This is just plain silly. And what it reveals, more than anything, is the deep contempt that Congress and the entrenched Washington political establishment have for American voters. Are we really supposed to believe that these amateurish and mostly unobjectionable ads produced a measurable effect on the 2016 election? Rather than Russian oligarchs, we should be blaming US oligarchs for corrupting our political process! Where are the indictments?
2
"... these amateurish and mostly unobjectionable ads ..."
They are more than "ads". They use fake people or groups to establish credibility, and some solicit an action, such as participating in an "event". One even has a link to a web site that is fake (blackmattersus dot com).
I am unclear as to the purpose of the Russian ad campaign. It seems that information in the public domain was culled and then propagated to further strengthen identity politics. Why would this be favorable to Trump? Or was the aim to reduce participation in the election? Or was it to expose the irrelevance of the electoral process to people's real concerns? It seems to me that if the campaign took advantage of U.S. political pathology, we have only ourselves to blame.
1
Well here in Illinois we all just stare at ads --- specially Facebook ones --- and then we vote for Trump --- cuz that's what the television and the voices in our heads tell us to do...
And by golly he got elected and we'll probly be votin' for Pence and Trump and a whole lotta those Republicans next time tooo...that is ifin the Endtimes and Rapture don't come...
2
I explored a number of the permutations and think that if you're saying Trump won because the Russians put out these ads, you're fooling yourself. One, some of them fall more in line with liberal beliefs (Eric Garner Rally, anti-Syrian war Rally at Trump tower) and two, nearly all of them have under 1000 likes, interested or confirmed RSVPs, etc. The greater impact they likely had was just simply further polarizing our electorate- not actually swaying people to vote Trump.
5
The Times should link to the ads or host them. In the mean time, they can be found at house.gov:
Google "Social Media Advertisements site:house.gov".
The ads are in 11 zip files of widely varying sizes. There doesn't seem to be a way to download all of the ads as one file.
After extraction, each ad is in a separate PDF file that includes metadata. The metadata includes "Ad Targeting" criteria, such as Location, Age, Placements, People Who Match:Interests, People Who Match:Politics.
1
https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/russians-large-stake-in-facebook...
Iz real newz komradez - juzt like thiz komment...
I downloaded the lot from the congressional website yesterday, it was significantly underwhelming to the point of being excruciating. How exactly this was somehow trying to subvert democracy is beyond me. A misinformation campaign...aimed at what? More like pure old fashioned click-bait!
6
It's possible for Facebook users to (mostly) turn off Facebook's ad targeting (which also determines your Instagram settings), but it's very difficult. Unless you install the FB Purity extension, it will take dozens of clicks for most users to purge their targeting profile in facebook.com/ads/preferences. There are other targeting and surveillance preferences hidden in other locations. There's a guide to this at ImNotYourProduct.com.
2
The USA Today ran a report (summarized by Vox) that suggested that the Russian strategy was to stoke racial animosity. While this tool is cool, why hasn't the NYT conducted and published its own analysis of the ads?
6
Thank you for this. I've already found two ads that were sent to me by relatives in the Northeast who voted for, and still support, the current administration. This interactive is part of the reason we need a free press.
2
At least from the sample shown here, it appears the Russian strategy was to exploit our obsession with identity politics. Divide and rule. I do not see interests in "Education" or "Healthcare" or the "Environment" or "Infrastructure". Can we take a lesson from this? While we are sitting around putting people into categories other nations are rocketing past us.
8
Where are all the ads that were suppose to be running down Clinton and boosting Trump?
I put in a variety of ages, regions, issues, and the vase majority are about things that are pretty standard liberal stuff--opposing police brutality and racism, support for immigrants, uniting to improve the future.
Are there a lot more ads supporting Trump and conservative causes than you've shown here? Because if this is a representative sample, they don't do anything like the claims that have been made.
Why such a difference?
15
Surprise! Yes, standard liberal talking points are divisive and race-baiting. Funny how one of our biggest global enemies just has to recreate leftist media talking point to sow resentment and discord. We have met the enemy and he is us.
6
"Are there a lot more ads ..."
A total of 3,519 ads were released. Here is a highly politicized description of the ads from the House Intelligence Committee Minority:
Facebook Ads
Exposing Russia’s Effort to Sow Discord Online: The Internet Research Agency and Advertisements
https://democrats-intelligence.house.gov/facebook-ads/
(No date is given. Scroll to the end for a link to the ads.)