context of those numbers, that ad spend, because, yes, it is relevant.
Here's an idea.. Stop using FB. But if you must...use your head. Realize it's a place that creates a false sense of community, it sells your private info for profit and many on social media are trying to influence you to buy, believe and feel connected. Zuckerberg and the shareholders care about one thing and it isnt societal responsibility. How about getting connected in person and put the phone down.
13
If only the microscope and some introspection would take place regarding domestic media outlets and social media accounts. The perpetuation of fake narratives and foreign influences on the 2016 is exhausting and phony.
2
Perhaps FB should just abolish all political advertising.
19
@J.Sutton
Sure and whose going to pay Facebook to replace the lost revenue?
1
@J.Sutton Won't someone please think of the shareholders!
1
@James
Zuckerberg should.
1
The US should give a diplomatic nota to Putin clearly stating that they will freeze ALL of Putin and oligarch assets in this country and will pressure all off shore heavens like Cayman Island, Panama, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Cyprus, UAE, Qatar and Singapore to comply with the help of our European, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand allies.
Trump will resist for obvious reasons but the Congress has a duty to do so.
This type of action used to be an easy cassus belli!
6
Mr. Stamos (as Facebook CSO) provided the following facts back 2017:
"In reviewing the ads buys, we have found approximately $100,000 in ad spending from June of 2015 to May of 2017 associated with roughly 3,000 ads"
"The vast majority of ads run by these accounts didn’t specifically reference the US presidential election, voting or a particular candidate."
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/09/information-operations-update/
No one has ever explained why the ad buys that occurred between November 9th, 2016 and May 2017 are included as part of the 2016 "election meddling" narrative. The election was already over.
Perhaps it was done to have an additional six months of revenue in order to cite the still minuscule amount of $100,000 spent on ad buys over twenty-three months.
Regardless, the only propaganda being deployed are the absurd reports that mislabel the above $100,000 spent on ads (ads that didn't specifically reference the US presidential election, voting or a particular candidate) over a period of twenty-three months on childish click-bait as "2016 election interference".
2
The Russian is engaged in open warfare against Europe and the US. They are not using Guns and bombs but computers and IT in well orchestrated campaigns directed against our democratic institutions.
And we fail to stop them. The russians and the SSSR must have invested hundreds of billions in different weapons, bombs, submarines, nukes etc etc.
All in vain.
All they needed was Facebook.
4
Now criticism of the US policies and promoting their own amounts to full scale war? By this definition the US has been in the war with whole world quite for long time
My own fear is that between Facebook, GOP disinformation programs, Breitbart, Fox and the Russians, this might be the last election in the U.S. as we descend into complete chaos.
8
Wow, how fragile American Democracy is. All these institutions, 'free' press are nothing but empty decoration that falls as the house of card over few posts on FB.
Why the Russians are testing new disinformation tactics for the next presidential elections? FOX NEWS is already doing a very good campaign of disinformation.
12
Facebook is a disaster for humanity. It seems like I shouldn't have to write this comment, but for all the criticism in this article, the basic point is left unwritten: If you use facebook, you enable this. The platform is a highly efficient distributor of information. If you subscribe to this firehose of info, you will be doused with the lies, hatred, and propaganda right along side the pics of your grandkids.
It's a bad mix.
6
I am confused, Facebook which recommends Breibart "news" to American readers is now worried about what African readers on Facebook may be finding from Russian sources. So Facebook is protecting African readers from Russian news while having no interest in protecting "me" from the likes of Breibart.
How curious this all is.
12
This is the warm-up for 2020.
4
Lt. col Vindman so nationally recognized as an American, and some Republicans calling him a Ukrainian spy! Well as a lieutenant colonel that had to go to the justice department. They would have to find and have a trial. Yet those comments were printed in all newspapers that he was, a spy! That is so false. I think the people who said it should be sued and held responsible by the law and required to take back that information and that information should be publicize by all who called him a spy.
In other words we have our own cyberspace here and then again in Africa apparently the newspaper’s the media need to be on alert. We are America and we need our information.
4
Facebook, delete your account.
5
These tactics are dependent on fake accounts, usually based on stolen identities. To date, Facebook has done nothing to combat this problem.
Whether or not you actually use Facebook, you should run a FB search of your name. You’ll be amazed by the number of accounts you find, which would easily be twice the number you would have found four years ago. Some will likely be using photos of you or your friends.
24
@Chickpea
Good advice. I did this and found only my own account. But we should also advise people to lock down their accounts, making everything private and generally limited to friends only.
6
@Chickpea It must have been really bad because I have reported many accounts and Facebook never disciplined anyone. Facebook is out to make money. Trump Campaign spends $1 million a week; they can post any lie they wish.
6
How has Russia worked its way into the Republican party? If they are willing to sell us out, how do they expect that the American people will be able to afford the market?
1
Led by a former top KGB agent, the Russian Bear’s appetite for prominence on the world stage continues to grow. This continues to be alarming for many people in the United States, especially as our next presidential election nears. I hope that our security and intelligence services stay on top of this matter to help protect us because Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and the Republican Party leadership just got off the phone with Vladimir Putin congratulating him on his newest venture.
Yeah. Especially as we hear on public radio that pending legislation to protect American voting systems has bipartisan approval, but Senate Majority Lead Mitch McConnell WILL NOT BRING OT TO THE SENATE FLOOR FOR a vote. Is it true that Donald Trump has asked him NOT TO SECURE AMERICAN VOTING SYSTEMS? Does President Trump expect Russia to help him in the 2020 election, as was done in 2016?
6
This article presents the new "local" accounts and pages as an evolution of Russian disinformation tactics. But Facebook's own recent policies probably caused this shift. I run a facebook page for a global nonprofit organization, and was recently forced to provide proof of my local residence before I could boost our posts. Furthermore, our posts used to circulate to all our membership globally, but now I can only boost posts to reach users in my country of residence. Facebook itself suggested that our organization set up local managers in each country we wished to reach. So Facebook itself may be driving this shift in tactics.
4
If we can invent the internet, we can invent bots to monitor dis-information. I don't think Facebook should be tasked with this alone. I am sure that the DOD and Silicon Valley could come up with the tools to identify the agents of disinformation. They should go the next step: arrest. Even if these agents are in other countries, we should grab them and try them in public: just like Maria Butina.
13
There's a very easy solution to this:
Just get off Facebook.
At this point, most of us need the internet to thrive. However, we do not NEED Facebook.
40
Time and again Facebook and Donald Trump has both conned the US citizens . It real time to shut it down unless its just a consumer to consumer messaging like the whatsApp may be ok to survive and again which can be broken but not easily.
"Break These Up"
17
I fear the Western world is grossly unprepared for this new era of disinformation warfare. Ideas are more dangerous than weapons ever will be.
88
All systems--biological, social, political, and economic--are cybernetic and operate on circular causality based on message and feedback. Systems can all be manipulated by manipulating message, because message governs command and control. Whoever controls message, controls the system. Corrupted, jammed, and false messaging leads to bifurcation and breakdown. This produces a fertile field for opportunistic gain. Putin and Trump are in the business of corrupting message for future advantage.
24
We can complain about this all we want, but the only thing that might stop this is a counter-information campaign targeting Russian audiences. Russia has just as many ethnic and religious tensions as we do in the US, and it sure would be a shame if somebody stirred them up...
37
We risk losing all integrity. Doing that would play right into Putin’s hands.
We need a strong counter-propaganda presence, like VOA, etc stating facts and calling Russian disinformation out.
5
Facebook should stop all service from Russia, period. Not only is Facebook a weaponized instrument, but Matt Zuckerberg’s isn’t really interested in properly monitoring political manipulation under the pretense of democratic values. A farce, given that in 2016 he even got paid in Rubbles. This man needs to be regulated or closed down for the threat he presents to the world. Greed is not virtue. And wanting Trump’s re-election is not about free choice or first amendment rights, when he’s actively collaborating with foreign agents to accomplish his goal.
75
@Ted
I'm pretty sure with VPNs any user can hide their country of origin on the internet.
I might be wrong, but I think this is the case.
1
The USA and China use economic power to...influence elections and further their own interests in foreign nations. Russia uses a disinformation campaign. Oh, America and China also do so.
Russia, China, and the US interfere in other nations through various means. This is OK.
Russia and increasingly China, interfere in the US through various means. Bad, very bad. Pot meet kettle.
9
@Concernicus
This is a fair point, but the answer isn't, "we deserve it." The answer is figure out how to block all meddling, including our own.
4
If Facebook is either unable or unwilling to resist Russian manipulation targeting our elections, we need to seriously consider shutting the company down in the US. Zuckerberg, how many warning signs do you need?
51
Disinformation campaigns like these maybe could be defanged by mounting even bigger, targeted disinformation campaigns with messages designed to build distrust, even among the willfully ignorant, of information from such sources. Mounting such a campaign by US agencies would cost a pittance compared to overall spending on military and intelligence operations.
3
Read Yale historian's latest book, The Road to Unfreedom, to see the effect of Russia's media policies in regard to other countries. I am aware, of course, that our CIA did some not wonderful things in the past to promote our way of life, but promoting democracy and a civil society is not the same thing to me as what Russia is up to worldwide.
4
Yeah, ask Vietnamese how they liked American Democracy.
1
Facebook day of reckoning will came when it becomes distrusted by the vast majority.
I think that in the African context, at least as far as people in Somalia are concerned, most people have a pre conceived idea on all the important subjects and no Russian or American propaganda will change their minds.
2
As long as F-b publishes political lies, I won't respond to any political content on it.
But it is good news that they are taking doen Russians, and bad news that Russians are trying so hard.
4
Simple Facebook does not do political ads period
12
When will Radio Free Europe be censored on Facebook? That is a far more extensive and effective disinformation campaign.
3
What is the purpose of Russian facebook activity in Africa? What is Russia trying to achieve? Their trade with Africa is minimal.
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I wonder how much damage the websites had already done before they were taken down.
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Maybe everything on the internet needs to get a big fat ORIGINATION: RUSSIA stamp to indicate where the content came from.
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@Ivan Easier said than done. I wish that were not the case.
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Speaker Pelosi stood up to Trump and said, "All roads lead to Russia."
Trump has now convinced his base that the legitimate news organizations are fake, making them even more vulnerable to disinformation campaigns and election interference.
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I’m not surprised at this. Disinformation has always been a Russian tactic going back to the Stalin era and it has become so pervasive that there is a whole disinformation department that was developed during the cold war and continues in high gear under Putin, the former KGB officer.
My concern is who will be those “locals” that Russia will use in the US? Will they be simply clueless people doing it for money? There are plenty of those people available. Or will they be rabid Trump supporters who don’t see the damages to our country and only see that they are helping Trump. Facebook et al need to step up their game.
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@LT
Of course the locals will be those trump supporters who see no wrong in anything he does. Russia has 50 million of them to chose from.
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@Merlin
Unfortunately, there are also many people who are out for money, many of whom are indeed unaware of how much damage their actions are causing.
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