You search for a product you want to buy. For days afterward you get ads from various sellers for this product on every web site you visit.
Well, this technology works for political messages as well. Here's a new term, if you haven't heard it yet: cyber propaganda.
3
We should all be cognizant of the fact that Russian paid trolls comment on New York Times articles like this one. So there is a very good chance that many of the people on here pooh-poohing the idea that Russian interference happened, or that it had any effect, may will be Russians. Welcome to 2017.
5
This is not much different from an episode of Rod Sterling's Twilight Zone:The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street.
Sow discord and let cowards and traitors take control of the message.
This is how things like Trump steal
4
Putin's Russia. Now THAT'S Satan. Trump? He's a Putin wannabe. We used to be a helluva lot better than Russia. Then along came Donald and the doctored internet and it was lap-it-up for all the fools out there who voted for him.
You'll be dead and gone, but your votes will haunt your children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and their wives and yours, too.
4
Either Facebook's ads and ad algorithms are effective, and thereby beneficial for all ad buyers including the Kremlin, or they are not effective, and thereby worthless for everybody including not only the Kremlin but also, for instance, Toyota or Apple. Record sales and new stock price highs for Facebook tell us which it is. The same goes for Google and Twitter.
5
There's no evidence Russians are better at turning Americans against each other than say, the major parties are. The danger seems to be exposing both parties being substantially in continuous agreement on almost everything, besides for some carefully orchestrated noisy points. The American people find comfort in the belief that their two parties don't like each other sufficiently to be counted on to expose wrong doing across the isle. Shattering this illusion would be disruptive and this is where the problem is. Controlling the news diet of the American people. What's the point of the FCC relaxing all the rules if a foreign news source waltzes in and changes the perspective?
2
Zuckerberg blaming the Russians is rich... What a jerk! His goofy cyber playroom should be regulated until his teeth hurt... And the same goes for the rest of them. Why on earth should “social” media be a platform for political ads? Why should it pretend to be a news source? Why is this lunacy tolerated?This has nothing to do with freedom of speech. But it has everything to do with common sense.... Something sadly lacking in our society at present...
3
If the ads on Facebook were not a hoax, as their chief attorney stated, then is he willing to accept they could possibly have had an impact on the reader and even influenced their election choices last November? Specifically targeted messages in key so-called Battleground states may have been able to sway just 77,000 voters to not vote for HRC. If Facebook is not willing to admit to that possibility, then it calls into question the value of messages of any kind on their site to influence the reader. Anything along this line would majorly impact their business model.
Putin and Russia are winning the cyber warfare with divide and conquer. The republicans have their heads in the sand because they were all to happy to have Russia's, Putin, help them destroy the worst woman of the face of the earth, H. Clinton!
Since the onset of the election, when I said I would not vote for Mrs. Clinton, I was told that I had fallen for a litany of "right-wing lies" about her.
Now I am told I fell for a litany "Russian lies."
Here was my response to the former allegation.
Apply it to the latter:
Is it a rightwing (Russian now) lie that she voted for Bush's war in Iraq?
That she openly boasts about her willingness to commit war crimes?
That she speaks of means-testing Social Security?
That she supports a Syria no-fly zone which involves thousands of troops and war with Russia?
That she supports Fracking?
That she supports wars of regime change?
That she admires war criminal Henry Kissinger and calls him a mentor?
That she supports TPP?
That she takes tens of millions of dollars from Wall Street?
That she supports for-profit prisons?
That she credited Nancy Reagan in the fight against AIDS?
That she said she will chip away at abortion by allowing it only for the health of the woman?
That she says the government has a role in having America reach zero abortions?
That the FBI has called her careless?
That she jumped up to take credit for the $15 minimum wage when she fought against it all along?
That then-Senator Obama said she will say anything but change nothing?
Are these rightwing lies?
---
It was Hillary Clinton's record, not Russia that swayed my vote.
But she will never own up to it.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
5
No one wants Facebook to become a gated community or one in which the free exchange of ideas and information is limited or censored, but the question of “who paid for that ad?” is a reasonable one, which can be satisfied, although Build that Firewall! has its appeal.
It seems to me that the rest of the world - in this case Russia - has figured out that Americans tend to vote based on social issues as opposed to economic issues. Unless people quit letting issues like wedding cakes, abortion, and school prayer drive their votes, we will continue to set ourselves up for manipulation, and will ultimately be doomed. It's about time that people pay attention to the fact that we are being distracted by issues such as these by our own politicians, as well as by foreign actors. In the meantime education suffers, the middle class is shrinking, and Wall Street fat cats keep getting richer at the expense of the American workers.
1
Yea, we were just one, big happy family until the Russians came along a year and a half ago and turned us against each other.
2
What a ridiculous joke! Anyone who believes this Neo-McCarthyism does them no credit for any common sense. As if those ridiculous adverts could possibly sway anyone with an iota of common sense. Many of us were influenced by the arrogance of the DNC forcing an incompetent candidate on us, and now we are vindicated in our belief of their unethical, and perhaps illegal money laundering of donations allegedly for local elections being used to increase donations to the top of the ticket beyond the legal limits. Close up shop on these ridiculous assertions.
2
Sad thing is that not one of the RWNJs who bought the agitprop hook line and sinker will ever see this bc it will never air on foxstatemedia
Sad that he Bernie Bros and Greens may read this, and not believe that THEY were duped.
1
The Russians have played the liberals like a fiddle. They have conned the progs into being the most divisive element in our politics in many generations. The libs have gone bonkers over the fake Russian farce. Whoever in the Kremlin came up with such a simple, brilliant plan to have the liberals to go off the deep end and so viciously divide our country must be a genius.
1
@Tim Fitzgerald: your party may be the focus of the Russians; the listen to the Conservative howls.
1
Russia did not create this! Division is written into the American playbook, growing up in the PNW, I understood American Indians detested us whites and blacks, likewise most whites distrusted the Indians, add Hispanics and Asians and Europeans(recent arrivals), a few Muslims and the people who trusted each other, from different segments of society, were few, very few. This is very comfortable for all those who feel we live in uncertain times---we do----and want to blame our little crises on a foreign country who spent a few hundred thousand on ads, who met with Dems and Republicans, at a very minimum....Russia has always had this role put onto it, Western European nations, now the US, pull out the Russia target when internal conflicts happen. Its rather disgusting. America, my friends, is capable of going to hell in a handbasket without Russias help, my fellow Americans have proved they can kill each other, distrust each other, even hate each other without Russias intervention. Every empire that is collapsing blames outsides sources for the collapse. America is NOT unique.
2
If you are stupid enough to believe any ad with the world Satan in it you could not possibly vote rationally anyway. Absolutely ridiculous claims by these hack investigators.
3
for the usa to claim this must be the all time pinnacle of sanctimonious garbage in the history of the world
Americans: Watch the 2-part Frontline documentary, "Putin's Revenge"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/putins-revenge/
What nonsense.
Russia isn't responsible for turning Americans against each other.
The only thing Russia did is tell people what they wanted to hear.
I doubt it changed the vote of a single person. The same messages were being sent by campaigns themselves and their backers.
this is not to say we should tolerate what it did, but this is nothing other than scapegoating others for our own stupidity.
To paraphrase Brave Heart, the problem with America is that it is full of Americans.
2
I'd like to thank all Christians everywhere; your faith makes this kind of absurd demagoguery, monstrous insanity and deadly ignorance possible. Religion is the ultimate weapon of mass destruction (and any idiot can get his hands on one.)
2
America, you've been brainwashed! And you, Trump voters, have been duped by a "rigged" system which you weren't even aware of. Putin played you and you went for it, hook, line and sinker.
So what's the take-away here: is Russia & Putin so smart--or are Americans so dumb, racist, bigoted?
1
I am not a Trump supporter ("hell no"), but I think impacts of Russian-financed Facebook ads or Russian hacking of Democratic organizations on the last election is overblown. Frankly, I have a hard time picturing typical Trump supporters glued to their computer screens reading and analyzing various Facebook ads or going thru WikiLeaks' files trying to decipher texts of some emails.
The other night I was watching the PBS documentary on Vietnam War. The campus demonstrations took a completely different tone once those returning from the war joined the anti-war crowds. The veterans' anger largely stemmed from the fact that the media was presenting a picture of "their war" to the public that was very different from their own experiences. So, they stopped trusting the media, the politicians, or "anyone over 30".
Now we have a similar situation. Except for the minorities, many of those who went to Afghanistan and Iraq belonged to Trump's base. They saw the US bombardments of many cities and witnessed how thousands of innocent civilians were buried under rubbles and debris. They cameback home and told their stories to those around them. Then they all saw how the media only talks about the few injured or lost US soldiers, as if the war was fought in a vacuum. So, they stop trusting the media. Then they found it refreshing that an individual has the guts to call the media and their news "fake". No wonder they still trust him and consider him more upright than many others.
2
How did Russia get Americans "to turn against one another"? You're kidding, right? Are you folks even aware of what is happening beyond Manhattan?
So, it's Russia's fault? Not the fault of the undereducated, ignorant, frightened, lied to, dismissed, "cornpone" 'marrow' of America who views anyone or thing they cannot explain, dismiss, relate personally to, as adversaries? Not the fault of the the conservative and corporate media corps that play expressly to those insecurities, fears and basest stains of ones character? When the FCC capitulates to media companies expressly politicizing news without even the pretense of identifying 'editorial' content'? On and on.
It's the Russians? Great piece of deflection, NY Times. Now all those readers from this great city can sleep tight: Same in their illusion that the problem lies with 'over there'.
Leave it to a new generational model of people who happen to live in the United States of America, without even the least notion of what it, in principle, mean to actually be an American.
Too busy taking selfies to actually look in a mirror.
11
I thought the image of Hillary as Satan boxing with a shirtless Jesus was hilarious, and worry about the intellectual abilities of anybody who let that sort of thing sway their views and their vote.
By which I mean to say, a little common sense, a little less mob hysteria, a little more knowledge of facts and history, some simple tools from the ol' critical thinking workbox, and this stuff means precisely jack.
Unfortunately--just as you saw with the Great Ebola Scare and the Why Can't We Just Hose Everything with DDT and Stop Zika Idiocy--a lot of people in this country are so far down their own personal rabbit hole that they have none of these things.
And, we've got a lot of folks who are so far sunk in fear, racism, and pie-in-the-sky fantasies that they think they're actually thinking when they consume this gunk.
Worst of all from my point of view, we've many people on what passes for the Left these days who are every bit as irrational, ignorant, greedy and shouty as the people they sneer at.
Point is, Hillary Clinton is not, and never was, the Devil. She is not, and never was, a crook. She's a politician with an excellent education, who's done good work, made truly dumb mistakes, argued for some bad ideas, made a pot of money, but in general worked hard to do right . And who would've been a far better President that Bernie Sanders, let alone Jill Stein or the loon currently squatting on the office.
If you can't accept that, well, you're fake news fodder.
5
It's interesting how many of these ads have tiny errors, mostly in the use of articles. Plus, I found a past-perfect vs. present-perfect problem. "Hillary is a Satan, and her crimes and lies had proved just how evil she is." As a former ESL teacher of Russian speakers, looking for such errors in media comments (along with comments with a certain ideological slant) is just one of my sad amusements during these times. Nevertheless, I'd give most of these Russian authors 9s and 10s in English. What a waste of a hard-won skill! Hopefully some will make it to the West and we can read some interesting interviews.
1
There's a background story here that will not be discussed at the Senate hearings: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/13/the-long-hi...
The internet is just like the bible.
You can make it line up with whatever you believe.
You can create the world in your own image.
4
What these firms don't "get" is how they can ever protect users from their own (often willful) gullibility. A lot more can be done to distinguish paid content from organic but, at bottom, folks will respond to, "share" and "like" what they will, and domestic provocateurs are just as capable of generating propaganda as foreign ones. There's a problem here to be sure, but not one that Facebook can truly fix.
The alarm is sounding as Putin's KGB is sneaking onto our land.
republicans and their propaganda media lie, claiming it is not happening.
Why?
Simple,... republicans are now in league with Putin against our people. republicans have even stolen a Supreme court seat from United States citizens. They will poison our air, water and food with once banned toxins while they clean up at the bank.
Russian republicans refuse to do anything to protect America from Putin, now or in the future.
They are guilty of collusion and consorting with the enemy.
1
Satan? How many American voters think there is a being called Satan? THAT is what is most disturbing in this situation. We need to require critical thinking education beginning in elementary school.
6
Even mainstream old media sometimes gets duped into being the mouthpiece for foreign propaganda.
To whom it may apply:
Hold on to your sanity. Do not be duped by a bunch of stupid, ignorant, deceitful ads flooding our social media networks. In fact, one might do well to just junk the entire 'social media' madness altogether. Yeah, I know, that would be like asking Trump to stop lying. But you have to admit though, that when an online experience starts out as 'social' and then becomes 'anti-social', it's time to reconsider. Get another life! Put down that creepy cell phone, cancel your Twitter, Facebook, and Google accounts (if you can), go to the library and read a good book, and find a new circle of friends who just might share your new found interests. Tear yourself away now, while you can....cold turkey, if you must. You can do it. And you and the rest of us will be much better off in the long run.
2
I hate to break it to you guys:
"Hillary Clinton LOST ... Fair and Square." Get over it.
She didn't lose because Vladimir Putin launched an advertising campaign that successfully "pitted Americans against Americans" so that they lost sight of the Inevitable "Madame Presidente." Quite frankly, she was doomed from the moment that Donald Trump announced his candidacy.
Hillary Clinton was – and still is – "the Establishment." We've already had eight years of knowing what her "Clinton Presidency, the Sequel" would have been. Whereas Donald Trump was not a professional politician, and he promised to "drain the swamp."
This message resonated across the heartlands of America, in the minds of people whose opinions are not radicalized, nor easily swayed by advertisements (particularly of the sort described in this piece). These are people who realize in various ways that this country has been mis-governed for many consecutive decades, and by both major political parties. They knowingly and quite-purposely elected a person whose qualifications are completely unlike those of each and every President who has served before. Then, they tasked him with leading an effort to implement significant change – an effort that "The Swamp" has so-far stoutly resisted.
It is long overdue for the catch-phrase, "Russian Meddling," to be lampooned by a really good comedian.
2
What you don't get, Mike, is that even if Hillary had won, we still need to recognize what a foreign government was attempting to do to our electoral system and prevent it from making further inroads.
And PS: The Donald's message may have "resonated" but more people voted for Hillary.
1
I still don't understand why we're talking about how the Russians "abused" Facebook, et al. Seems to me they used it exactly as it was designed to be used, whether Zuckerberger intended it that way or not.
1
While not at all dismissing the effect of these ads and posts by the Russians aimed at the election, they merely exploited a political system that was on its last legs. One can only be amazed at the stupidity and gullibility of an already divided American public that chose to read and believe these ridiculous posts. We are in the midst of the twilight of the American experiment with democracy. What will replace it is anyone's guess.
1
What Russia did to sow political and cultural divisions in this country has proven more damaging than conventional weapons. Like a Trojan horse, the snuck in under a web of deception and created animosity amongst civilians, while watching on the sidelines. Their goal is of course to eliminate Western pro-democracy states. I wish our government would return the favor in kind...believe me (Trumpism) there is more dirt on Putin than resides on the surface of the Earth. Also, Facebook, Google, and Twitter should put democracy over shareholders. Because in the end, if the country dissolves, then what good was all that money for?
1
Methinks the president doth protest too much. When the possibility that the Russians had interfered in our election was first mentioned, the president-elect immediately called it a hoax and a witch hunt. Therefore, he automatically knew either that there was no one in his campaign that had worked with the Russians - or he knew that they had. Since, at the time, he had no way of knowing that no one had colluded with the Russians, he must have known that they had.
See:
RevolutionOfReason.com
TheRogueRevolutionist.com
1
Is it not possible to name and shame, the Russian activists, who carry out this
nefarious activity on Facebook?
1
When Trump won the election, we could hear the vodka toasts from here. I bet they never had so much fun nor did they realize how easy it was to create unrest in the US. And if Hillary had won, you can bet there would be Russian assistance for Trump to continue the campaign against her.
1
OK, officially passing up the family Thanksgiving again this year because now that I've seen what persuaded them to trumpet trump, I cannot sit and give thanks while pretending they are not the dumbest people I know.
Oh please. If you consider yourself morally Christian -- you are supposed to practic the Golden Rule.. Do unto others..
You cannot blame Russian interference for bad manners... and a general lack of respect (not love).-- I thought the ads were not much of a much -- rather amateur and not as awful as the ones on TV which it is much harder to ignore.
Choice -- we all have it. One can practice kindness and go the extra step... at least. Not all can run the mile... the 1$ to the beggar... e.g. and BTW all votes re private-- (I had to ask a friend to stop sending me -- the daughter of a pre-WWII refugee just got in by chance in 1935 the essays on racism and totalitarianism. Interesting to hear the views of my liberal friends who do not seem to have black skinned people nor Republicans (from Ohio preferably) s life-long friends. Time to give up analyzing the Civil War unless there is new documentation that changes something major.
All we can change is the now. The "mistrust" was long there... Remember "They're rioting in Africa, etc... and I don't like anybody very much..?" Tom Lehrer 1958? 1958!!!
please, Times -- is there anyone over 30 working there? I am retired and aviailable...
In my youth I was taught to hate Russians because they were Godless Communists who wanted to destroy our free American way of life.
Now Russians are good capitalists, but I still have to hate and fear them?
1
The Russians have not only skewed our election, they have impeded our ability to govern ourselves because of investigative committees and have upend our sense of truth(fake news). Couple this with a perfect dupe in the White House and you have chaos. And they accomplished this by exploiting capitalism or should I say greed and our use and dependency on social media, the 21st century version of slavery. Social media has to be regulated. NOW! OR ELSE...
Hey, speaking of sowing divisions, how 'bout them Confederate monuments?
1
The Lords of Electronic Media can wring their hands all they want but I want to know why any sane individual believed that ads like this were any meaningful source of Free Speech. Forget the underlying problem of the possible Russian interference- all of these are offensive to most literate Americans. Allowing yellow journalism to go unchallenged is unconscionable. The interference that occurred be it by the Russians, the Republican Party, Mr Trump or any other entity is about the proliferation of FALSEHOODS and should have no place in the fabric of America. I hope the congressional committee will proceed as far as they need, to uncover the truth. Mr Zuckerburg and his cronies at Google should be prosecuted- fined and serve prison terms for taking advantage of the naivete of the American voter. Media is supposed to have some ethical responsibility to their audience. Crimes against humanity must be identified and those guilty must held accountable.
It is refreshing to read a comment that understands Putin is acting on a plane with other interests such as the Mercers and the Murdochs who represent an international conspiracy of billionaire right wing oligarchs who could care less about anything but their own power and wealth.
3
A couple of thoughts on what might be done:
1. The news feed provided by any of the platform companies should not be targeted at individuals. The feed should be curated not by algorithms but by human beings deeply familiar with journalistic standards. It should not contain any opinion pieces. To paraphrase a bromide - social media consumers are entitled to their own opinions but not to their own set of facts.
2. Any ad, political or otherwise, presented to a social media user should have a simple mechanism, perhaps an accompanying button, through which the consumer can bring up at least two pieces of information: 1, who apparently paid for the ad and 2, why was the particular user targeted.
1
You mean to tell me 60 million American voters fell for this and elected a buffoon to high office? We've got bigger issues as a nation.
4
The far bigger problem is how these global corporations keep massive files on all of us, selling information back and forth, sharing it with government agencies (it is not unconstitutional of the info is given by a third party), and leaving themselves open to having by global criminal enterprises.
1
Trying to restrain Social Media will be like trying to stop the Printing Press or Radio - can't do it - horse has left the barn - ship has sailed, etc. The root problem is human nature - the reflex to shoot the messenger and blame one's laziness and lack of critical thinking on others.
3
YOU can’t even put a BEEP once a lie is out there. Hey you stole my line!
2
Just as the obnoxious " these people may be friends" the FB so-called news feed is completely bogus. When I log on a couple times a year the first thing I do is delete both of them. Why anyone would pay attention to the FB news feed is troubling. Have these people no common sense at all.
1
What really scares me is that people always get the government they deserve. That prophecy is coming true.
2
Our First Amendment right of free speech must be protected. The best way to protect it is not through suppression or censorship but through eduction which, not surprisingly, is also under attack.
1
The answer is not censorship, it is to educate people on skepticism, critical thinking, and avoiding cognitive error as a basic civic skill. It is way more important that the quadratic equation.
If that can't be done, we might just instead have to admit that the basic premise underlying universal suffrage is false.
2
Nothing is going to be done about Russia's manipulating us through Internet disinformation. Why not? Because the decision was made in both government and industry long ago in the 90s that marketers/advertisers were to have free reign with our computer screens and personal information. Restricting access to our time and personal information was "bad for business", and of course Internet company profits and political campaign contributions. There was more than ample warning with the very first green card spam in the early 90s, but the decision was made that spammers are just struggling businessmen who're good for companies and the US. IT DID NOT have to be this way, but that is how the Internet was built, and correcting it now is not going to happen. You can see that clearly in the "experts" being interviewed and consulted by Congress and the media. They're all marketers. They are all breathlessly afraid that we not restrict their access to your eyeballs and thus bring down Armageddon.
1
I'm sure that the Russians discovered how easy it was to turn Americans against one another. We have never been so fragmented and Balkanized as we are today except maybe during the Civil War. Divided we fall.
1
I came across a lot of dubious Clinton stories during the 2016 campaign, especially on Facebook. I don't doubt that, connected as I was to many pages associated with Bernie Sanders, I was a prime target for this smearing and undermining campaign against Clinton.
That said, insofar as I'm able to know, those stories did not affect my voting. It had nothing to do with email servers or Benghazi or alleged poor health, etc.
There are enough brains in this country to create a truly modern, agile, powerful, innovative and empowering voting system. Why this hasn't happened is a much more important question than Russian meddling, though that's also important.
3
That Russians and Russian money are behind the ads that appeared on the social media platforms, aimed at swaying the outcome of the 2016 election in Mr. Trump’s favor, has by now been well established. But, going by the wordings in the ads, I strongly suspect that they have had help from Americans in the preparation of those ads.
Once the congressional committees and the special counsel complete their investigation, we may know who the real persons behind the fake names like “Blacktivists,” “Back the Badge” and “Army of Jesus” that created the accounts to purchase the ads are. We will then know whether any of them are in any way connected to the Trump campaign. Until then, Senator Richard M. Burr, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and his fellow Republicans may be well advised not to make any statements suggestive of the outcome of the investigation.
1
Breaking news: Evidence is circulating in British media, of a Kremlin infiltration of the Brexit campaign, an exact parallel of what Donald may have benefited from in the US. Has already been raised in the UK parliament. So there's another question for Mueller: given Donald's enthusiasm for Brexit and the destruction of the UK and the European Union, did Donald know what Putin was up to?
From the examples shown, who really would be swayed by those ads? To me, a non-Facebook user, they were repulsive. Is that really what attracts people to Facebook? The lack of privacy and crude ads are not something I care for.
1
Russia's involvement in all of this is a red herring. The ignorance that allowed 60 million people to vote for such an abject failure of a human being as Donald Trump predates Russia's facebook accounts. Did Russia create fox news? Did Russia enable Rush Limbaugh? Conservatives have been eating lies long before social media started feeding them directly into the vein.
4
The unhinged ad untethered lunacy of the Republicans is perfectly in line with the designed and methodological craziness of the Russian social media efforts.
The doubts that many of us had from the beginning about Google, Facebook and Twitter have been confirmed. Their initial denials were either criminal negligence or outright lies. "Blockbuster earnings" and stock "record highs" tell the story. That is how much our democracy is worth to them. These are monopolies that were already sorely in need of regulation.
Some of these ads were clearly illegal. It is, for example, illegal for a foreign government, entity or citizen to give anything of value to a political campaign. I believe Google, Facebook and Twitter are legally liable for the role they played in these illegal efforts.
2
Unfortunately, not only did Republican voters believe the lies from the Russians about Hillary, but many Dems did too. Bernie made the decision to use these lies to help him win the nomination but I don't think he understood it would split the Democratic Party and many of his supporters voted for Trump. Very scary.
2
The thing about Bernie voters is that they are so programmed you can’t change their mind. At least deplorable‘s are slowly getting it. But Bernie people think they’re so smart that they could never be swayed by social media. But in fact that’s exactly what happened to them.
Unfortunately it could be years before we have another woman as capable with as much world experiences as Hillary Clinton.
1
It is outrageous that these ads can be run without sourcing. That said, why doesn't the NYT pollster go out to the election districts in the Heartland that voted for President Obama, but then voted for President Trump or sloughed off greatly in their support for the Dem. candidate, asking the people if they saw the ads, if they paid attention to them? Even in the Bible Belt, which does NOT run in the Great Lakes states, crude cartoons about Jesus and the Devil wouldn't be taken seriously, I would think. The elites give the people no credit for filtering out fake news and hyperbole, particularly in political ads.
The real problem is that Americans cannot tell what is real from what is fallacy. That is a failure of education. But, moreover, it is a failure of the wont, or necessity, to learn, and to keep learning. It is this pathetic complacency which is the great weakness of democracy, and allows for it to be abused from without and, as is now evident, from within as well.
But what hope for the future when the leader of this nation, and supposedly a role model, brags that he doesn't need to read - because he just knows stuff that "not a lot of people know."
1
These ads represent an exiguous percentage of the total number of ads payed for by candidates, advocacy groups and individuals in the last election.Is there any evidence that Pennsylvania fell to Trump or Wisconsin, because Democrats who had previously supported Obama deserted Hillary Clinton because of Satan's support for her candidacy. What concerns me as a Democrat is that we Democrats continue to miss the point. Trump did not so much as win as Hillary lost..and she did not lose because of Satan..as comforting a thought as that may be to Hillary supporters.
1
The Russians couldn't get the Americans to anything the ground wasn't fertile enough to begin with. The ruling class in this country has been so pernicious and vindictive for so many years that many Americans don't care anymore if they throw out the baby with the bathwater. I know Trump supporters aren't that savvy or even have enough awareness to actually understand this, but they act like they do.
After reading many of the comments here, I believe that Russia has won. With or without FB/Twitter/Instagram/etc. They have one because the people in the US have been polarized not just by social media (here), but by mainstream media. When an outlet picks their political agenda and uses it for propaganda vs. reporting the news objectively, we are lost. Forget Russia, look into the mirror.
Strange, no mention that Trump was also attacked by Russian ads - I guess that doesn't promote the narrative. In fact it gives lie to the "progressive" narrative. Russian propaganda is no worse than "progressive" propaganda.
This is absolutely ridiculous, I can't believe the level of discourse on this article. As if Americans were all in agreement on everything before the mean old Russians came along and duped us all. The level of sensationalism around the Russiagate story is just beyond ridiculous. I hate to sound like I'm defending Trump, because I can't stand the guy. But this is just ridiculous. Demonizing a country is a precursor to war. Russia and the USA are the two most advanced nuclear weapon states in the world. It's very cavalier of you all to participate in whipping up anti Russian sentiment because Hillary Clinton lost. I get it, some Trump people met with Russians and the media talks about it 24/7. It's not proof that the election was really affected. We've had fake news for a long time, just look at the tabloids available at your grocery store checkout.
I implore you all to be responsible Americans and calm down about this. Stop demonizing Russia, they can read our media too. Including this comments section. What they're going to see is a country who hates them and their leader.
3
All countries mess with each other. We have probably messed with more foreign governments, elections, and public opinion than any other government in history. The real news is not that the Russians try to move IS public opinion.
The real news is a president, his administration, and his supporters that think it's a good thing. Trump welcomed Russian meddling on TV. That is essentially treason. He signed a law in the spring that said he had to impose new sanctions on Russia buy October 12. He has avoided doing that. He had a constitutional responsibility to faithfully execute the laws of this chutney, and he is putting Russia's interest above US law. That is treason.
I've had serious problems with all of our presidents since at least Reagan, but I have not accused them of treason, only bad policy making.
Trump is a lying con man, that probably owes hundreds of millions of dollars to Russian money launderers, who are controlled by the Kremlin.
1
Before the internet era, the US had a long long history of intervening in other countries' election outcomes. How did it do that? There was no social media, no world wide web, no smart phones.
Ingenious!
http://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506625913/database-tracks-history-of-u-s-m...
and
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/13/the-long-hi...
2
Why does the senate not investigate divisive misinformation propagated by an Australian named Rupert Murdoch? The cumulative impact of his media empire has contributed greatly to the demise of factual discourse and the rise of uninformed, misinformed and malinformed anger.
5
Yes. Why do we let global corporations control what the American Public sees and heard on our communication networks?
Having seen the ad showing Hillary as Satan facing a handsome, young Jesus and the ad for the Pope's endorsement of criminal Trump, I can only say that these tech companies act as if they were g Pontius Pilate washing his hands (to continue the biblical references).
You are not in good company holding hands with Russian/Macedonian hackers and political disrupters. When will we stop putting blind faith in technological progress? Any critical thinkers out there?
1
This entire spectacle should remind us of another one, of Collin Powell, the former US secretary of State sitting in the Security Council and flanked by the heads of America's intelligence agencies, holding up a vial of of white powder, possibly Talcum and pointing to obscure illustrations, as proof of Saddam's possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
But Putin, an elected president who revitalized a broken, looted, and prostrate nation, is not Saddam, and Russia, with the power to, like us, extinguish human life on this planet hundreds of times over, is not Iraq.
This is a very dangerous Dog and Pony Show, a feast for fools and the gullible. It is runaway insanity, pure and simple. And it is being done for greed and the pursuit of power in America.
3
Seems as though Congress is excited to have yet another topic to focus on vs. the job of running the country - the hard work. I feel like it's baseball and steroids again.
It is the job of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to investigate potential influence from foreign countries. And it's their job to then bring charges, and let those companies being used/hacked/etc. know about the security breach.
FB and twitter are a reflection of the users. Since they are open to all users, and motivated by profit, they will not use great judgement. Ms Sewell is wrong to indicate this happened because not enough blacks work at these companies. To assume that a white worker is racist against blacks is utter nonsense. If one uses one of these social media outlets, one can see immediately that most of what is 'spread' is pure nonsense. Even those with a spark of truth can easily be debunked. Users that cannot see this are not influenced by the garbage they read, they read and believe it because they want to. That goes for the right and the left.
Neither political party is honest, neither cares about the truth, and anyone that claims the high road when it comes to political agenda is lying. Citizens - we no longer have honest media either - do your own investigation when you see something that seems extreme. And that goes for the NYTime readers that continue to spout that the GOP doesn't care about kids, people, health, or justice. Cut me a break!
1
Ah, the old both-sides-are-to blame! But what if one side profited exclusively from the interference is now in charge of all those law enforcement arms. Are they supposed to be objectively prosecuting their own path to power? Somehow I don't believe you were as neutral if the shoe was on the other foot. Bias, evidenced in your last few entences.
1
Watch 2 part Frontline: Putin's Revenge. Putin is petty and venal. Especially with his own people. He will stop at nothing to destroy our democracy. The "soft war" is on, and we must retaliate to protect America.
1
It shows how many misinformed people are out there and who don't bother to take the time to be informed.
2
Come on NY Times, let's be honest. Russian interference was aimed at both Republicans and Democrats. For example, the BlackMattersUS (not Black Live Matter) march in which 5000-10000 Democrats marched from Union Square to Trump Tower was created entirely by Russian "troll farms" with ties to the Kremlin. (I haven't seen you report on this incident at all. Why?)
It seems to me that the Russian interference wasn't just aimed at Republicans and getting Trump elected. (Although you wouldn't know that if you only read NYT.) The Russian's goal seems to be, as Senator Rubio rightly suggested, to spread chaos in any way possible, whether by incensing Republicans or provoking Democrats.
1
Yes it seems very likely that the Russian goal was to divide the US against itself, which is remarkably similar to the global billionaire goal of dividing the workers against each other ("those union employees are so lazy and get paid too much," immigrants fired you," ...)
But there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence that says Trump is under Russian control, and they are probably very happy that he got elected. See how he divides us everyday and in every way, and divided is from our allies, while praising violent strongmen.
Clinton of a corporate hack that works for global billionaires. Trump is a global billionaire that probably owes a ton of money to Russia
1
Underlying all of this is the gullibility and stupidity of the American public. Bernie Sanders and Julian Assange also have a share of the blame in the outcome of this election, and a big thanks goes out to them too for the mess we're in now. Thanks also to the Bernie fans who stayed home and didn't vote for Clinton. She's far from perfect, but the people who thought there was no difference between Trump and Clinton live in their own fantasy world and are just as deluded as Trump's base of supporters. It's horrifying to me that so many young people with college degrees fall into this category.
5
ALL they needed to do was put Bernie on the ticket. The entire mid America would have voted for him. Kapish?
1
They are social media geeks. They were influenced by Russian infiltrators and Republicans. Bernie people are kind of like a cult. You cannot change their minds.
2
I thought it was a Hillary's job to woo Bernie's supporters, especially after they saw the collusion between Hillary and DNC to eliminate their candidate. She did horrible job. You can not blame people for not voting for candidate who didn't meet their standards.
2
Trump is a dangerous president, but the headline currently displayed on the front page of the Times website for this story, "How Russia Got Americans to Turn Against One Another," is ridiculously over the top.
This externalization of serious deficiencies in the American political system ignores the massive underwriting of campaigns by corporate and wealthy elite donors. It ignores the failure of our two-party system in which both entities enjoy electoral privileges that lock out other parties, while they both promote market- and financier-driven policies that are hollowing out the middle class and leading to staggering inequality. And it ignores the fact that Hillary Clinton ran a status quo campaign as all this was happening that -- combined with her ethical baggage -- made her the least popular candidate that Democrats could possibly choose to oppose an unpopular Trump.
Maybe Russia did spend some money on the presidential election (and the amounts that have emerged so far don't seem to amount to much), but it is dwarfed by all of the corporate and elite campaign funding mentioned above. And it seems that the United States has been doing this for years in other countries.
So if you want to do nothing to fix our broken political system, avoid having to actually come up with solutions for working Americans falling further and further behind, and let Trump and the GOP keep winning with a fake "populist" appeal, by all means keep blaming all of our problems on Russia.
20
I totally agree. The Russians were able to influence the elections only by capitalizing on the divisions that had already been simmering for years and that continue to plaguethe country.
2
Boy this article is a doosey. This is what they want to base their on argument to start censoring the internet. Those poor dupes who turned out to the toon of 60 million voters to vote for Trump. That is even dumber than Trump's claim that 4 million illegal aliens voted for Clinton in CA.
1
It wasn't all the 60 million, but just enough. Maybe just 80,000 in three states.
Can Facebook, Google, Twitter, et.al. survive - much less prosper - without advertising? Not unless they charge some pretty prohibitive fees simply for access. Not going to happen is it? Is it their responsibility to assure the most naive of readers aren't being taken in by the Russians, political dark money funded misinformation, ideologue distribution of slanderous fake news, unchecked lies of supposedly trustworthy sources? Only to some extent I suppose. Where does the ultimate responsibility then lie? Could it be that before a person spreads a provocative and politically salacious post or article they should make sure of the validity of the source and confirmation of the content? Could it be that before they spew their piqued opinion on their barber, the people in the break room, or the captured audience at the Thanksgiving table that they be very circumspect about what they allow to become a part of their mind? The ultimate problem isn't Google or Facebook or Twitter - it's mentally lazy people who believe their haphazard opinion is equal to or more valuable than anyone else. Okay - solve that. You may begin.
4
Yes, people that believe what they want to believe instead of holding their sources to high standards and using the scientific method to evaluate claims are the biggest problem.
I would rather have a messy internet than have the government deciding what is fake news.
2
RS: "The ultimate problem ... [is] mentally lazy people who believe their haphazard opinion is equal to or more valuable than anyone else."
Which group are you in? The group of "mentally lazy people" or the group of people who are _not_ "mentally lazy"?
Rather odd response. Just trolling or is there a legitimate question there?
Yesterday one of my coworkers casually called Facebook a ‘cesspool of misinformation’ and stated he doesn’t go on much anymore. Ditto. I resent these companies immensely for their lack of serious content policing under a high-falutin’ guise of ‘building community and liberating speech.’ An add on app I have that helps identify possible fake news on Facebook was developed by third parties. Obviously Facebook could build something similar into their platform immediately rather than developing an AI. Or exclude all political news and ads two months before elections. Or drop all ads as revenue and make the platform a fee based service model. If they cared.
The best consequence of this arrogance for all these self-aggrandizing angels of tech will be decreased reputation and site traffic. That will get their attention more than a Senatorial scolding.
As for the Senators, they need to introduce legislation now to get these people focused. Actions speak louder than words. The same goes for Zuckerberg and his ilk. Substantive change counts more than hiring a few thousand people to prove your virtue while simultaneously complaining it will affect profitability and shareholder value. Take your weak tea elsewhere. I’ll call my real friends on the phone.
5
AH: "... one of my coworkers casually called Facebook a ‘cesspool of misinformation’ and stated he doesn’t go on much anymore."
If your coworker doesn't "go on much anymore", how does he know that Facebook is a "cesspool of misinformation"?
AH: "Ditto."
I have the same question for you.
"An add on app I have that helps identify possible fake news on Facebook was developed by third parties."
That sounds very interesting. What is the name of the app?
Profit run supreme in all private company and Facebook is no exception in placing bucks before bot under the veil of progressive idea of empowering the mass. There is a price to pay for free enterprise and Russia interference is one of them; with little initial investments, the Russia shows us how easy it is for the KGB to walk into an open society and stoke the existing animosity between the lefty and righty over a divided nation. To minimize the impact of fake news, it is time to subject social media organization under the scrutiny as that of the traditional media companies.
2
"... it is time to subject social media organization under the scrutiny as that of the traditional media companies."
What "scrutiny" are you proposing? Please be specific and cite sources.
"... the KGB ..."
The KGB hasn't existed since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
1
Let’s be clear; this has been slow-walked by the GOP over the last year. If we had known all of this in October of 2016 we would have a different president and we’d be at war with Russia.
3
"If we had known all of this in October of 2016 ..."
Speak for yourself: Would "know[ing] all of this" have changed how you voted, assuming you voted?
I just watched "Putin's Revenge" on Frontline/PBS. Excellent chronology of Putin's cyber warfare. Concerned over the breathe of Russian warfare, in August-September of last year the heads of both political parties were shown the intelligence documenting Russia's involvement. Democrats wanted a bi-partisan public announcement. Republican McConnell refused. At present, Republicans refuse to acknowledge that Russian cyber warfare is a national security issue.
4
Facebook, Google and other tech companies did not get us to turn on each other. We’ve done a good job of doing so ourselves.
Elsewhere in this paper this morning are samples of ads traced to Russian entities. Similar stuff could have been done by anyone. The complexity of tracing messages to their source will mean decisions will also have to be made based on content. We are requiring our huge social media to be censors. Some of this they already do, but they will expand on it. (Facebook is doubling its screeners to 20,000.)
I’m not saying that getting offensive stuff off the Internet is a bad thing. Just be aware, though, when you submit a political ad you think is powerful, someone in a cubicle in a town you’ve never visited may look at it another way and toss it in a gigantic virtual dustbin.
1
Putin is smart, way much smarter than Trump, and he's using Trump to reach his goals. Trump is an easy mark for Putin. He knows there's a lot of anger in America today and he's capitalizing on it. He's using Face book and social media to spread more anger and dissent, and he knows that American politicians and heads of corporations put their re-elections and their profits ahead of their country and its people. It's been nothing but smooth sailing for Putin.
4
If your government and media had not been hacked by global billionaires, who implement policies that benefit them at our expense, the people would not be so angry.
Both parties refuse to give the people what they want. This makes fertile ground for the Russians to exploit.
The Russians would have no success if the People were not being subjected to massive divide and conquer propaganda fed to us by global corporate mass media for decades already.
Look at the hysteria around people being run over by a pick up truck. Low tech terror is about the 100th leading cause of death, if that high, but we keep spending billions and weakening the constitution to fight it, while we can't provide the whole country with decent healthcare.
The Russians, and Trump are taking advantage of a country that is being lied to already (see Iraq, Enron, global bank frauds, hate of immigrants, minorities, etc., all stoked by main stream media outlets).
Russia is also run by global billionaires. I don't know if they work against or with our billionaires (it's probably a little of both), but if you don't think global corporations are also lying to you on Facebook, you're not paying attention.
1
Can we really blame our niavety on the Russians?
In my lifetime, we've gone from "I read it in the paper, so it must be true" to "Don't believe everything you read/see on TV" to "The polls indicate". When there is no trustworthy source of information, there is nothing left to discuss intelligently; bickering over whose source is most slanted takes the place of informed debate. Numbers, regardless of their source or interpretation, are used to validate claims. With zero understanding of statistical methods, and blind acceptance of polls by journalists, the public, (still with a 3rd grade reading level, if that high) remains gullible to every claim. The rest of us stay in our political lanes and believe whatever sources we find comfortable to digest.
If FB's adds 20,000 new content checkers, will it make any difference at all if they're simply applying a word search program instead of a journalism degree? And how many journalists are J-schools turning out these days? Trump's claim of fake news is less worrysome than junk journalism, aka "citizen journalism". It appears that we will only believe video "evidence"- and now lack the critical thinking skills to even question or care about its frame, source or implications for civil society. Our trusted interpreters have been replaced by pretty and/or rabidly political mouthpieces. We might as well change the channel to Bugs Bunny, or whatever the current incarnation of an amusing animal might be.
6
With the Murdochs and Fox News already doing such a splendid job of spreading fear, racism, paranoia and falsehoods, Russia probably sees its involvement as simply a means of getting marginal benefits toward its long stated goal of destabilizing western democracies. I say we investigate the Murdochs before turning our attention outward.
6
There is a strong similarity between Russia's social media efforts to persuade voters to vote for Trump, or against Clinton, and ISIS's social media efforts to persuade people to join ISIS's jihad or to become lone wolf jihadi terrorists. Both are intended to persuade otherwise uncommitted people to act in a certain way by stoking anger, hatred, and resentment in a targeted audience against a defined enemy. Yet, Trump is doing nothing to combat ISIS's social media recruitment efforts and has cut anti-terrorism funding from the budget; he just prefers to castigate all Muslims. And he does not even admit that Russia has engaged in such activity.
But in truth, Trump engages in the very same activities via his Twitter account. He stokes anger. hatred, and resentment in his base of supporters against the defined enemy that comprises Democrats, eastern elites, main stream media, Republican establishment members, the Washington swamp, etc., or, stated more simply, anyone who opposes anything that Trump says, does, or wants.
We can rightly point fingers at the social media giants, at Russia and at ISIS. But right now the most offensive user of social media and the true enemy of America is Donald Trump. He is doing more harm to our country on a daily basis than any of them.
3
We didn't need Russia to turn our citizens against one another, we do a pretty good job of it on our own.
6
TrumpThumper says, "Any American who is not deeply upset about this is a traitor and anyone who thinks this did not make a crucial difference in a close election is eiher stupid or lying..."
I agree with your basic premise, TT, but the fact is that most people do not understand mind manipulation as it's being practiced by social media today. It is very sinister. Also, people do not want to lose face by admitting they were "duped'.
Some years ago people did not understand how subliminal advertising changed their behavior. Subliminal advertising is images not visible to the naked eye placed on top of the television ads we see to cause us to react in a certain way without being aware of it. It's a certain kind of brainwashing. Subliminal advertising was outlawed once people understood it.
According to Wikipedia, "A subgenre (of brainwashing) is "corporate mind control", in which a future society is run by one or more business corporations which dominate society using advertising and mass media to control the population's thoughts and feelings.[86]"
Those of us who understand how it works must educate others so they understand the danger to their lives. Bad-mouthing those who do not understand is not the solution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwashing#Other_areas_and_studies
10
Dupes never admit they were duped until their house is repossessed.
njglea: "I agree with your basic premise, TT, ...
"TT" is poisoning the well. Do you "agree" with that fallacy?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_the_well
1. Subliminal advertising is basically hooey, and does not actually work.
2. What we got here isn't subliminal at all; it's plain old far-right wacko propaganda, plus a fair amount of Russian jacking around with us because we're gullible, we're lazy, and we think we're the only people with a brain.
Spreading hate using divisive language is not new, spreading hate using accounts that mimic an actual person is worrisome.
1
Sorta of like demonizing the police in Ferguson with the "hands up" lie. The NYT and their editorialists knew it was a lie yet propagated it anyway. The Russians are child amatures compared to our "progressive" media when it comes to fomenting division.
The problem is not that social media companies don't filter out the agents provocateurs; it's that we believe social media is a viable channel for conducting civic dialog. "We have met the enemy, and he is us!" as Walt Kelly said.
7
AS: "The problem is ... that we believe social media is a viable channel for conducting civic dialog."
The Times's commenting system is a form of "social media". Don't you believe that the Times's commenting system is "a viable channel for conducting civic dialog"?
If the shoe fits... Any channel that allows interlocutors to hide their true identities is highly suspect, I'd say. If you have looked at some of the actual "fake posts" now known to have originated in Ukraine, you may agree that some of them would have been very effective if they had appeared as comments in the NY Times. Or maybe they did!
The big flaw in the US system that doesn’t get discussed is the sophistication of the public and being able to spot the hyperbole.
Using a more critical eye could have avoided a lot of this.
4
True believers don't let doubt or facts get in the way. We need to teach people to use the scientific method when evaluating any claim by any source. Instead a large percentage of the population is trying to force schools to teach belief instead of skepticism.
Common sense tells us the earth is flat, the sun rises and sets, disease is spread by evil spirits, and other such nonsense. The enlightenment brought the Greek methods of logic and inquiry to the world, so that we could know what we don't know, and ask ever more intelligent questions. But many Americans are too lazy to do the work necessary or even to suspend their belief to keep more than one possible explanation in their heads at one time.
And this doesn't only apply to the Fox News crowd. If you still think that All Gore would not have invaded Iraq, despite the speech he made saying he would, or that global banks give centrist Democrats like Obama and Clinton millions to hear then talk, you ate also deluding yourselves.
"... the sophistication of the public and being able to spot the hyperbole."
If are going to set yourself up as a "sophisticated" media critic, you should analyze some specific ads. You can find some here:
These Are the Ads Russia Bought on Facebook in 2016
By Scott Shane
Nov. 1, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/us/politics/russia-2016-election-face...
“'I’ve expressed how upset I am that the Russians used our tools to sow mistrust,' Mr. Zuckerberg said,..."
That's both wrong and disingenuous. The Russians didn't "sow mistrust," they merely exploited hatred and mistrust that was already there.
The entire basis of this article is that the "Russians" somehow created enmity where none had existed before. That is so wrong it's almost incredible that the writer would attempt to make such a claim.
The divisiveness apparent in our last election pre-exited any attempts to inflame it. It was there, waiting to be exploited. And, the "Russians" took advantage of that.
What's really interesting is that the NY Times and other media outlets seem to regularly make the claim that the amorphous "Russians" did this to get Donald Trump elected, but even a cursory glance at the evidence shows that the campaign was meant to sow general discord, regardless of party.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." It seems those who would harm the US have learned this lesson. When will the people of this country take it to heart?
10
Shortly after everybody troubles themselves to read any of the fifty-eleven thousand times that the Times makes the point that Putin simply took advantage of splits and stupidities that were already there in this country, and perhaps that if the Russians weren't pushing Trump, it's kinda odd that his people met so often with them, and that all the hackers attacked the Democrats, not Trump.
Yes, anyone that understand advertising knows that you exploit emotions that already exist, and use them to drive opinions.
Yeah right. We Americans are so gullible we can let anyone turn us against each other!
Now it is post election. So why are democrats and republicans still at each other's throats?
And why are Hillary folks still not acknowledging that the democratic party could have been a little more straight forward to the public about its internal mess, allowing Bernie's folks to be included in securing a win for democrats?
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/02/clinton-brazile-hacks...
Not buying the Russian influenced the election spin from democrats who were so incredulous they lost because of their own arrogance and mistakes.
8
Myself, I just didn't vote for Bernie despite liking his politics, because I recognized that his single-payer health "plan," was fundamentally dishonest, and because his soak-the-rich economic claims were every bit as hallucinatory as Donald Trump's.
Sorry; paid little attention to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz or whoever, just went and read Bernie's stuff and various analyses of it.
2
Robert, Single payer healthcare is not dishonest, a claim you do not even try to back up. Many countries have single payer plans that deliver better healthcare at cheaper prices.
On top of that a majority of Americans want single payer healthcare, so the real question is why the government doesn't do what the people want it to do?
1
Yeah, I agree that social media & profit hungry execs & foreign governments exploited their power to dupe and influence US elections and at best it was unethical and at worst illegal.....
however, really, if we're that stupid and lazy to be influenced by this stuff we deserve the government the electoral college gave us.
maybe we should get off the Internet now and then, read books, talk to people, reflect on life and analyze our opinions, including the perspectives, feelings and data on which they're based.
4
I find it ironic that the NY Times is in such a tizzy about Fake News, since they used to be such a large purveyor of made-up stories.
Isn't this the paper that beat the drums of war against Iraq because of what turned out to be non-existent WMD?
Isn't this the paper that used to have a paper insert from RT once a quarter telling the reader how wonderful Russia is today?
8
Oooh...they took paid advertising, represented a range of views on the imbecelic Iraq War, and counted on readers and voters to think intelligently about the issues and the discussions.
Oops, it would seem. Perhaps if they'd been more shouty on behalf of the One Truth.
Great work and writing and video by By CECILIA KANG, NICHOLAS FANDOS and MIKE ISAAC.
I posted the video and report to my Facebook account, and wrote: This is important. I finally understand how the Russians used Trolls and Bots, and what these terms actually mean.
Now I will post all to my blog, InconvenientNews.wordpress.com.
I'm not sure how to fight these Russian and other trolls amplified by bots, but I would start by making all social media companies liable for financial damages for their interference in our politics or economy. That is what they called in business school, lining up incentives with desired outcomes.
Also, severe government regulations to protect our democracy are probably in order, if we can figure out how to do it.
4
Sever gov regulations?
DL: "... I would start by making all social media companies liable for financial damages for their interference in our politics or economy."
Why stop with "social media companies"? Go all the way and make everyone "liable for financial damages for their interference in our politics or economy".
It would be wonderful to be able to sue the Federal Election Commission or the Federal Reserve. :-)
Who, what, which voters would click on these obviously ridiculous ads?
How many 'pay per clicks' did they actually get?
What is wrong with people that they piled onto facebook in the first place.
Myspace was a lot more fun, people could create an entire webpage environment with music, personal formatting, it allowed an individualized, expressive personalized look to a user's page.
Facebook remains as hideous, regimented & controlling as it always has been.
Users are only serving to make Zuckerberg richer than god. But it's all virtual money, stock wealth just goes poof when the valuation drops, & with these neweconomy fictional companies, it's all about penetration, how many active users.
Users managed to virtually implode myspace in favor of hideous, controlling, sinister facebook, they can do it again.
It's time to get bored with facebook, it & Zuckerberg's ridiculous paper valuation will become irrelevant overnight.
Stop clicking on these ridiculous, obviously planted ads & stop logging into facebook all day, it was always bad, & any site that throws up an impenetrable login screen after the first click should be boycotted.
8
Tldr: "... an impenetrable login screen after the first click ..."
Could you explain what you mean by that?
This should set off alarms with all Americans. First, alarms regarding Russia, and the need to retaliate to this attack, which is an act of war. Second, alarms regarding this President, and his refusal to acknowledge this act of war and to protect us from the next. Third, alarms regarding our elected Republican representatives, most of whom are not trying to do anything to deal with this attack. Fourth, alarms regarding Fox News, whose coverage seems to echo the Russia-Finanaced Campaign and further the Russian agenda to divide us. And Fifth, sadly, alarms regarding ourselves, and what we (each of us) has allowed our country to come to; the only reason these ads could work so well is that we have allowed our own politicians to nurture and stoke our divisions for their own petty gains. Time we each ask ourselves: How did I aid this effort?
Time to come together as a population to fight the Russian attack that our elected Republican leaders are unwilling to fight. United we stand, divided we fall.
4
The messages that the Russians pushed are no different then what the 1% partisans are pushing. That is why it sounds so realistic.
But focusing on the 1 % Lonnie tune die hards, it allows the 0.01% super rich who run both parties to just keep going about their business of running everything.
4
Big business controls Republicans but not the Dems. Dems wanted to get rid of citizens united not the Republicans.
BogyBecall, you are not being realistic. Look at the money that goes to Democratic Valdosta like Chuck Schumer.
Why do you thing that centrist Democrats always want to pass Republican policies? It is not growing the party, only their war chests.
1
There were plenty of Americans “turning against each other” without an assist from our Russian buddies. Lost in the outrage is the simple fact that each and every one of these ads can be easily (and legally) created and purchased anytime by anyone. The issue here is illegal funding of campaign ads, and that, unfortunately, is hardly limited to Putin and pals.
4
Complete non-sense. Russia didn't turn Americans against each other. We have been racist to the core since before the Civil War and Trump has put a modern face on it. Social media has made every possible point of view accessible, but bigotry and ignorance are very much alive and well in this country. It is exemplified by our government and the complicit willingness to put their jobs over the values of democracy.
8
On March 11, 2014, the New York Times published an op-ed piece headlined “The Future of Internet Freedom.” It castigated nations such as China, Russia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran for censuring the internet or block internet access. Now the Democrats’ outrage over foreign Facebook ads and Tweeter comments no experts think had much impacts on the 2016 election threatens to add the United States to the list of repressive Internet censors. The Times op-ep noted: “Obfuscation techniques — when one thing is made to look like another — are also a path forward. A digital tunnel from Iran to Norway can be disguised as an ordinary Skype call. Deep packet inspection cannot distinguish such traffic from genuine traffic, and the collateral damage of blocking all traffic is often too high for a government to stomach.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/opinion/the-future-of-internet-freedo...
2
The article is about Congressional hearings, not a censorship bill.
Do you think a Democratic censorship bill would stand a chance anyway?
1
I take it you're unaware that said editorial carefully says that a) "reliable information is hard to come by," and that b) it is increasingly difficult to know if you're talking online to an actual person or a "government agent."
Looks like they nailed it to me.
Putin wanted to influence the American election in retaliation for American "monitoring" of the Russian election in 2012.
He sees these events as parallel, while liberals in the US see them as quite distinct, because they believe in the primacy of democracy, while Putin believes in autocracy.
Unlike the US, whose former leaders Washington and Jefferson valued democratic institutions, the Bill of Rights and due process, Putin looks back on a history dominated by the Romanov Tsars, such as Peter the Great, whose statue adorns St. Petersburg, and Catherine the Great. Peter may have murdered his own son, Catherine her husband, in their climbs to power.
Amazingly, liberals have forgotten that "freedom of speech" includes freedom to question democracy. Democrats forget that Plato having seen that his mentor Socrates was murdered by the Athenian democracy, seems to support a form of autocracy in the Republic, for example.
Putin understood the failure of Democratic ideology. By emphasizing the Access Hollywood tapes, Democrats followed Trump into a campaign based upon sleaze. Why exactly, is it right for Gloria Allred to help Clinton find accusers of Trump as sexual predator? This seems to justify seeking of "dirt" on Hillary.
Liberals now want to impeach Trump for sins that they themselves commit in every campaign.
There was no discussion of the real issues in the last election, like health care. It is liberals who have verified Putin's claim that democracy is corrupt.
Oddly, yours is precisely what Vladimir Putin says, loudly and often. i wonder why that might be.
America.America. So exempt from the troubles of Europe past. We commited no genocide---except for American Indians. We have invaded dozens of countries, supported every despicable autocrt when we can pay him off, and demonized anyone, absolutely anyone who stands against us.....Russias crimes? Not hating itself like when Yeltsin ruled the nation. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, liberals, conservatives all glowed over Yeltsin. Life was hell under him. 3000 people disappeared and nary a peep from any human rights groups. Shame on you. How dare you make America out to be anything but a psychopathic nation of murder, genocide and slavery.
The Russians used a two-step process to get Americans to fall into their trap. First, there were the obvious trolls. You could tell who they were by their weird positions and their language. Then there were the more subtle manipulators who retweeted and reposted other people's divisive messages. As a user, I thought I was watching out for them by spotting the trolls. Fortunately I don't get my political news from Facebook or Twitter, so I missed the rest.
1
LYING - this is our nation's biggest, most pervasive problem and we're doing absolutely nothing to put an end to it.
1
I think the Russians were successful in morphing all the Republicans, the deplorable‘s, and the Bernie Brose into one into one anti Hillary party. And she still beat them all by 3 million votes
5
Except her highly paid consultants pollsters and campaign staff did not anticipate the "uneducated and deplorable (her word)" folks in PA, MI and WI would tip the electoral college votes against her. Even Nate Silver was like, baffled.
Looks like the Russians really did a number in PA, WI and MI, maybe those folks better get off their social media gadgets and gizmos.
3
Exactly! Up until Comey came out with his announcement Clinton was able to still come out ahead in spite of all these unprecedented challenges. Truly a skilled politician. A politician who is able to counter all these unprecedented challenges could counter Republican shenanigans from the Republican majority congress.
1
We already knew the Clintons were linked to Satan.
3
These political ads are a joke; they’re real. People believe this stuff; no one believes this stuff. Russia is spreading fake news; America spreads fake news. Russia influenced the election; do we have any proof that Russia affected the election? We should be outraged; it’s no big deal. Fake, real. Lies, truth.
It makes no difference who you want to point a finger at; the net result is the same: chaos, confusion, and fear. This is a perfect storm with a volatile mix of forces. It’s politically motivated intervention by a foreign government. It’s capitalism in the form of tech giants who want no regulation and mask their mission of profit in lofty ideals free and open exchange of information. It’s engineers who create new technologies, but never question whether they should. It’s our elected officials who are too self-serving to control their corporate sponsors. It’s the media that flits breathlessly from story to story and our news sources that have sold their objective souls to ideological devils. It’s you and me huddled in our tribes of shared racism, misogyny, religion, and nationalism. It’s all of us who think citizenship is a free ride, and requires no commitment or participation.
It’s our woefully inadequate, inequitable, and underfunded education system that should be producing critical thinkers able to distinguish between fact and opinion, able to question, but instead squeezes out unthinking, unprepared products of ideologically dominated educational agendas. ?!?!
3
Sad that Trump and his followers still rant about Hillary while the rest of the nation moves forward trying to fight division and manipulation. But if someone is watching FOXNEWS all day it's difficult to exchange opinions or to reason with these people. After all they feel they are right because a national television company repeats fake news over and over. All Russian trolls and bots have to do is to reap what was sowed.
1
Barry, is Donna Brazile a troll too?
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/02/clinton-brazile-hacks...
1
How many Americans were influenced by a photo of Jesus and the Devil arm wrestling? Is this really what American citizens rely upon when voting. I think this is utter nonsense. Any American citizen who looks to Facebook and Google adds for voting suggestions is just lost.
1
The widely-reported fact that Facebook actually accepted Russian rubles as payment for ads from some of these Russian users tells you all you need to know about the patriotic loyalties of the tech industry.
And those who discount the Russian influence because of the low editorial quality and stupidity of many of the ads fail to realize that the sheer quantity and repetitiveness of this toxic ad bombardment seeps down into the social consciousness and serves to poison the entire political environment, which led many people to be discouraged, apathetic or cynical about the election, thereby depressing voter turnout.
And finally on a political note, I have been disappointed by Bernie Sanders refusal to acknowledge the extent that his primary campaign was hijacked and used by Russian and GOP trolls, as a convenient stalking horse to brutalize Hillary.
It was pointed out by many of us in real time during the primary campaign that many of the alleged pro-Sanders "supporters" on here were in fact trolls, bots and paid provocateurs who used Sanders as a free ride to attack Hillary.
And as we also now know, the Sanders campaign's social media director resigned in the fall after acknowledging the extent to which Russians had infiltrated Sanders' Facebook page.
To the extent that this activity on Sanders' social media accounts depressed turnout for Hillary or pushed people to Jill Stein, it certainly had an impact on the outcome in the critical Midwestern states.
5
Well said, John M. Thank you.
3
Agreed. To help unity it would've great if Sanders were to come out with the Democratic Party and address some of the Russian propaganda myths such as the 2016 primaries being rigged. Just check the reviews on Bernie's book on amazon.com. So many write they voted Stein because the 2016 Dem primaries were rigged. So now you have Bernie supporters who hold that against the entire Democratic Party. These myths create disunity which I'm sure is meant to make it hard to oppose Trump.
Is this any surprise, " The stocks of both Google and Facebook, which faced the most criticism in the hearings, are at record highs."
The same International Mafia Robber Barons who put The Con Don in OUR white house as their spouting head control stock markets around the world. They developed facebook, google, twitter to do exactly what they have done - try to destroy governments around the world for personal profit/power.
This must not stand in America. These "communication tools', which are actually nothing but vehicles to steal OUR private information to control us, must be tightly regulated.
China had the right idea in banning them. It's not free speech - it's wholesale mind manipulation.
4
The Russians simply followed the lead of our political leaders and parties. Other than the Russia being the source, how are the ads any different then the negative ads pushed out in each election? How are the Russian ads that much different from those generated by the Citizens United ruling?
Americans need to look in the mirror.
6
What they’re saying is that social media is more potent. Especially for the low information voter like Bernie Bros and the deplorable‘s.
2
Maybe the lead of the Republicans but not the Dems. There is no equivalent of Fox "News" for the Democrats.
As a neo-Stalinist, Putin understands how the politics of fear, resentment and authoritarianism really work. Like the U.S., Russia is a poly-ethnic society with a history of pogroms against Jews. We had slaves, they had serfs. Putin's decision to install Donald Trump as the most divisive president in American history was not only brilliant but embarrassingly easy. There is nothing that Trump is not eager and willing to split asunder: the NFL, the Republican Party, the media, blacks and whites, Latinos and whites, religion, American history, the wealthy and the middle class, the middle class and the poor, the old and the young, you name it. The politics of resentment had been developing in this country for a long time, built primarily along the lines of race. Republicans were in the forefront of this effort. Thus, Putin made Trump a Republican. What's most bizarre is the fact that there is a Republican Party in Russia, modeled on the U.S. Republican Party. It apparently is some kind of proving ground for concepts of division.
2
We got pwned. I’m astounded at the quality, level of detail, and sheer insight into our divisions that these ads represent. Even the sole anti-Trump ad posted here was post-election and obviously meant to sow discord.
But what’s really sad is how these propagandists have inserted themselves into legitimate discussions, often at the expense of marginalized communities. See the Medium posts for details.
1
Nero fiddled; Trump tweets.
There is no biblical, Greek mythology or epic metaphor adequate to describe the modern dangers and risks of the Internet and social media to our democracy. The Russians and domestic hate-mongers are twisting our First Amendment around our own necks. And Trump is only an enabler, blithely fomenting division, racism, and conspiracies with no concerns or insights about their effect on the nation.
The world would be a better place without Facebook and Twitter. And Google's algorithms might 'get me' for this, but their business model needs drastic restructuring for them to become deeply concerned about the misuses of their technology.
Given what's coming out of the White House and Fox News, we are steeped in propaganda daily. It's horrifying that only a scant few school districts are just now tentatively beginning to try teaching students how to identify fake news, let alone propaganda.
Thank-you to Sen. Dianne Feinstein for raising the alarm and confronting the social media suits. It's very telling that Google, Facebook and Twitter sent their legal counsels du jour, and not their CEOs, to respond to their crucial role in this national emergency.
2
They were effective but what made them especially effective was the way these fake News stories were embraced by the Right. Whenever a fan of the right posted this nonsense on a sites like Newsvine, I would check it on the internet. The story would appear almost word for word and all the extreme right web sites, Russia may have been the origin but America's Alt Right Media was the conduit. The to worked very effectively together.
I would not be surprised if Trumps claims of Fake News and Voter Fraud were coordinated with Russia and the Alt Right. Everything seemed so well timed.
Here's the problem: We are flooded with info daily, some of it accurate, some not so much.
So what mechanism is there that would allow us to censor information that is everywhere essentially, so that we only hear truth? Who determines what is true versus not? I'm not sure I want a private company or the government dictating what I can read or hear.
Sure, label an ad as paid for by Russians. They'll only get more sophisticated. And if we are going to id who paid for an ad, shouldn't we then ID who owns a media outlet, what their political leanings are. Ditto the writers and editors.
Or maybe, we should simply trust the American people to be able to use their judgment. In our Russia hysteria, or should I say the left's Russia hysteria, we can very easily end up subverting our own freedom of speech.
During the American election, as a Canadian citizen not living in the USA, I received a pretty steady stream of stuff that I'm confident had external sponsorship and was being distributed, unknowingly, by many other sources--both collective and individual. Repeating the mantra that it didn't make any difference to the outcome is just more of the same--and it comes from the same culprits, so is not credible at all. OF course, it made a difference. At the very least it emboldened very destructive forces, around the world not just in the USA. How's that for a difference! Very possibly, it changed the entire outcome from local and national levels within the USA.
2
Here's a thought--get off Facebook. Don't use Twitter. Uninstall Instagram. These guys are making money off your eyeballs. I would love to see a movement in the US to boycott these platforms until their parent companies take more responsibility for the rot they are sowing in Americans' so-called brains.
3
Liberals simply cannot clear their minds over Hillary Clinton's loss. In fact, they are still stunned by it--unable to think clearly about what really happened.
If you're ready for a little clarity...and are willing to listen, here is why she lost: She was an unlikable candidate whose beliefs and policies are counter to what the majority of Americans believe.
In a nutshell, here are her beliefs--smack-dab in the middle of Liberal orthodoxy.
Anti-family (unfettered abortion, even to the 9th month)
Anti-achievement (hatred of successful, self-made people)
Anti-military
Anti-religion, anti-traditional values
Anti-rural
Anti-blue collar
Anti-southern U.S.
Anti-development
Anti-capitialism
Anti-energy
Anti-law enforcement
Anti-White
Anti-drug enforcement
Anti-illegal immigration enforcement
Anti-school choice
Anti-right to work
Anti-second amendment (would ban all guns)
Anti-voter verification
For whatever it's worth--her stances were very far left of how her husband ran. And Elizabeth Warren would have lost by even more.
4
Then why did a majority vote for her?
2
Stop being so rational.
1
JTC: "... here are her [Clinton's] beliefs .."
Your thesis that "Liberals simply cannot clear their minds over Hillary Clinton's loss" is not supported by changing the subject to why Clinton really lost.
And you need to cite some evidence to support your laundry-list of alleged beliefs. Try Clinton's books: "Hard Choices: A Memoir" and "What Happened".
2
Part of the problem is people relying on Facebook for news; what a joke! Russia has again proven how gullible and unquestioning the average American is. Good for them for bringing this to light. Maybe we'll start paying more attention and really question and research political ads more now.
1
When you actually look at the numbers, its hard to take this story seriously.
A pro-Clinton SuperPAC "Correct the Record" spent $10 Million specifically to troll anyone online who was critical of her, mostly a storm of harassment against Bernie supporters:
https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00578997
Twitter, by its own testimony, censored nearly 50% of tweets critical of Hillary when it only thought 2% were from Russian bots. And there is absolutely no evidence that even those 2% were Russians as claimed, but there is evidence of false positives, real Americans being slandered as Russian trolls because Twitter doesn't like their political views:
https://medium.com/@PoliticsPeach/ive-been-labeled-a-russian-troll-by-tw...
Facebook claims 10 million people saw Russian ads, but a month ago they were caught inflating their ad numbers by more than that for each demographic:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/06/facebook-inflates-ad-reach-claims-pivota...
The only thing which does add up is the same activists being labelled as Russian trolls, Black Lives Matter... NoDAPL... Universal Healthcare, are the ones which are most disliked by the big money donors to Clinton's campaign and the DNC, Private Prisons... Fracking Companies... Big Pharma
3
Republican voters don't read history books and get their information from corrupted sources. It's easy to call them stupid but education has been under attack by their party for 30 years.
Historical knowledge would eliminate any possibility of a massive disinformation attack like the one we just sustained from Russia. Gotta hand it to them it worked. We took down the Soviet Union by creating worldwide jihad and they took us down using our own greedy and perfidy.
Please confirm reports Zuckerberg/Facebook working on
AI interface to respond to complaints/criticism with
advanced personal, nuanced, multilingual salutation...
So Long Suckers!
This puts more pressure on the NYT to up their game. Bring back the Public Editor and expand his or her role.
At this point, blaming Facebook, Google and even the Russians for the way the election turned out is ridiculous.
The NYT and their like need to better educate the public. Maybe make the bold move and take your editorial section off the front page of your digital edition. The WSJ should do the same.
2
Looks like the Russians were just following the NYT lead trying to cause divisions using identity politics.
4
You have a point.
1
Do you honestly belief that? A newspaper intentionally out to create division? That's taking paranoid to another level.
No, it’s going deeper than that. Propaganda works. Fake News works. It’s why they do it. What Congress DOESN’T want to touch is “Control of Free Speech.” Well welcome to a new America – you’re going to need ‘further’ restrictions on Free Speech. The SCOTUS has already ruled you don’t have the free speech to yell, Fire, in a crowded theater. And we’re all familiar with restrictions on another Bill or Rights, The Second Amendment; you're not free to own particular weapons.
Look at Germany. They say you can’t deny the Holocaust or sport the swastika. Is that not a limit on free speech? In the hearings today, Facebook, Twitter and Google are being told to put profits aside and put some controls on this ‘free speech’ propaganda – “Or the Government will do it for you.”
Lesson: Turn off your computers and "speak" to each with your mouths, not your fingers.
“How Russia Got Americans to Turn Against One Another”
What did the Russians do, take a number and patiently wait their turn?
Don't put the blame on Russia alone. It's working only because of the ignorant and gullible.
2
Stop. Just Stop.
Hillary Clinton lost because she is an elitist, self-entitled shrew, guaranteeing that she would continue Obama's failed economic policies.
Donald Trump was elected because Americans did not want to hear her preaching to us for another 4 years--or deal with the "ick-factor" that comes with anything related to the Clintons.
Time for liberals to cue up the "She won the popular vote!!!" meme.
In that regard, the electoral college worked exactly as our founders intended: it kept the crazies in California, Illinois and New York from dragging the country down the same failed, socialist path they are travelling on.
I voted against Hillary Clinton. Russia had nothing to do with it. It's simple Liberal arrogance and elitism that leads the Left to believe our electorate is so unsophisticated, citizens can be lead astray by fake advertising.
2
That's why I used to say "when all else is even, vote for the one who knows how to act sane." The DC swamp needed a cleanup; it's too bad we hired the king of the alligators to do it.
Jesse,
Right?!
Nothing like the elitist, self-entitled braying braggart, claiming all of Obama's successful economic policies as his own. Right?!
DT was elected because bigoted, ignorant Americans wanted to hear an authoritarian bully shout stupid inane lies against their betters. They revel in your "ick-factor". The more slanderous and outlandish the lie the better.
Time for self proclaimed Conservatives to cue up the electoral college stating that Wyoming deserves representation at 6-1 and Ca. deserves 300-1. Cause that is the fair, democratic way one person, one vote should work. By the by, the military, is the largest Socialist program America supports. Why are against our soldiers and first-line defenders?! Without socialism we wouldn't have military, police, fireman, coast guard, public schools, hwys, safe water, air, soil, etc. But you already knew all that didn't you Jesse?
Just from reading your screed, it is safe to say, it is the epitome of the Dunning-Krueger syndrome. Or as Deferment Donnie likes to say, "I'm really smart!"
4
The electoral college succeeded in minority rule. Nothing else. But since you call people that don't share your opinion crazy, that pretty much settles (any) rational argument.
Speech in America is free, unless it disturbs the political establishment
1
What is so sad is how many Trump supporters do think of him as a messiah. There have always been extremist media personalities, but I think what has put political fake news over the top is Fox. We have never had a major venue like Fox News that so consistently pushes false narratives.
"We have never had a major venue like Fox News that so consistently pushes false narratives. "
Actually you're reading one now.
The Russians got Americans to viciously turn against one another the same way Trump and Steve Banon did, with fake news, persistent lies, and by exploiting a population of jealous, envious people who were looking for an explanation of their failings.
1
You people: what do you think you are doing to Russia and many more countries. At least a fair headline children.
Maybe so, but that does not mean we should put up with them doing it to us. It's a competition, and we should play like a winning team.
Perhaps we should consider funding education again in the US?
Teach critical thought?
Yeah your right America's Favorite (fill in the blank) is on TV!!! Pass the sugar funded product please.
3
Hungry for any kind of mind-numbing entertainment in the moment, America the Stupid fell for it. Drop off these social media sites and create some real value instead of watching the world go by on your phone all day, looking for opportunities to comment with an idiotic emoji. In short, get a life.
5
This was a highly sophisticated operation which certainly involved former KGB and current FSB agents; the hands of Vladimir Putin are all over this. I am sure the intelligence services of many of our adversaries and enemies are watching this matter and figuring out ways to use this to their advantage against America in the future. When you add in the infighting going on in America now among the various factions here it only helps those working against America. Our country needs to wake up fast and realize the threats that are coming against us at light speed and in a myriad of ways.
Two points: The Russians don’t have a monoply on “disinformation” since it’s been effectively used for years by the clandestine services of many countries — including our own — to sow discord among their enemies. And were our citizens properly educated they might not be so easily swayed by such obvious falsehoods and incendiary emotional appeals.
4
If life was only as simple as this. Not that people are not other directed, but the less education and sophistication you might have the more vulnerable you become to efforts like this. So, I don't really know that it so much turning Americans against each other because the basic disagreements have always been there. What I see that has changed is that Trump, with the help of the Russians, gave a voice to the racists, gay haters, religious wahoos, Islamaphobics, among other ignoramuses, and in the process authorized their beliefs as credible, when anyone with half a brain should know that they are not. The dumb will never wake up it seems as to how they are being used to basically filch the country.
4
For year, before social media, random nonsense was circulated via email. My mother, now in her late-70s, would ask people who sent this to her: how do you know this is true? How do you know who wrote this? Anyone from anywhere could write this? Why would you believe it?
So blaming Russia is fair to a point, but American stupidity is profound and played a huge role. That's why people who are not self-aware enough to say things like, "What are facts, anyway?"
1
The Russian influence on the media and public opinion illustrates a long overlooked deficiency in our democratic system - our society must ensure the veracity of 'news'. In order to make proper decisions the electorate must have a good understanding of reality and the truth of things. Our media is the eyes and ears of the electorate. There must be a non-partisan mechanism to ensure the quality and veracity of our news. Otherwise we will be lead astray - as we have been. This applies to our own domestic partisan news organizations as well.
The reason the ads were effective is because of the number of Americans who are inclined to believe the worst about others.
2
And NPR last night had interviewed someone who stated the total cost for those Russian ads was $200.. but no we need to enhance our armed military to protect us, (that's just for Blackwater to benefit and as long as his sister is in charge of education she will provide many poorly educated soldiers for him to hire)... we need to give our military whatever they need to counteract the cyber wars being conducted against us..
1
The ties between Rupert Murdoch and Vladimir Putin need to be examined. FOX seemed to work in close coordination with the RT and amplified their falsified stories by treating them as fact because they fit their partisan narrative.
Hannity and Fox & Friends have gone out of their way to ignore, question without basis, and deny Russian involvement in hacking America's election. And, most significantly, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page, which closely reflects Murdoch's personal interest, has come out for canning Mueller and his investigation. The Murdoch clan like the Trump clan is in this up to their neck.
51
The American Public is being led like a bull with a ring in its nose to charge against the dumb medium: the internet and social media, v. the evil Murdoch empire which has always fashioned itself as a consort of international arms dealing and buccaneer swashbuckling - not very different from Putin at all. In fact Putin arguably adopted the Murdoch model and adapted it to Russia's RT coupled with rubbing out dissenting journalists.
2
Yes! Murdoch is Satan, and Wendi Dang is Putin's Tinkerbell. It's the Billionaire's Pirate's Ball, and we're the appetizer.
!!! FOX in the Hen House Alert !!! - Flush Mr. Murdoch and RT will be an obvious and lone voice on the fever right with the National Enquirer and NewsMax.
Yes, they should be regulated. But also -- try using the platforms less, my friends. A little self-regulation is in order as well. These things are not necessary to life or happiness. They're certainly not "democratizing," to use a popular term from the early days of SM.
Vote for regulation. But vote with your feet and clicks, too.
Who is “The Enemy?” In nations where national identity is defined by ethno/cultural/linguistic markers it is easy to define who is, or is not, one of us. When a nation adopts a war-footing there is heightened attention to who isn’t “one of us.” To most citizens of the nation at war, it is much easier to focus on the near-enemy than the enemy far away.
America presents a slightly different aspect in that Americans subscribe to a set of documents, laws and principles not ethno/cultural/linguistic markers to define who is, and is not, an American. Yet, it is human to tighten the circle of who isn’t one-of-us and see anyone outside our tightly defined circle as not one of us and therefore: The Enemy. Therefore, it is easy for any outside agent to sow dissent within the larger society and have Americans seeing their fellow Americans as the near-enemy defined by anything from skin color, to religion, to political party, to income level to where you live.
Strength in numbers is diminished, in-fighting is rampant and the society falls in on itself. While America does have enemies over-there, it is so much more convenient to focus on the near-enemy and allow the nation to self-destruct.
So what. We do far worse to influence elections in other countries. The problem is not with the ads. The problem is with our news media that picks up on fake stuff and with the uneducated citizenry who cannot distinguish between truth and lies. Remember the swift boat ad that made John Kerry a distinguished war veteran into a traitor. That wasn't Russia propaganda.
1
No matter how the Republicans guilty of aiding and abetting Trump try to extricate themselves from election rigging complicity, their intent all along was clear: To make sure Hillary couldn't win the election. It doesn't take a kindergarten kid to figure out why Trump was not properly vetted by the GOP.
The Republican Party is dirty. It has grown far dirtier as a result of their salivating, drooling greed for money and power. Is that what government is in the US? Or is it the government of Putin in Russia?
For those who missed it, Frontline aired a TV program on Putin in 2 parts. From Putin's earliest rise to power, the similarities between him and Trump are unusually distinct. Putin's hatred of the US goes back to his days with the KGB and the remnants of the Krushchevians who plotted to take out the US during the Cuban missile crisis 90 miles off the Florida coast.
But, more than this, Putin, like Trump, wants to be the ONLY power in the country. Putin also surrounds himself with Russian billionaire oligarchs who has helped him become the richest Russian in all of that country.
Do we allow US billionaires to do the same for Trump?
For eight years, the Republicans played right into the hands of Putin with each and every attempt to thwart the policies set forth by a twice elected president.
Now, we find out that Jeff Sessions, DOJ head, was in on the Russian plot to "help Trump win." Does it get any dirtier for the GOP?
3
RUSSIA?? OMG! It was just one month ago that my daughter and I were discussing how disgusting it is to see the NYTimes and most of the other media constantly working to promote hatred within the US. No matter the subject whether it regards race, religion, gender, etc, the reporting is consistently geared to creating hate. And as with the Russian meddling; citizens don't even recognize that it is happening.
1
Federal election law prohibits foreign nationals from making expenditures on “electioneering communications,” that promote or disparage specific candidates, but it permits them to place paid political ads that address campaign issues or social issues. Facebook says that “the majority of the ads did not directly mention a presidential candidate,” but “appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from L.G.B.T. matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.” So, the majority of the Russian-based ads violated no campaign laws. The problem with the law prohibiting foreign nationals from placing paid ads that promote or disparage specific candidates is that most reside outside U.S. jurisdiction. However, the United States could prosecute U.S. social media providers who accept the ads.
26
I guess the federal electioneering law does not apply to America intervening in other countries' elections.
Used to be that Americans were sent to "monitor" democratic elections in other countries but how do you explain their actually manipulating politics in other countries? Who is going to police the Americans?
From NPR: http://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506625913/database-tracks-history-of-u-s-m...
1
If a lie is repeated 10 million times it gains credibility. It can even become a mainstay of a candidate's platform. The truth is people are surprisingly easy to manipulate and even the most outlandish accusations can often be accepted as fact. One might think a person would take the time to look it up before shouting "lock her up" or walking into a pizza restaurant with a loaded gun.
54
It is still going on by the way...look at Huffington Post. You go from news story to "supported" screed about someone and it all looks the same. And it is all in the name of dollars. It was ever so, but now with a nuclear option. Add that to the educational level of much of this country and you have 2016.
I suppose you mean "other people are surprisingly easy to manipulate" and not you. Congratulations on reaching such a godlike status.
1
Tom,
I dialogued with some people about Pizzagate early this year. The amazing thing I found is that if I questioned it, they'd say, "do you mean we don't have a sexual abuse problem?" The implication seemed to be that if child sexual abuse existed anywhere, it must have existed at Comet Ping Pong. I suppose some of these people I was talking to might have been Russian trolls, but I got the impression some were Americans who took this seriously.
I also sensed that part of it was some level of guilt for supporting Donald Trump, who is obviously not a paragon of Christian virtue. I think some thought that if they could connect Clinton with something even worse, that justified their vote for him.
If Feinstein wanted Zuckerberg and other leaders there, she should have subpoenaed them. Frankly, they don't know anything about the operations at this level anyway and they are way too busy make billions of dollars for themselves. Just think, all the salesmen who sold those ads made a lot of extra money during that time and they are happy.
2
We did need the Russians to link Clinton with Satan. Did Pat Robertson do that?
2
The Russian propaganda campaign and Comey elected Trump. We have an imposter in the White House.
Impeach now!
3
Makes one wonder just how long Russia has been playing with us. Perhaps the Hitler Mustache on Obama was one of their creations as well.
What about a headline titled "How The Democrat Party Got Americans to Turn Against One Another"
6
Because it was the Democrats who released a long list of words to use when speaking of Republicans - words like traitor, greedy, sick.....Oh wait! That was Newt when he was Republican Party leader.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4443.htm
It was Lee Atwater that introduced the despicable practice of push polls used to mislead voters about opponents records. Atwater trained Karl Rove, the man who criticized Democrats for living in the reality based world. It was Republicans who promoted the dishonest Swiftboating of John Kerry. The list of dishonest smear tactics Republicans regularly use against opponents, sometimes even from their own party, is long and disgraceful.
2
Just because someone has different ideas than you doesn't mean they're turning the country against each other. Both parties are complicit & if you think your guys are all good and theirs are mostly or all bad, you are part of the problem.
1
Any evidence or backup for your absurd claim? It is really pointless arguing on such a level...
Trump didn't need the Russians to win this election, Clinton gave it to him. And Democrats are still spending all of their time trying to find excuses that they continue to make the same mistakes. If they keep this up they'll just continue to lose elections...
Of course, what do I know. I'm just a dumb, racist white male from the south... LOL
10
Well Mike you got one thing right.
3
Mike do you know know how many the democrats spent on the election!? very expensive that’s why Hillary was fundraising till the end and the party is forever indebted to the Clintons for being its lifeline without them they would be bankrupt. Never mind Bernie showed proved to them what a grass roots movement looks like.
1
At this point the lefties are simply embarrassing themselves with their inability to perceive and accept reality. Are their no thinkers among you?
7
You say this, so perhaps you can help me. Where is the right leaning media with high journalistic standards. I get that the story is that this newspaper is just "fake news" - and it certainly tilts left. But not as far left as the folks who sit on the far right perceive. And while there is of course human error and biases to use against them, there are clear standards of evidence.
Where is the right leaning equivalent? Don't say Fox. I do read New Republic, because that seems to be the closest I can find. WSJ and The Economist maybe.
But I believe that media outlets live or die to the extent they are able to meet the needs of a large enough audience to sustain them. On the left, that seems to be newspapers like this one, plus the unwatchable network news.
On the right, it appears to be Breitbart and super right talk radio. Why can you guys not build a reputable newspaper that reflects your leanings and creates a counterpoint to the lean here rather than trying to dismantle what is a perfectly legitimate newspaper, even if you do not like what is written here? It's not like you are some embattled minority. You run the country, from the local levels to the president. Why can't you do better than Breitbart and cries of "FAKE NEWS!"?
2
It's not the Russians that are "Resisting", It's liberals. It's not the Russians that are kneeling, it's "Social justice warriors". It's not the Russians who proclaim themselves "Nasty women". Russians did not start "Hands up, don't shoot" or BLM or now Antifa (Affluent white kids). The only people they influence are the weak minded Liberals like the ones the write for and read this rag.
Signed
Proud American
So please, don't insult me by inferring I can't think for myself.
8
No. But they could have influenced how you feel about those movements, amplifying the fringe and silencing the reasonable argument at the core. The fact that you write about them with such vitriol suggests you have not really sat down over coffee with a real human being who supports one of those movements. If I'm wrong, I apologize - and I probably am, since you are here reading this article . But the broader point is true that too many of us form our opinions of the other side in the echo chambers of Facebook and our immediate friend circle. Legitimate needs birthed BLM etc, just as legitimate needs birthed Trumpism and the Tea Party. We would do well to look past the trolls and fringes to really understand those and try to build a society that is better.
2
And yet, Trump supporters and the GOP seem okay with this so long as they win and got to stick it to liberals. To them, winning isn't everything, it's the only thing. Above all else, apparently. And you can thank the likes of the juggernaut right wing grievance machine backed by propagandists like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
Decency and democracy be damned.
2
So, a Democrat who voted for Obama twice saw the Satan ad and decided to vote for Trump?
Are Democrats really that stupid?
9
No, and that's not what the article is saying either. It's saying that our media environment has been permeated by a foreign power taking the things that divide us and amplifying them.
Whether that impacted the election or not, I find that deeply problematic.
Just take a look at your Facebook feed, and before you repost something deliciously in line with your views, do some research to find the source. Google the counterpoint argument. See whether the person really said it, and in what context. See if you can find an article that says the same thing with less inflammatory language, and post that.
If we all did this, the Russian trolls would have less power and Zuckerberg et al could go back to promoting candy crush.
1
Yes.
I knew it all along. I would be on Facebook and my idiot family was sharing all this garbage and no matter how often you would disprove the obvious fact that there was not FACTS behind the post, they'd jump on you as if you had committed sin by exposing the not-FACTUAL post. Idiots, Russia laughed at you all the way to the voting booth.
1
We can defeat this new form of warfare if we simply trade gullibility for skepticism, especially when online ads or news stories from unknown sources start pushing our emotional hot buttons.
3
Zuckerberg is “upset”. But the source of his indigestion is not a dawning realization that his platform is a superfund site of internet pollution.
3
Whether or not the trump campaign actively colluded with Russians is still an open question. This, despite the precise targeting of at least some social media ads to key districts in swing states (PA, MI, WI) that strongly indicates 'insider' knowledge and analysis of polling data.
Regardless, this propaganda assault on America sought to exploit animosity in our society around issues of race, law enforcement, and various aspects of foreign and domestic policy. It has left fissures in the very foundation of our nation that has permitted hate and bigotry to ooze into daylight and occlude sound political judgement, and, coincidentally or not, the result is that trump is now president. Our tendency to equate differences in political views as evidence of moral turpitude has now born over-ripe fruit.
Americans must find out if there was active collusion.
We must also look at one another and ask, is this who we, the American people want to be: tribes locked in a culture war that strengthens the hands of our arch enemies abroad: religious fanatics, and autocrats scornful of truth, free will and democracy, intent only on self-aggrandizement?
2
"Think about how stupid the average person is and then realize that half of them are stupider than that." - George Carlin
8
I never believed the "news" feeds on Facebook or other social media sites were legitimate, thoroughly vetted by professional journalists. I wouldn't be surprised if Marissa Johnson and Mara Jacqueline Willaford, the Black Lives Matter protesters who disrupted Sander's speech in Seattle, were paid shills of Russia or conservative benefactors to sow distrust among liberals. Johnson supported Sarah Palin and kept silent about antisemitism within her group. We've seen paid stooges during campaigns for civil rights and opposition to the American war in Vietnam. The irreverence leaders of social media sites have toward legitimate news is alarming, irreverence that would have put their grandparent's generation in grave harm had they existed during WW II and have helped sow distrust among Americans today.
1
The GOP stole a Supreme Court position and the Presidency. Do they pay no price, just because 20% of Americans will still vote for the most racist candidate, regardless of any other considerations? Do we have to continue to have policies that are far to the right of public opinion just because the GOP does whatever it has to in order to keep their stranglehold on the ignorant racist vote? Maybe we need to stop pretending Trump's supporters are anything except deplorable. You can only support a fascist imbecile for so long before you become one.
3
Sticks and stones to you, sir. Name-calling like a child.
The vulnerability the Russian government has identified in our system is on full display again in the comments on this article:
Democrats, MSM, women and minorities good; Republicans, new media, men and whites bad.
It wasn’t, isn’t, and never will be that that simple folks. And as long as we talk and act like it is, the Russians (and Chinese) will use that attitude to divide us and weaken us.
4
If someone is too stupid to see through this outlandish ads they shouldn't be able to vote.
3
Amen - and a perfect example of why compulsory voting is one of the dumbest ideas out there!
Is the Commander-in-Chief not supposed to have American security as a top priority?
1
"Turn Americans Against Each Other"....no. Turn Americans against Hillary Clinton is what they did, and our underlying misogyny allowed it. So we have a madman in the White House and we don't yet know how much of our Democracy will be destroyed.
1
Fool me once shame on you, Russia. Fool me twice, shame on me, America.
2
Above & beyond the attack on the electoral foundation of America's political system, Russian propaganda inflicted harm on the febrile minds of many vulnerable Americans, especially impressionable kids. The promotion of lies alleging HRC engaged in 'cannibalism, devil-worship & child rape' (complete with 'eyewitness accounts' on YT, to my immense horror) was not just another ho-hum Russian psy-ops project. It scarred some kids for life. It fooled some gullible voters, too. That there was no effective Editorial Board at FB or T or G/YT is massively negligent. The Clintons & Dems have grounds for a lawsuit, I think. (They should also sue Russian assets in the USA.) YouTube is woefully inefficient in removing objectionable content even when it is flagged many times. All these companies have enough money to improve! But NYT yesterday also published Ivan Krastev's pro-Kremlin hooey. "Russia wants respect, that's all!" Same old wail. Russia needs to Mind Its Own Country & stop imagining an impoverished underpopulated wilderness 85% full of drunks "deserves to be seen as the equal of China, US, EU" just because it has an inflated self-concept. The US never meddled in Russian voting processes! We covered Navalny, Nemtsov, Kasparov when Russians marched against Putin. That's News Reporting, not meddling. Putin deployed an army of trolls to fool, deceive & scam Americans, urging them to vote for his minion. That's many quantum magnitudes beyond any other covert attacks ever launched.
All these fake news stories yet Republicans still believe Hillary sold uranium to Russia. And that Obama was born in Kenya. And that his paternal grandmother said she was there at a Kenyan hospital to witness his birth. And Joe Arpaio and Donald Trump all believed that Obama's birth certificate is a fake. The list is long. It's really easy to believe anything if a person is full of hate and the message is hateful about the people they dislike. What's worse is that Fox network also plays along and reports Alex Jones type conspiracy theories. And the president himself repeats false stories and lies. We are in serious trouble. Trump does not realize how powerful the words of a sitting president is. I read that when Harry Truman was about to leave the White House on his last day he was standing at a window staring out. Someone asked him what are his thoughts. He said that as president whatever he says people will pay attention but in a few minutes from now when he is no longer president no one will give a damn what he has to say. The president needs to stop tweeting. His ex-wife gave him bad advice when he asked her if he should stop tweeting. She advised him to keep on tweeting to express himself. I think that is the worst advice given to him.
That Russia had been exploiting American social media platforms to meddle the presidential election was a cynical means to settle a score with the US, which Moscow had accused of fomenting unrest in its backyard in the past. Most of last year, the American public was kept in the dark about the extent of Russian efforts to undermine Hillary Clinton's chance to win.
The Obama administration and the intelligence community had their hand tied, because had they informed the public of what was going on, Trump would have accused them of meddling. Besides few expected him to win. Now Americans, who disapprove of Trump will have to remove him in a legal procedure, if he proves himself unfit for the office. The Trump presidency has been a lesson and an experience, the US and the world will survive it. Let's hope that the tech compaines really will put the common good ahead of their corporate interests.
5
Just imagine, for a moment, what the impact of these ads would have been if they had to include a voice-over at the end intoning" Paid for by the Russian Military, Vlad Putin, Treasurer."
3
Interesting that Russian ads look like a page out of the DNC’s identity politics playbook. Maybe the dems should do a little soul searching in why that is.
6
MB in Brooklyn - No mystery there: Russia is a hacker and a scammer. The whole point of phishing is to mimic and resemble credible sources. Your attempt to blame the victim shows your bias to be with the Russians.
2
Oh get off it already. If you watched the Frontline programs Parts I and 2, you would have to admit that Putin hated Hillary Clinton enough to do anything to stop her from winning and to put Trump in the White House.
Maybe the guilty Republicans who have now infiltrated the Trump Cabinet with billionaire campaign donations to those Russia ads better get used to orange jump suits?
1
You mean something like Trump's racist dog whistles? The "very fine" racists that marched in Charlottesville? Just wondering which identity politics you're referring to.
2
Clinton was linked to Satan. She was running against him.
3
Does anyone doubt hat the CIA does the same, if not worse, in Russia' social media ?
4
Yes. Because the Russian media is totalitarian and centrally controlled, and its internal dissent is just as wary of the CIA as the GRU. It is we who are naive. There was some validity to your claim re. intent, but none in practice. I would accept the statement that "The US has tried and attempted to influence Russian opinion." But weaponizing bots and spreading false news is a GRU specialty. You're confusing propaganda with weaponized election interference.
3
Given the government imposed restrictions on Russian social media, yes, indeed I do.
1
So, we have to have Donald Trump as our president to make amends for the CIA's misdeeds around the world? Isn't there some other way to do penance?
1
It seems like most people are blaming Facebook, etc., for ads duping Americans. If Americans really were duped, why not blame them for their ignorance, or the educational system for producing a bunch of dullards who can't think critically?
6
Most people are blaming Facebook because FB has effectively inserted itself as the social filter through which too many people stupidly depend upon. Russia took advantage of that, and FB,Twitter, Instagram, etc. looked the other way and took the money as usual. These social media parasites have been feeding off of porn, spam, hacking and more for profit for a decade of explosive growth and now people are realizing they would sell our freedom in a heartbeat, and in fact did by weaponizing a traitorous dullard and moron with 'embedded advisors' working assiduously to subvert our democracy behind a Russian backed effort.
5
Somehow, however amazingly, 'news' from RT and/or Sputnik - not to mention Hillary being in league with Satan (etc.), distracted neither my election candidate research, nor my actual voting decision(s).
Much ado about stupid.
2
Louie from Va - you don't 'get it' - news from RT was echoed by Trump and his followers who parroted its memes and helped create a false background and attitude. Do you really seriously believe, Louie, that Hillary was vilified as she was for worrying about her privacy being hacked (legitimately it turns out) and maintaining a private server for that reason? The Russians took 25 years of far right fever dreams and magnified its pitch tenfold concentrating the attack on the population most vulnerable and predisposed to be swayed by the validation of opinions they previously dismissed as 'crackpot.'
5
When it comes to herd mentality, we are not that different than cattle. I suppose there might be some individual bovines that are thinking: "OMG! We're headed to the slaughterhouse!" But the herd prevails in the end.
There's a GOP sucker born every minute. Who else could possibly believe this nonsense?
3
Right - because every single Democrat is an Einstein who would never, ever fall prey to their own biases and nonsense.
It is extremely disconcerting, though unfortunately not surprising, that no one in Congress, nor in the media (mainstream, that is), nor on this board seems to be the least aware of the implications that this frothing neo-McCarthyite, anti-Russia campaign has for freedom of speech on the internet. Here we have the U.S. government openly calling for censorship of the internet by private parties based on the content of speech. There could not be a more direct attack on the First Amendment and it should sound the corresponding alarm. However, it is not having this effect, nor is it invoking the original McCarthyite period in the minds of intelligent, ostensibly educated people. Just the opposite. Sensational, unsupported claims and ipsedixit such as Russia "hacked the election" or is "sowing divisions" in the U.S., whatever that means, go unchallenged and are given free reign. This is why, incidentally, people despise the mainstream media and turn to sources such as RT, now designated by the liberal intelligentsia as Fake News and effectively banned by You Tube. Apropos, as I write, I am uncertain that the NYT will publish this comment because it rejects the smear that any questioning of the official narrative around Russia and the election is evidence of the writer being a stooge of the Kremlin. I will have none of this dangerous hysteria, nor should anyone else. The skepticism necessary for democracy to survive is in short supply and can't afford to be further wasted.
2
Oy vey! Free speech doesn't mean everyone is allowed to say whatever they want without any consequences whatsoever. If you want to get your information (propaganda actually) courtesy of your pal Vlad, no one will stand in your way. I, however, prefer to know the source of it before consuming it. Just like food, I have a right to know where it comes from an what's in it. It has nothing to do with the First Amendment.
1
Yet Trump continues to argue that the Russians did not interfere in the elections and that the whole investigation is a hoax and a witch hunt. Either Trump just won't admit anything that he thinks may denigrate his election despite that it makes him sound like a frightened idiot whistling in the dark, or he is involved in the Russian interference up to his eyeballs, or he really is losing his mind. Is there any other explanation?
4
He should be impeached for that alone. His job is to INVESTIGATE threats to our national security, not defend them. He is providing a smokescreen for his employer Vladimir Putin. With every tweet he obstructs justice. Why does no one see that?
This bit of Russian espionage took a page right out of the GOP Southern Strategy playbook. How patriotic.
6
Are we to believe that Russian Trolls (and the Russian government) were able to get deep inside the American psyche of the intersection of race and civilian police authority; all by themselves?
3
Excellent piece. Shows how the Russians have truly understood the effectiveness of creating networks to spread their message. And so low-cost too! Once a message is posted in the wild, the ever increasing circle of re-tweets and “likes” can push the message to infinity and beyond. Like throwing a stone into a pond. For free. And Putin, raised in the Marxist/Leninist tradition, understands the power of befogging the masses. And the SuZi-esque strategy of figuring out how to turn an adversary’s strengths into weaknesses (free and open, if profit-driven, media can be manipulated in the gate-keepers are asleep at the switch).
How to deal with it...better education in critical thinking is the first step...and you can start that very early in a child’s life (believe me!). But hey, destruction of public education is one of the Trump/DeVos goals...and they just want the peasants to accept, uncritically, all their lies. So I guess they can sleep well, knowing their policies can only weaken us.
1
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo 1971
Always interesting to hear about Russian influenced elections. What about US influencing other countries elections? Did not the CIA admit that they financed Boris Yelsons re-election and admitted that the communist party would have won? Yelson begat Putin....karma I guess. But it does remind me of not throwing stones when your in a glass house.
6
So whats new our own president keeps saying its fake news which came from the Russians to disrupt our democracy. You all should wake up there is NO FREE LUNCH! If people are stupid enough to believe everything they see and hear then it's on them. Most people aren't that knowledgable to even know the Russian's are out to get us. They are our enemy. Putin as won this round if only the current president would tell the truth and quit getting millions of dollars off our backs which includes his family doing the same then we would be okay but he isn't interested in anyone but himself. We elected a real loser this time around.
There is a saying re advertising...if it's advertised you probably don't need it. it's that simple.
Putin is the devil incarnate. He’s a murderer. He’s one of those evil megalomaniacs you heard about in history class. No wonder Trump admires him.
2
Rod Serling, that genius behind Twilight Zone, could not have done it better than the Russians . . . remember that episode where aliens, with just a few well-timed staged events, turn an entire neighbourhood, previously friendly and loving, against each other . . .
1
Russia got exactly what they wanted CHAOS!!
1
We pay all these billions and US intelligence wasn’t squishing this? Guess we need to shvel more billions into the furnace.
1
Only one option- impeach And remove trump. Try to have a new election
3
I think Trump's ego made him think Russia admired him, when the reality was to tear America apart.
Even a con can get conned.
1
The internet has been the death of editorial discretion. A statement which previously would have gotten no further than the barnyard now is broadcast across the world. Are there people so simple-minded as to believe a stylized drawing of Satan arm wrestling Jesus over election results? We now have a president to show for the fact that they exist. Censorship, however, is no substitute for editorial discretion. Pandora's Box is wide open and the gremlins are out. We can close the box, nail it shut, even bury it. But we can never get the gremlins back inside. Our considerable efforts now ought to be spent on learning to live with the havoc they wreak rather than on dashing around pointlessly trying to put them back in the box. We can start by correcting the enormous advantage rural voters have in our elections.
Shame on anyone who believes what they read on Facebook
1
A lot of liberals here are pointing to these articles and saying " Look look, these Russians have influenced the Republicans to do / vote a certain way"
Have you thought about how the MSM may be influencing you to think this is all true ? Or do you on the one claim that people are so gullible to Russian propaganda while not considering you are gullible to MSM propaganda? All this is for those who truly want to be right. However, the best guess is that every one wants to side with the message that suits their own opinion so it doesn't matter if an outlet is trying to influence you as long as it suits your opinion, but if it is to the others opinion, then it must be propaganda.
I say this on the basis of the articles being published here one by one - Twitter, youtube, FB each gets their own article saying Russia used that to spread ads and each one gets comments concluding that what has been printed must be true and asking for action. If any of you say that this MSM has more credibility then think about all the incorrect info they have given over the decades to suit the establishment agenda so people can be swayed to support the establishment agenda. How do you know that the MSM is not doing the same thing for this Russia ads thing
1
“We have met the enemy and he is us.” - Pogo
"We have met the enemy and he is Putin." - Democrats
Why isn't this being investigated instead of Paul Manafort.
While the ordinary Ivan is as decent a guy as any of us, I think some of the people in the Kremlin should get a life and stop playing around.
Corruption is no longer satanic?
1
Funny how the supposed "Russian" sponsored ad featuring Bernie Sanders actually tracks with the story as it was reported by ABC News. Are we to imagine that the New Yellowcake Times is now stating that ABC news is "Russian influenced"?
abcnews.go.com/Politics/senator-bernie-sanders-calls-hillary-clinton-fou...
1
Sure. America is one big hole in the wall when it comes to security. The Russians took a page (maybe several pages) from COINTELPRO [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO} and went to work on their divisiveness strategy. Saudi Arabia supported terrorists take out the twin towers. North Korean cyber attacks rip up corporate America. And ISIS lets us know that our bike paths are really perilous. What's next?
1
Anyone influenced by an ad on Facebook is a true simpleton.
3
The truly upsetting part is how easily some people are brainwashed.
2
first fact: nobody, after more than a year, has found the first voter who voted against Hillary because of anything Russian. SEcond fact: This Russian collusion nonsense was hatched to delegitimize a duly elected president and harm the nation. Third Fact: Hillary is involved deeply in Russian everything from the Uranium 1 deal to the fake dossier that she paid for. She has been running a pay to play scheme for years which explains the use of a private server out of the view of the DOS. The NYT has been naively playing into the Russia plan to damage the country because of its hatred for Trump and revenge over losing the election.
2
How Russia Got Americans to Turn Against One Another?
Half of Americans are hopelessly stupid.
The other half of Americans are hopelessly addicted to personal technology and social media.
1
Will you stop it with this Russia nonsense, Dems?
Don’t worry, we all know republicans are evil, and they will be taken care of by Trump if he is smart and pro-American.
His true job is to destroy republicans so that America is not destroyed.
If not, if he is stupid and a traitor to America, then I would not worry about Trump anyway.
The Arsenal of Democracy has become the Asinine of Democracy. The bottom line is the election was interfered with, and the Russians obviously aren't too worried about any repercussions. Strangely, there haven't really been any, yet, either. Foreign interference with US elections is OK with everyone, apparently.
You can obviously trust, even worship, the people who benefited from the nation-humiliating interference with the election. (Only one side benefited,, remember?) All that unduly elected, flabby, undignified, one-dimensional brilliance will save the nation, presumably from itself.
...And of course making the US look idiotic, even downright primitive, every day for nearly a year is just peachy keen fine, too. Fred Flintstone would have done a better, and certainly much classier, job in terms of national image.
Social media can be managed. Fake news can be managed. Fake people can be arrested. Managing the nation being made to look like/ proven to be morons, however, seems to be a bit beyond the great minds.
You might as well change the name of the country to the United Doormats of America, at this rate. I suppose you don't really need the highly misleading "United" any more, though.
1
PBS' Frontline aired an excellent program called Putin's Revenge on 11/1/17. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/putins-revenge/
1
How might this issue be addressed legally? They could reject all political type ads, the government can not require that. The Russians or others can easily disguise such ads. No solution exists without infringing on rights.
1
Its not a Hoax that these ad's were placed. But had they not been wanted to be recognized. Those who placed them on Face Book. Would have covered their tracks. Its inevitable the Zuckerburg and his whole world wide staff knew exactly who was responsible for the ads. No one goes on face book without being security checked when posting anything with criteria and content that might show a defiant crisis. My view point is not what Russia did, its what our nation has failed to do. No cyber security when you have leaks like Face Book and Google and no apparent fire wall to prevent the hacks..or advertising. Osama bin Laden proved the same issue when He also sneaked into this nation undetected and killed over 3000 people. Are we so safe guarded as those political clowns in Washington want you to believe we are? All these committee hearings are a farce. They want you to believe they are digging deep to investigate a misuse of power and foreign collusion. But the all out truth is...WE ARE A VULNERABLE NATION WITH NO APPARENT SECURITY TO KEEP OUT OR CATCH THESE THINGS BEFORE THEY ACTUALLY GET TO THIS POINT....our political idiots are masking an investigation and laying blame to the wrong thing. Where were they when we needed a tighter security on foreigner's intruding into our nation with these types of invasions. Even when there's no sign of a rat...keep the trap set...one will eventually come along.
Looks like something from an SNL skit.
1
This story should be top-priority. Interfering with our election is an attack on democracy and is far more consequential than murder by vehicle.
2
Americans had been turning in different directions for decades. The Russians SAW this, they didn't CAUSE it. Russia is weak, not strong.
1
Just because they didn't cause it does not mean they did not exploit it.
I am amazed that so few Americans are hardened to all these button-pushing manipulations. Wherever one goes, some promoter is playing with people's heads.
1
Instead of worrying about who posted a false political ad, why don’t we require political ads to be based on facts? The Russians should not post false information, but is it alright for the candidates, parties, or political action campaigns to post false ads?
3
So, would it be legal or illegal for a minister in the MId-West who thinks Hillary Clinton is an immoral person to post the ad showing Christ arm-wrestling the Devil?
How do you control that American citizen's speech regarding his opinion about the nature and quality of the American political world?
So the Russians used a vast army of trolls and bots to further divide the electorate, and that should concern all of us but the Republicans and their propaganda outlet AKA Fox News has been doing that since the “Southern Strategy “ in the sixties & and the ‘90’s when Fox launched it’s fair & balanced news program. After Reagan canned the fairness doctrine that gave rise to saying anything without the need to worry about ones opponent getting equal time to rebut. One needs only to watch the purveyors of division on Fox to see where Russia will take this in the next election.
7
Russia has divided our nation - and they have inflicted serious damage to our democracy. They won the war without firing a shot.
2
This is why we need to educate students to think critically and not be passive receivers and believers of information. And this is why liberal arts and humanities education is so important, yet there is a movement against it. Do our politicians really want an informed and educated electorate, as is needed for a well functioning democracy? Or do they prefer ignorant sheep (unless, of course, those sheep are following the other side's shepherd?).
6
Aren't the Russian ads just another chapter in the story of fake news generally? (I mean "real fake news," not what Trump & Fox call fake news). As I recall, there was an army of fake-ad artists out there trying to reap a profit out of clicks. And wasn't it the case that liberals didn't usually fall for those as Trumpists did?
2
The saddest thing about this isn’t that the Russians tried to influence our election through social media. The saddest thing is that we let them do it.
6
This is much ado about nothing. Opinion ads should not be banned from media regardless of the source. This is laughable to the rest of the world; complaints about purportedly Russian sponsored opinion ads on Facebook from a country that utilizes military regime change against leaders of sovereign countries. Give me a break!
2
Federal Elections Commission: https://www.fec.gov/updates/foreign-nationals/
"Foreign nationals are prohibited from making any contributions or expenditures in connection with any election in the U.S. Making any contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or making any expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement in connection with any federal, state or local election in the United States;
"Political committees must include a clear and conspicuous disclaimer on all "public communications" (e.g., TV and radio ads, newspaper, magazine or outdoor advertising, and mass mailings or telephone banks to the general public.
Since the former is illegal putting disclaimers on their ads would be admission of guilt. However I wonder if even a disclaimer as bold as "This ad was paid for by the Russian Government, or a front of the government" would have changed how people reacted to the ads. I still can't understand that people aren't upset and embarrassed over how easily they were duped and manipulated by foreign interests that are not our own. Or maybe it's just that their interests in an undemocratic less powerful America is the same as Russia's?
1
I'm having difficulty getting upset. Yeap, them Russkies shouldn't a done it, but in the entire campaign how many ads for either side were run on all media? How many editorials? How many news stories about Bernie, Hillary, Trump. How much coverage of Ferguson, Missouri and related events that are divisive? And in all those ads, eds, and news coverage how much was inaccurate, misleading, cherry picked or straight out lies?
On the one hand you've got a Rocky Mountain sized pile of information generated by the media and the campaigns and on the other (the Russian ads) you've got a small mole hill. A huge swath of the electorate made their minds up a long time ago on whether they would vote Dem or Repub. A long time ago many had their minds made up about HRC -- and after Trump won the nomination people were either for or against very quickly.
So you have to ask, how many people did these ads influence in reality? How many votes? Impossible to tell because even if you polled people you can't necessarily trust their responses.
The divisiveness here predates any Russian attempts to sow discord and will continue long after.
2
So much news about what Russia did and how it may or may not have been effective... not one word about how America might fight back or even if it can. This is how Putin is still winning in all of this-- if the discussion is all about how badly we were beaten and how we might be able to better guard against it next time, it makes him seem even more fearsome.
By all media accounts thus far, the amount of money spent by the Russians was a proverbial drop in the bucket compared to that spent by both the Clinton and Trump campaigns, not to mention other real "American" interest groups, from agenda driven groups like Planned Parenthood to unions or industry groups.
Did any of that Russian effort turn us against each other? Minimally at best, for by and large they - and many of the ads from the aforementioned groups - more often than not simply were read or clicked on or "liked" because the readers ALREADY believed or wanted to believe the content. And it was not new then that there were vile ads then or now - just look at the disgusting ad run in Virginia at present, one of the lowest yet and Putin had nothing to do with it.
Yes, Russians or other foreign groups should not be trying to sway our elections but we, the American people, are a far bigger problem to each other.
2
We shall overcome you from within without firing a shot, paraphrasing Nikita Khrushchev. The polarity between American's is easily exploited. We live in a relatively open society with significant freedom of expression protected by the US Constitution. UNLESS and UNTIL we practice consensus building and compromise we (you and I) are the one's bringing down the United States. The Russians are just leveraging our failures to bridge our differences. You want to make America greater learn how to work together and find common ground to our problems. Just do it!
The Russian ads did not create opinions and biases. It took the existing ones and amplified them. It is this amplification that reinforces fiercely held positions, thereby increasing contention, tearing at the fabric of cohesion.
3
The ads were a bit of brilliant sabotage on the part of the Russians. The Russians know us better than we know ourselves. The ads went right to our national soft spot - closeted bigotry. The ads knowingly and perfectly targeted a tragic and all to willing slice of an American audience. Sadly we are still vulnerable to more of the same
3
The real problem with the Russian investigation is the Russians did not change the result, James Comey did. The Democrats are once again taking the bait. This leads nowhere. The polls and the predictions were not wrong. What happened is 10 days before the election the Director of the FBI sent a letter that said in essence don't vote for her she's a criminal and I'm about to lock her up. You cannot get elected dog catcher in this country if the people think you are about to be arrested by the FBI. It was the FBI, not the SVR that made Donald Trump President.
1
The number of Comments on this story are very small compared to more "juicy" stories! The intrusion into social media by the Russians is very alarming to me. I have lost respect for these techies in Silicon Valley - they appear to be only interested in their bottom line. As always, FOLLOW THE MONEY!
That’s it? Crude, hastily-prepared, amateurish posts recycling content and stoking racial and cultural divisions? Sounds like most of the media starting with Michael Brown and continuing today, well after the elections are over. If politicians are complaining that the Russians deliberately sowed chaos by posting ads that exploited our national plague of identity politics, then it means only that the Russians got hold of a well-worn contemporary political playbook and clumsily ran the script.
1
Yes.
That supposed spike in hate crimes happening since Trump’s election is also a hoax.
Just because something gets amplified on social media doesn't mean it's true.
1
Turning two enemies against one another with one form of propaganda or another, in order to achieve a military advantage, is a strategy as old as tribal conflict. All that's required is an ignorant and susceptible enemy, like the Trump base and its Neo-liberal adversaries. Only the Progressives truly understand the issues and can separate the wheat from the chafe. Education and capacity to distinguish truth from fiction are the keys to a continuation of the American democratic experiment. Mrs. DeVos will need a dictionary to decipher this comment. Trump won't even try. Mr. Bannon already understands it. HRC is too self-absorbed to be bothered.
1
They are experts at misinformation from the Soviet days. During the 50s and 60s Soviet agencies penetrated the US government and many other functions of American society. Its their MO.
2
We didn't really need the Russians to turn Americans against each other. We can do that just as well on our own.
1
Well, there you have it, even Russian intelligence believed appeals to racism was the way to win over voters to Trump.
2
Remember all the Trump and Sanders supporters saying “it doesn’t matter what the source is” during the campaign (mostly in reference to the Wikipedia leaks)? This is why it matters who the source is.
1
The big question here is why would Russia want to promote propaganda that favors DJT?
This is the fake news DJT always talks about.
We need to get congress to address this issue so that we protect freedom of speech but control the dissemination of misinformation.
It is amazing to me that we in the United States spend about $11 bazillion annually on education and yet we are faced by this seemingly existential threat from Russia which has weaponized our own peculiarly American inability to think critically especially as critical thinking pertains to what we Americans see on The Facebook or on Youtube. I wonder, is Russia also behind our inability to regulate our behavior as it pertains to not killing one another on the streets with guns, or not eating piles and piles of junk food and becoming obese or taking opioids to distraction? Well at least we have found an explanation why Donald Trump has become our Commander and Chief and protector of the Constitution, the Russians tricked us (we otherwise intelligent and careful peoples) into voting for Donald Trump over an overwhelmingly super capable alternative!
1
The worst, most polarizing disinformation of the 2016 campaign was promulgated by allies of this administration: Fox News, Bretibart, Alex Jones, and the like. The Russian effort only had an impact because the GOP has been running for office on "divide and conquer" for decades, to the detriment of our country and our civic life. Et tu, GOP?
1
Can we see the rest of the Bernie ad? And what he thinks of the Clinto foundation? Bernie is right. Good thing I voted for Trump.
It is always fitting for the foundation to pay for the legal fees of its namesake and for good measure to buy a gilded portrait to hang next to the fake news magazine covers. If only the Clinton foundation had done that instead of helpful people around the world. Liberals and their stupid do-gooder ideals.
Being able to tell fact from fiction should be a skill that more Americans have....obviously we have work to do.
2
Can we analyze the content to find out how many of the ads were skewed toward to Republican?
Congress sure is quick to point the finger .. even after all the mud slinging they do against each other in their own campaigns.
Russia didn’t turn Americans against each other. Fox News and right wing talk radio get the credit for that. The Russians just took advantage of pre existing divisions to further their cause: weakening the West. .
1
I taught business ethics students that the social media monopolists created few jobs since they manipulate users (who are their products not clients) to give over personal info which they sell to customers (advertisers).
Now it is clear facebook and twitter and google are accomplices to treason in taking money from foreign agents for ads interfering with our democratic process.
1
It is really sad that a percentage of our population has so little common sense that they don't smell a rat when presented with this Russian garbage. Or for that matter trump's almost equally implausible garbage.
2
The front page headline of this article is "How Russia Got Americans to Turn Against One Another." The answer is quite simple and is something that has maddened me for years. Republicans, or at the least the ones that I know, never do any critical thinking when viewing memes online. If the image or phrase of poetry or prose is consistent with their beliefs they share it instantly, never so much as giving it a thought that it might be false. They never once think to Google the issue or go to Snopes or any other information source online to verify whether it is true or not. It is the most bizarre, lemming like behavior that I have ever encountered. I have seen my acquaintances online spread things, zinging them around the internet at light speed, that are so demonstrably false that it is breathtaking. Some do it out of ignorance but others do it intentionally and maliciously, knowing better. The perfect example is the one about Hillary and John Podesta running a pediphile ring out of Comet Ping Pong in Washington, D.C. We all remember how shocked the naive young man was when he showed up at Comet to bring justice with his assault weapon, only to find that it is a pizza restaurant, no more, no less. What about registering illegal aliens to vote? What about Hillary killing that guy from the DNC? One can go on and on about the stupidity and malevolence of those who post these things that are demonstrably false with one internet search.
1
Having worked and lived off and on in the US since 2004, and volunteered for Obama 2008, I had predicted, even in these pages, at least 18 months before Nov 2016 that Trump will win. He was the man of the hour.
That was long before Russians got the whiff of him. I doubt that Trump Nation, uneducated, unskilled, media unsavvy, even has access to the mass media tools Russia is accused of using. Russia did not place these alleged ads on Fox News.
American friends must face the fact that while the globe, especially BRICS, heavily invested in education, we neglected it. Your School system today produces youth unable to read or count, totally unfit for Globalization and Free Trade that requires knowledge based economy, only capable of jobs that Mexicans qualify for. Hence the wall. Every year TN grows.
American Founding Fathers were agrarian slave owners. The Constitution they made reflected the era and economy. Amendments help, but only a little. When allegedly a handful of Rubles can outplay Billions Dollar Election System, there is something rotten at the core.
America has been rotting for a while. Trump is the child who calls that Emperor has no clothes. When his 8 years are done, nothing American - the Dream, the Executive, the Court, the Legislature, the Military, the Media, the Industry will remain the same. The old must go before something better can take its place.
There are plenty of models around to choose from.
2
Why would Russia promote Trump when they could buy anything they wanted from Hillary?
1
This really shows how stupid the American electorate is especially on the far right and far left. The deplorable‘s are at the top of the list of the low information voter followed closely by the Bernie Bros and the other dingdongs further to the left. They were the ones most influenced by social media. The republicans just fell in line and didn’t care if Satan was the head of their party which turned out to be the case. Hillary was far and away ahead of the pack and luckily the majority of people voted for her. But this election was stolen by the Russians and the Republicans without a doubt.
1
Russia used a weapon against the US Presidential election and Republicans, who are the fake patriots could care less.
8
Zuckerberg we don't care how sorry you are as you are more worried about a decrease in profits in an already trillion dollar social media industry than you are about accountability and being a patriotic American. 'Sorry' doesn't get the job done and now it sounds patronizing as well. You are just a greedy capitalist looking out for yourself and not your country or the billions of users within your corrupted and compromised social media network.
It is crucial that this industry be regulated and the time is now. They are not cooperating with Congress, or the American people. What would they think of a total government shutdown of their operations due to their threat to our national security and their lack of cooperative response? They were so busy counting coin that company CEO's did not attend a Congressional hearing and this is pure hubris and a red flag that profits prevail and not patriotism.
Regulate them now Congress. They should not be the ones deciding how to keep America safe from further cyber attacks. If they know they cannot stop Putin from waging a continuing cyber war on America, which they do know this, then they are complicit in the next round of attacks against America and our democracy. This leaves them open to criminal charges as well as the charge of treason as far as I am concerned. Regulating their industry will ultimately be in their best interests as well.
64
And here is the crux of the problem:
"All three (tech giants) said they would build artificial intelligence tools to combat fake and problematic content."
Whatever happened to genuine human intelligence?
1
Schumckerberg's reply: "But...money!!"
The Russians successfully got through to voters that Hillary did not get through to. It seems simple as that.
If you ever saw Jay Leno’s segment called ‘Jay Walking’ it is easy to see how the Russians were better marketers than the Democrats.
1
I find they apply gaming tactics to their ads, as in the explosions are so numerous you imagine some monster truck has just blown through the Capital. Bannon trafficked in gaming powers he off shored to China. His adolescent nadir is evident.
Putin worked successfully to turn Americans against Americans in the 2016 election. It’s interesting, and sad, that this is the same strategy Trump used to win. And it’s frightening that half of all Americans are gullible enough to take the bait from these two con artists.
7
The intelligence reports clearly indicate Russia's active influence-peddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. Trump was the beneficiary of Russia's actions.
If the Trump Administration takes any action with the intent to help the persons involved avoid arrest or punishment, Trump and his team could be charged as accessories after the fact.
mB, SCOTUS practitioner
1
It's important to keep these Russian efforts in perspective. Russian govt spent around $100,000 on Facebook ads vs over $80,000,000 from Trump and Clinton, to say nothing of the billions spent by the campaigns overall. Russian influence on the election itself was negligible.
The main Russian goal in interfering in our politics is to increase radicalism on both sides in order to sow chaos and reduce the political space for compromise so that the gridlock in our political system is worsened and governing effectively becomes impossible. Look at the way they promoted dueling narratives on both extremes of the political spectrum and this is obvious. This is the way Russian information warfare is conducted not just in the US but in other countries as well. They aim to keep the population divided and at war with itself so that the target country is less able to resist Russia's ability to achieve their strategic objectives in the target country as well as internationally.
5
Curious whether there are any commenters here who believe that the Republican controlled Congress will impose regulations on Internet content providers to reveal the sources of advertisements or, more generally, to require the Facebooks, Twitters and Googles to aggressively police their content?
Not going to happen.
2
Illegal as well!
I must say I am perplexed to see that readers are not more outraged about the elephant in the room not being part of this discussion.
While we must get a handle on the Russian ads and social media's responsibilities, where are the hearings about the daily, unending, mind-numbing propaganda being spewed from the White House. The same congressional committees focusing their ire on social media need to sit in front of a panel of Americans and answer this question: Why are our legislative members allowing streams of falsehoods and misinformation to flow unfettered and unchallenged from Trump, his staff, cabinet members and republican leaders? Why are more not calling out this hypocrisy? When did it become expected that every time a congressional member stands behind a podium, I have to then do two hours of research to "fact check" him?
While congress is throwing stones at the Russians and social media, I would like to know when they are going to clean up their own house.
It's scary out here and we need more warriors for truth.
8
The election was stolen, with the knowledge and co-operation of the Trump campaign. Given the margin of victory and Clinton's popular vote and the extent of Russian interference, there is virtually no mathematical chance that Russian's efforts did not influence the vote sufficiently to tip the outcome. Any other democracy would call a new election. So should we.
2
why is it beyond the power of Congress to summon the CEOs rather than the lawyers, to come to testify. Are they just too timid?
2
They could, but what questions could they answer that these can't? Answer is few if any.
People spend money for programs to protect their computers from viruses. Misinformation of any kind is a virus. I've heard many times that people now fear vaccines because of false research. This can be life threatening. It makes no sense to let vandals plaster "GO" signs over our "STOP" signs. The internet is only as good as its' integrity. Companies that make money via the internet must be responsible.
1
Define misinformation. I bet you can't!
Well said.
Does anyone seriously doubt that Putin is doing to us just what we did to him and his Soviet Union? At every turn we used whatever trick we could to weaken the Soviets and turn their people against them. We supported Bin Laden, as I remember, as just one way to try and bankrupt them.
We are at war with Putin's Russia, and in war, only taking blows and not giving them is pretty much suicide.
It is time to go after him and his billionaire allies, in every civil and criminal court possible. Those who were his tools need to be arrested and locked up, and that includes a large part of the Trump conspiracy.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
Some of the comments here are puzzling to say the least. Indeed it is pretty hard to determine the actual grasp and direct effectiveness of the Russian propaganda campaign but that doesn't mean it can be brushed aside as insignificant. How many out of those 150 million (probably more in fact) were influenced? Which percentage of these people would be deemed "safe" to have been influenced one way or another? 10% (15 million)? 5% (7.5 million)? Maybe it's OK to have 1% (1.5 million) people influenced, no? Your democracy is under attack from both the inside and the outside, yet you endlessly debate the finer points of it. Yes, which way the rearranged deck chairs on the Titanic should point?
1
Sure. While Hillary Clinton describing anyone who didn't vote for her as "Deplorables" if not part of a supposed right-wing conspiracy against her and Bill (why this conspiracy never goes after any other major Democrat I don't know) while progressives look at anyone who didn't vote for her as racist rubes -- even the long-time Rust Belt Democrats who voted for Obama but got nothing for it and decided to roll the dice on Trump out of desperation -- had nothing to do with it.
But got to give the Russians credit. Some well-placed ads here and there such as $100000 worth on Facebook, plus a bunch of silly nonsense on websites I never even heard of, proved to be far more effective than the $1.2 billion dollars Hillary spent on her campaign. Not to mention the debates, the media interviews and the public appearances.
And when Michael Moore in an interview tells us advisers to Hillary pleaded with her to spend much more time in the Rust Belt electoral swing states and less time at chic Hamptons and Beverly Hills fundraisers but to no avail, that must have actually been Putin's doing as well.
Oh, almost forgot. There remains that small matter of Hillary always having that taint of dishonesty and corruption (Why? I couldn't possibly possibly guess). And this long predates any Russian hacking or ad placements.
3
Thinking hard about this and due to the lack (and impossibility) of having a meaningful editor, FB and Twitter cannot prevent false ads and postings from Russian meddlers. The only true remedy is for the American consumer to discount the news and views expressed on these sites. For now, we are way behind the learning curve.
1
Facebook or Google or any advertising company cannot say is whether people who saw their Ads voted for Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, God or the devil. The Senators are trying to get the Executives to say things they cannot say whilst under oath. They cannot say that Vladimir Putin posted ads; they can say maybe that some people in Russia posted ads. They cannot say that the ads resulted in anything specific.
One thing Facebook or Google or any advertising company cannot say is whether people who saw their Ads voted for Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, God or the devil. They cannot say that Vladimir Putin posted ads they can say, maybe, that some people in Russia posted ads they cannot say that the ads resulted in anything specific.
The US Congress is trying, and "going the last mile" to make something out of nothing. The American standard of law is debased by the line of questioning. Please remember that many of these lawmakers are sold to the Military/Industrial complex and they have an ulterior motive in painting Russia under President Vladimir Putin as an enemy of the United States.
This has nothing to do with the sanctity of Elections; it has all to do with an attempt by the Political Elite to maintain control over the American voter.
A simple check on the merits of the debate – just put your own name in place of whatever hate figure is being discussed and see if you accept the validity of evidence against you from sources unknown.
2
The impact of Russia's meddling in American politics -- via internet fake news -- is being addressed in Congress. The outcome will be restrictive legislation along the lines of Russia and China. The open/democratic nature of the internet of earlier years is over.
2
I think social media is evil. It let's people vent their most base views without recourse or responsibility.
I don't think it is good for society, for people or politics.
2
So stay off it.
1
It is so ironic that the tech giants used the American system to start, develop, and prosper.....yet for the almighty dollar they are willing to betray our country. I say label them a “21st century utility” and regulate them. Why not? They let China do it!
It's really all about money. Facebook and Twitter looked the other way because they made tons of money. Our 24 hour cable news stations report anything any everything without thoroughly vetting the stories because they are afraid of being scooped. No matter what CNN or MSNBC says about Trump, while much of it is true, they are making a ton of money off of him. From a financial standpoint Trump's the best thing that happened to them in the past 10 years.
In regards to the Russian Facebook sites polarizing this country, they did not create the hatred or biases all they did was bring it to the forefront. Trump didn't create his followers, they were always there looking for a leader.
Our democracy is on a precarious ledge very similar to pre Civil War days and as a nation if we are not vigilant and less self indulgent it can slip through our hands.
We to have strong leaders in both parties to stand up for what is right about American even if it goes against their financial and political backers as now is the time we need leaders not followers.
Democracy and free speech are great things, wonderful things, but they demand an educated population. Free speech is a two sided sword for which the thoughtful edge is always sharper, with much more potential to enlighten than the more dull, self-serving edge - unless there are a great many close-minded, conspiracy-believing fools.
Today, in the US, there are many, many people who are helping to sharpen that evil side to our basic freedom. We must not weaken our strengths but that requires that we must improve our education.
That doesn't mean everyone needs to become a liberal college professor, but we do need the public to stop thinking like selfish children or big time wrestling fans in the contexts of culture, fairness, justice, economics, health, and international law.
2
Allowing propaganda to flourish on the Internet and other media sources leaves me believing that the United States hasn't been caught with its pants this far down since the 9/11 attacks. The government reacted to the ease with which our security was breached in 2001 with developing a Department of Homeland Security and the TSA. As a result, airline security lapses are minimal. Our problem today is with the frailty of the American mind. We are too easily cowed into believing ultra-right and ultra-left dispatch in our email and social media, such that our voting preferences are tainted. Have we collectively reached the point where we can't distinguish between objectivity and a hole in the ground? The senators are rightly perplexed and angered by the responses that came from the representatives of the social media giants, who may just be beginning to understand how their lack of vetting advertisers led us to what we're referring to as Russian interference in our elections. I don't know what the remedy is, as I'm still a "newbie" when it comes to using social media. I'll be accused of overstating what's obvious: but, Americans in general are going to have to learn not to be swayed by the misinformation that's dished out hourly, whether it is from the Internet or the government.
2
Congress has adopted a strategy of negotiating with FB and Twitter in the hope that they'll put adequate defences in place prior to the mid terms. Given FB and Twitter's half hearted response and Russia's continuing meddling it would seem more appropriate to shut down both company's advertising operations until it can be proven that that the threat has been eliminated. This is a direct threat to our democracy. Dithering and half steps are not appropriate.
2
Diane Feinstein also asked specific questions, as did other Democratic senators, of the nominees for Cabinet posts, and got nothing but vague answers. And even worse, the Nominees were supported and won the nomination process. This is standard operating procedure in most of the hearings that are happening on Capitol Hill. The Republicans let things go or make an excuse for those being interviewed and the Democrats ask penetrating questions that go unanswered. But at least these hearings have the possibility of revealing something important we did not know before. For instance Sessions lying about a meeting with a Russian official that was revealed after his appointment. At least we now know that Sessions is a liar. So maybe it is not a waste of time.
2
The fact that no CEOs were at the hearing speaks volumes. They will not voluntarily do anything that threatens their profits and it is unclear whether Congress will hold their feet to the fire. It's all about selling targeted ads by effectively reading every email (Gmail), and every post ( Facebook) we make. The damage being done by social media to our society is enormous and most people have no idea what Is happening.
I hope no one is seriously suggesting that the Russians cost the Democrats the election. That would be delusional.
I suspect Russian ads were a flea on an elephant when it came to dividing Americans. Little help was needed in that regard, if the Obama years are any indication. It seems pretty obvious that it was the severe division and polarization within the Democratic Party that cost them the election, not Republicans or outside actors.
If Bernie Sanders hadn't led such a virulent and destructive campaign against Clinton, she would probably have won. But of course, even if she had, she would still have ended up governing with a Republican-led Congress, and the country would have remained at least as divided as in the Obama years. Probably more.
2
As an American I am ashamed and embarrassed that our political leadership is so obsessed with uncovering foreign agents who may have inflamed the polarization we see around us. Race, police abuse, identity politics, never-ending wars in the Middle East, immigration — these issues are our own making, not anyone else’s.
And who has inflamed divisiveness more than Donald Trump himself? Whatever Russian agents did using social media pales in comparison.
Of course this obsession is all part of the current fad not only to demonize Russia but to actually blame it for Trump’s win. And to regard as “propaganda” and “misinformation” any viewpoint expressed by Russia, if it happens to counter the US narrative.
None of these Congressional investigations would be happening if Clinton had won.
2
If you are paying attention, propaganda is easy to spot. It takes an emotional topic and exploits it for a common political theme, or it makes an idea seem outrageous, when the reality was more complex. (The "Share if you agree" posts that have us saluting the flag are an example of the first. The memes that told us that an engineer couldn't figure out a common core math problem - which was simply an example of the kind of math you use to make change - was the second.)
More complex investigation renders the verdict of Snopes or Politifact on the meme's veracity. And looking to see who owns the site on GoDaddy is useful. I never share anything that comes form a source I cannot verify as legitimate.
How many others bother? In fact, how many care if the post is true or propaganda if they agree with the content?
Social media counts on content being popular to make money; they don't have a financial interest in making sure it is true or valid.
We can criminalize taking money from governments and fraudulent sources. But content is ubiquitous. Only end users can effectively debunk it.
It amazes and saddens me to see how low an opinion so many Americans have of their own intelligence (or at least how low an opinion they have of every other American's intelligence). If Russia could sway the electorate by Facebook posts or any other surreptitious messages, then the electorate is so easily manipulated that our elections really mean nothing since the only difference among them is who is doing the manipulation of the feckless electorate.
2
I don't use any social media, so I'm not exposed to much of this garbage. I suppose I come across it in other ways, but generally, I don't pay attention to political ads of any kind. It's surprising to me that so many people do. Maybe instead of regulating these companies and insisting that they police their advertising, consumers should just stop allowing ads like these to influence them. Who takes the time to actually sit and read these ads? Who watches the crazy political videos that are everywhere? I really am starting to believe that all our technology has made us dumber, not smarter.
1
We know that more than 30,000 people a year die from gunshot wounds in this country, but the number of people killed by police is not accurately reported to the FBI. The Washington Post and Guardian newspapers tried to do their own counts, which included 50 to 60% more deaths than the FBI's official count. The NRA is a powerful lobby, which has successfully blocked data collection on gun sales, registration information, and any attempt to get a clear picture of how the sale of more than 300 million firearms might be posing a "health and safety" issue in the USA. In 2015, the count by the Guardian was more than 900 people per year for eight straight years vs. fewer than 400 reported to the FBI. I don't think we need Russia to tell us that we have a problem with guns and police that is only getting worse, not better.
1
You wonder if Putin is smiling because he pulled one over on the United States or frowning because he got caught? My guess is the former. He also tried similar exploits in the French election but their security people are better informed which makes their response apparatuses better prepared.
In the end, however, if we as a society are so beholden and influenced by ridiculous advertising, then we get what we deserve. In election years, If our vote is based on a TV 30 second political soundbite which degrades their opponent,
no wonder we are so discontent with our House and Senate representatives.
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are becoming the equivalent of the National Enquier. If it looks too good to be true it probably is. I for one rarely use my Facebook or Instagram account - I stopped a year ago because I couldn’t deal with all of the junk being posted before the election. This may very well be a glimps into the future, in which case we need to teach our children to understand how to spot if they are being baited by these so-called media outlets.
Rubio's comments about the scale of the Russian attacks on the US electorate do not surprise me. I suspect this has been going on a long time and continues to go on, now thru social media, previously thru direct mail and telephone calls. Reminds me of the British disinformation campaign run against Germany during WWII. One part of it was to "notify" parents of grievously wounded German soldiers that their sons were about to be released from hospitals because the German govt lacked the funds to care for them. The panic undermined support at home for the German war effort.
Disinformation is a tool available to all, but is esp useful to a weaker opponent. It seems to work better among a vulnerable class that due to ignorance, suspicion, fear, or whatever, is susceptible to the misinformation. Let's not completely preoccupy ourselves with the perps here. We've done it to ourselves. The birther campaign against Obama, Swift Boat against Kerry in TX, the anti-McCain campaign in SC during the 2000 primaries.
Maybe the best counter strategy is to try to develop more widely the critical thinking skills needed to debunk these ridiculous campaigns.
I recall dimly when Facebook first appeared on the scene and was brought to my attention. I thought "This seems like fun," set up an account, and started to, what, "edit my profile," I don't know. I think I got bored with it around the time I was asked to enter the name of my high school and stopped. And that account is still sitting out there on Facebook like the orphaned child that it is.
I get friend requests periodically, and accepted only the first one (by accident). But I've had occasion to see folks' Facebook pages and find it a little baffling that it is as captivating to people as it is. Recipes, workroom posters ("Hang in There!"), cat videos, notifications of "relationship status," notifications that someone has changed their profile picture or "likes" Van Halen and Big Bang Theory. Hobbies are good, but what is the satisfaction in any of this? There seems to be some desperation to be known, but it's primarily by posting generic information about oneself. That anyone would form an opinion of the world based on something they saw on Facebook seems insane.
1
Artificial intelligence to monitor future transgressions on Facebook, Twitter and Google? A welcome change. Let's pin our hopes on artifice to supplant the absence of intelligence from the current leadership teams of these companies; they've demonstrated a superior inability to effectively monitor anything beyond their profits, stock prices and performance bonuses.
There is one thing which I still do not understand: we are supposed to be the smartest and most advanced country involved with computer technology, yet we have no person, or team of persons, who can counter and/or deflect social media ads designed to take over our elections. Where and why have we dropped the ball, America? We have always been way ahead of Russia when it comes to technical computer skills......
I think that Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc, etc. should have a disclaimer posted before the reader is able to peruse the content, that cannot just be clicked away, warning the reader that the veracity or factuality of the posting has not been authenticated (a sort of "buyer beware" statement) and that the readers should take it upon themselves to check for facts as well as sources. It might have some effect.
1
The ads on TV & radio are child's play compared to how social media manipulates and brainwashes on extremely personal and psychological levels. The Russians are not the only controllers of the world this way, and it's pathetic how vulnerable "adults" have become. Big Brother would be a welcome relief to the world we face.
1
Yup. I live surrounded by Trump voters, and deep-dyed ones at that. They still think he's great. However: I have been wondering since the campaign where on earth the people were who thought those horrible ads were okay. Not anyone I know. There were TV and radio interviews with Trump voters, the white male ex-miners we all heard so much about. They sounded perfectly sensible. Sort of like my neighbors. Hard to believe this stuff was coming from them. I was a firm Hillary supporter, horrified by Trump. More horrified every day even now. And I remember the moment in the campaign when the penny dropped: the dog-in-the-manger nastiness I saw on line corresponded to the reports, which barely surfaced, of Russian "interest" in the US campaign. The Americans I have known all my life have never been like that. The Russians alas are. The on-line behavior also corresponded to something else: the use by the post-WWII Soviets of British agents not so much for the info they could provide as for their understanding of how to use the information the Russians themselves could collect about Western culture. I was sure the Russians were doing a lot more than we were hearing about; I was and am convinced they would not have known when to release info from the emails unless they had American help. The Soviets are better at propaganda than the US gov; they have been putting huge resources into it since founding the USSR. US social media is motivated by profit, not civic responsibility. QED.
This is another example of large companies getting in over their heads. Yes, there are always opportunities out there for making lots and lots of money.....but there are unintended consequences...like losing our democracy, etc.
Facebook, Twitter, and Co made billions but did not make a real effort to safeguard against nefarious influences of bots, even after the risks were well known.They do carry a part of the responsibility for the mess we are in.
Greed was the reason for accepting the fake ads and cannot be excused somehow or otherwise as just "doing e-business as usual." Someone had to sign off on the decisions to take the ad money and post the garbage. Let those responsible answer to a Senate committee and face the direst consequences.
So for a few hundred thousand dollars spent over some years Russia -- with a fraction of America's population and a GDP roughly the same as Italy's -- upset the presidential election and caused social division and chaos in the world's most powerful and most technologically advanced nation on earth which normally spends many, many billions of dollars on elections and social media.
Shouldn't our hapless and out-of-touch political parties be hiring these people for the next election cycle?
Our freedom of speech is for us to decide what to believe, not what our government wants to spoon feed us.
What Trump and his supporters are not smart enough to realize is that Russia doesn't like them or favor them. Russia supported Trump simply because they knew he would be the most destabilizing President possible. And once Russia views his impeachment as similarly destabilizing, they will support that too. The rubes of the right have been duped, and will regret their fawning Putin praise in the coming months.
“My concern is that a dictator like Vladimir Putin abused flaws in our social media platforms to inject the worst kind of identity politics into the voting decisions of at least 100 million Americans,” Mr. Carson said, referring to the Russian president."
The problem isn't flaws in our social media platforms; it's the flaws in our national psyche. We are an alienated and paranoid society that is unsure about the future.
One of the best and most important classes I took in college was Statistics. Coming from a working class background I was stunned to realize how broad generalizations and lies formulated by using dubious statistics could be used to manipulate people who do not have the ability or desire to “look behind the curtain” at “facts” presented to persuade them.
Education is our best hope, and it’s a shame that it doesn’t get the respect it should. From paltry teachers’ pay, banned books, voucher systems that hurt public schools, a president who declares he “loves the uneducated”, and the high cost of higher education - we are on a long-range path to failure on many levels.
And other Russian ads went against Trump. Why showcase this one? The issue is Russian interference in U.S. - not against Trump or Clinton.
While I am concerned about the meddling of other countries in U.S. elections and politics, it is hard to see how this problem can be solved. Let's say that Facebook institutes a new policy: There will be Facebook offices in every major U.S. city. If you want to run an ad on Facebook, you have to go to one of these offices and show proof of U.S. citizenship. You also have to sign a form indicating that the ad(s) are being paid for by yourself, or perhaps by registered U.S. company or organization. That might be a step in the right direction, but it certainly would not be enough to prevent abuses by foreign actors. It would still be possible to quietly funnel money through U.S. citizens, companies, or organizations to buy advertising.
We live in a globalized world, and that reality means our politics is being tainted by the currents of globalism. I suppose you could ban all political advertising. That might help. But then how do you control what people and organizations are posting on Facebook and other social media sites? And how do you know who those people and organizations really are?
This situation may seem new, but we have been struggling with this problem in some form since the founding of the country. Early newspapers were often much more politically slanted than today's newspapers. Who paid to start those newspapers? A recent immigrant maybe? Or a rich friend or relative back in the old country? And who wrote those slanted articles, perhaps using a pseudonym?
Misinformation is the currency of the internet age and everyone knows it. Phishing and trolling is everywhere and has become a fact of life for anyone that owns a computer or smartphone. Nobody I know puts any stock whatsoever into anything that shows up in a facebook feed. The fact that The Resistance thinks Trump voters are so stupid to as to base their opinions on this sort of obviously unsolicited advertising is precisely the reason they lost in Nov. But...they'd prefer to blame google I guess. Or the Russians. Anything but themselves.
1
According to the New York Times, the Kremlin attempted "to polarize the American voting public on issues like race, police abuse, and religion."
Very troubling, indeed --until you think about it for three seconds.
What precisely is so hair-on-fire scandalous about these political ads when they are utterly indistinguishable from the avalanche of rubbish that has passed for political advertising placed by Republicans for nearly a full sixty years, ads whose purpose has been to divide the American voting public, polarize them, and to create within the society dangerous fault lines that in turn are exploited to the advantage of the the most powerful interests in the country, the business interests?
Senator Al Franken lambasted Facebook for its inability to detect the ads' Russian origins despite their payment having been made in rubles. Why? The answer is, because "payment in rubles" is all that distinguished the ads from those run all the time by Republicans, whose strategy with voters has for decades now been to stir up anger, racial resentment, fear, and most of all, to create bitter hatred against progressive policies and the politicians and public figures who wish to advance those policies.
The notion that Kremlin-inspired ads had a role in the election is absurd; the Russian just added their tiny, imitative voice to the right wing chorus --divide and conquer-- that has dominated political life in the US for half a century.
Trump was elected by 100,00 people in three states. Enough of those 150 million users were were manipulated by Russian agents emotionally and intellectually to let this happen. He is not a legitimate president in the eyes of the world, and he will not be remembered by history as anything more than a game-show-host Manchurian candidate.
It is a given, Russia interferes with our democratic system of governing.
We live in a new age of information.
The core classes of a student's academic career now must now include the art of critical thinking and decision making.
The right of free speech should require no one to be so stupid and gullible as to fall for the types of conspiracy theories and made-up facts that the Russians threw at the US. But then I'm reminded of Boris Yeltsin.
Many years ago Boris Yeltsin chided us naive Americans as we were belittling their government-controlled press. We, he said, believed we had a free and open press but that we were very wrong - businesses controlled our press behind the scenes and therefore manipulated us just as much as his government did his people - but Russians knew it, we didn't.
I think that the Russians (esp. Putin) thought a lot about Yeltsin's observation and decided that if businesses can control our free press, then so might they. And they did!
2
Not that I advocate what the Russians did but give me one example of how these activities by Russia influenced our election.
It seems to me that Russian hackers, whoever they were, maybe 14 year old kids, were just having some fun at our expense.
2
Social media are perfect tools to sow misinformation that reaches millions with lightening speed. There is no accountability -- it is like a dangerous modern disease. Look at how much time folks spend using social media each day.
The Russians found a very cost-effective way to exploit the unchecked social media following the old mantra "divide and conquer". They were hugely successful in tipping the balance for a President who impersonates divisiveness and who is ill suited to lead this great nation. Worked like a charm for them, weakening their most powerful competitor on the world scene who has lost a lot of trust and credibility with his allies in just one year!
These tools are bound to be used also by others who have the money and sophistication to mislead the public and thereby steer things their way. This lack of accountability and transparency is a huge threat our democracy,
The President does not help with his concerted campaign against the free press (that does have high standards of accountability). He creates vast amounts of fake news via twitter on a daily basis and by now has a large fraction of the U.S. population unable or unwilling to discern truth from fiction. Very worrisome!
I have a conservative friend who circulated a video during the campaign supposedly showing poll workers stuffing ballot boxes to favor Hillary Clinton. He was silent when I pointed out that part of the video had a Russian flag in the background. Will all these radical Republican conservatives that are so vicious and nasty n Facebook admit that they were duped? I doubt it. Furthermore, this tactic was created long before the Russians were involved and was created by the Republicans.
Looking at these “interferences” posted on FB by Russians, I see little difference between them and millions of other posts by American cartoonists, pundits, bloggers and others. That anyone would assume that the Russian contribution to all the noise and misinformation put out by American citizens and both political parties is ludicrous. It’s like suggesting a drop in the ocean caused a flood.
2
The 2016 presidential election demonstrated that if you can reach a small number of voters in a small number of states you can swing a national election. That was the entire goal of these ads and it worked.
The ads strengthened the false “us versus them” narrative promoted by all dictators. The goal being to convince the voters that their political opponents are not other citizens in good standing but purely evil people whose defeat is so important that normally accepted social behaviors must be jettisoned and ignored. Given how Trump triumphed despite his abhorrent behavior towards veterans, woman, minorities and a sitting judge, it worked.
It remains disturbing how much vitriol was directed towards Hilary Clinton in the last election. Whatever her limitations, it was obvious that the Trump campaign and their allies, the Russian government, tapped into a Pavlovian message that generated an irrational response from a large portion of the electorate. Once her name was mentioned, people reacted emotionally and no longer considered the issues. Again, it worked on a purely technical level.
Lastly, as McLuhan has said, “the medium is the message.” The executives of Facebook and Google have demonstrated that they care little for our democracy and will offer their services to any dictator who would communicate false messages and sow discord in our nation. If I were a Facebook, user I would wonder what are they doing with the free personal data I provide them every day.
83
Thanks for your insight.
I believe your analysis is on point, however, the United States at this juncture needs to provide a civics course to every single American. In addition to civics classes, perhaps some real, not revisionist history lessons might assist the US population in using their brains instead of their emotions to evaluate what are political, economic or social ideals and concepts.
Once a medium exists, i.e., newspapers, radio, television, internet, it has the potential to be swamped or taken over by folks possessing other agendas. I cite here to the famous Orson Wells, War of the Worlds broadcast. It was a prank that sent the country into a panic because people believed that aliens were invading America. Facebook, Instagram, etc., are the modern day equivalent to that radio program. In the absence of civic and history classes, perhaps each of those net services ought to consider marking ads and postings as 'this positing may or may not be factual/true'. After all, as an open society, we do not censure contrary thoughts but can alert the consumer to what may be truly bogus nonsense put forth as fact.
1
Trump might decide to run as an Independent in 2020 if he wants a second term and survives removal. Such a tactic could enhance Trump's unorthodox and outsider image and draw in more disaffected voters who are rejecting the duopoly. We might have an election for POTUS in 2020 where over half of all eligible "demos" stay home.
Many years ago tobacco companies were enticing children to smoke and get addicted to smoking. It took way too long for society to respond and protect its children.
Apparently people forgot.
Tech is hurting children, and it starts at a much younger age. Society absolutely needs to regulate tech.
10
Some seem to be missing the point.
The Russian ads that we have seen were intended to confirm people’s biases, not to persuade them.
People saw them and thought “Other people are saying this and look how many likes!”.
It is as if the Aliens in the Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters on Maple Street” had been able to multiply the suspicious neighbor by a 100,000.
It was amplification. Brilliant on the Russians’ part. They played on our divisions and turned our technology against us.
72
The Russians are falsely accused of sowing division in the US, because Black Lives Matter is not a legitimate loosely organized effort to prevent pre-meditated murder by cops of minorities in the streets, and the cops are all humane good guys who would never do such things anyway. Despite all the videos the NY Times has run on the front page of the web edition for the last two to three years.
And fracking is good for us, so reporting on resistance to oil and gas pipelines built against the wished of residents who want their aquifers and air unpolluted and land not taken by eminent domain by criminal corporations is "turning Americans against each other".
Etc., etc., etc. Any issue the establishment wants to shove on us, if RT or other foreign media reports it, the same phony and dishonest accusation will be leveled against them.
But we live in a world of illusion here. Barack Obama was in some people's addled memory, one of our greatest presidents as he expanded two wars to seven, let the Wall St financial criminals walk, appointed a bunch of them to his Cabinet, imprisoned ethical whistle blowers for revealing serious US war crimes, ended Habeas Corpus, a foundation of civil law since the Magna Carta, and pushed TPP as Clinton was campaigning and he was going out the door. I thank Trump was ending that. I voted for Obama once, the worst vote I ever made. Forced to do it by the corrupt duopoly who control and rig our elections. Done with all of them.
I also suspect that Russian research reveled how destabilizing Trump would be as president. Their actions were intended to rip this country apart. And it is working.
33
Your posting cuts to the chase on Russia's motivation.
"...the Kremlin’s attempts to polarize the American voting public on issues like race, police abuse and religion."
Polarizing Americans on "race, police abuse and religion" is the short definition of Donald Trump's presidency.
69
excuse me, but the polarization is about Trump hatred and revenge pushed by the DNC and its minions. The NYT, WAPO, LAT are all guilty of publishing nothing but hate articles because of their desire for revenge. Their staff are naive children elitists who just can't believe how wrong they are.
1
Of all the fake news, misinformation and bot ads posted on social media before the election, those that were of Russian origin were a pitifully small percentage of the total--a mere handful of sand from the entire beach of media content planted with the specific intent of turning people's heads. But we're to believe that only the Russian ads confused people and sowed discord, so much so that Trump was put into the Oval Office as a result? That's absolutely ridiculous.
The message is clear: Massive amounts of American-based misinformation, bots and fake news, OK; Russian-based misinformation, bots and fake news, an existential threat. That's insulting. You'd have to be a complete idiot to change your view or vote based on the laughable content I've seen that's been released and connected to Russian sources.
Quick now, let's see a show of hands by those who think their vote was influenced by Russian meddling...Yea, that's what I thought. It's not YOUR vote that was influenced, it's all those feeble-minded people too dumb to know that they're being played by the Russians who are to blame.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is about to be drilled, American soldiers are being killed in a place called Niger (among other places), consumers just had more of their rights to challenge corporate malfeasance taken away, the biggest corporate tax break in American history is being attempted, and Hillary still doesn't know what happened.
Sad...
41
Having spent my career in marketing, this item made me recall a study done that said "a simple message repeated seven times will have decision impact". I was one of those targeted by these ads - specifically a middle aged woman in PA likely to vote for Hillary. I saw these ads and other posts daily on Facebook for weeks through the summer of 2016 - and when Comey came out with his statement in October I very nearly said "Not another! How can I vote?" - i, who had donated, worked and spoken to my friends about the importance of not losing this election to Trump and his policies, now coming to life. Yes, reach and frequency works, even if only to keep people home, or turn them to Jill Stein. I voted, for Hillary in the end, but not with the full confidence I had earlier in the year. Trust me, they made a difference, peppering me and others for days and weeks every time we checked on our friends on social media. Even if I just passed them by.
89
We can thank the Green Party for the drilling of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.
Nice work Jill Stein!
9
I agree wholeheartedly. Remember, division makes lots of money for the media and the PACs. I'm not sure how to stop the cycle. Very sad for the future of our nation.
2
Anyone who responds to a commercial featuring Jesus vs. Satan is unlikely to vote for any Democrat. Second point, the Clinton foundation was a problem. Third point, why doesn't Facebook know who is buying ads? In truth Trump won because the party nominated Hillary Clinton.
17
Why was the Clinton Foundation a problem and the Trump Foundation not a problem????
14
the problem wasn't nominating a highly qualified woman; the problem is the millions of americans gullible enough to believe every lie and conspiracy theory manufactured by the right-wing media machine over the last 25 years (even the russians couldn't help them get anything real on her). the problem is millions of americans too lazy to distinguish facts from accusations. the problem is our electoral system that is increasingly becoming a tool for white minority rule, instead of one-"man", one vote democracy.
2
Wow so no proof of wrong doing with Clinton Foundation but lots of proof of Trump Foundation wrong doing, so those Foreign ads must of worked on you
1
These ads (in my opinion) were not just preaching to the choir or designed to convert anyone to the message in the ad. They were also designed to convince us the other side was wacky and feed our sense of outrage in that way. As the accompanying piece points out, the Russians sometimes took opposite views on hot issues. The Russians are not stupid. They know people take the most outrageous things that extremists on the other side say and repeat them as proof that everyone on the other side is dangerous. Whether people agreed with the content of the ads wasn't as important, although it's scary to see how many apparently did.
21
here is the opposit view. The western main stream media and politicans denies the public a balanced view on the Russian sight of the medal. Did you ever hear of the anual "Valdai Club discussion forum"? Certainly not because it nowhere appears in the western media and reporting. You will see for a good reason, but you may , listen carefully 30 minutes to this speach Held Oct. 19th 2017 and then judge for yourself:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwKw5tn-DPY&t=85s
Putin and his bunch are likely to grow disenchanted with Trump and his bunch once Trump makes a surprise meatball move which truly endangers Russia, or perhaps even Putin and his family personally. Seeing how things are moving, that could be tomorrow, next week, next month, or next quarter. For sure, it's not going to be a long wait.
And when it happens, Putin will follow his golden rule: "Do unto Trump as I did unto Hillary, only better and less conspicuous this time." If Congress hasn't impeached and convicted Trump by that time, then Putin will disenfranchise him, for sure. Since Putin seems to be creative and merciless, Trump won't have media defenders such as Hannity and Limbaugh, since they'll be under attack as well. Rather than being today's goats, the social network giants could emerge as tomorrow's heroes as the score is evened.
5
Also I firmly believe Putin has some good stuff on Trump and I also believe there is a long trail of Russian info in his Taxes. As things start to fall around Trump, to try and save himself and keep the fake news narrative going he'll screw something up that Putin will look at as Trump is not carrying his part of the deal and Putin will throw Don The Con under the bus
1
Yeah, right. Americans lived in harmony and peace for centuries. Until the Russians discovered Facebook and ruined everything. Give me a break.
21
Yes, and the relentless demonization of Trump and disparagement by the media and progressives of anyone who dared vote for him over the pristine, incorruptible and brilliant Hillary has nothing to do with the societal divisions we have today.
So you knew how big and sophisticated the Russian propaganda machine was all along? Even when Facebook claims it was unaware? You must be pretty sophisticated.
The turning point was Gingrich.
Thanks for the huge laugh over my preprandial coffee this morning from this absurd piece. Because only in America do we cling with such fervour to our Manichean world view, painting everything into extremes of black/white, good/evil and so on. Our childish minds that are not well-formed after experiencing our deficient educational system would have it so...
15
Agree. Also, thanks for the new word: preprandial !
1
you are correct...this piece is written by some children at the NYT who actually believe that votes were cast because of Russian influence instead of the fact that Hillary was an awful candidate who was a criminal long before this election.
Well look who's ready for the SATs with all his fancy talk....
1
Last night PBS broadcasted part 2 reportage about Czar Putin widespread revengeful Russian infiltrations into American 2016 election.
It was a masterpiece of political, historical and psychological analysis.
Unfortunately many uninformed and gullible Americans have fallen into his trap.
Democracy dies in the darkness of misinformation.
19
It was more likely a masterpiece of political, historical and psychological propaganda. By PBS, now up there with MSNBC, FOX, Washington Post and NY Times as a disinformation outlet, due to heavy large corporation sponsorship. They have been going that way for a couple of years. Down the Drain. But not taking me with them.
Hillary lost to a reality show host because she was the worst candidate the Democrats could rig their primary for history. Now, that is a fact.
As you said "Democracy dies in the darkness of misinformation." I doubt that the Russians are the primary misinformers in US media.
1
If the Russians are behind this, then force the big ISPs to prevent anyone with an IP address inside Russia from accessing any US internet site. Get our NATO allies to do the same. Once we close down their internet access they may realize that they have more to gain by playing nice. Surely we have the technology to make their internet existence miserable.
9
Prohibiting Russian IP addresses from accessing American ISP networks would be completely ineffectual. They can simply use off-shore Virtual Private Network systems located in friendly nations to cloak their true origin.
Things we have to do in the name of freedom...
Additionally, what to do if Americans were behind it?
It would be better for the U.S. and all it's allies to stop buying anything Russian but especially oil & natural gas that's where Russia gets most of it's money. Also would like to know what brands of computers they use in Russia i'll bet mostly American brands stop selling computers to Russia
trump just skates along...... calls russian interference fake news. says no one in his campaign was involved etc. one by one all of these statements have been proven untrue. it would seem his followers would at least start having some doubts. enough doubt for them to want to know all the facts..... but no. there has not been a manipulation like this the German National Socialist Party in the 1930s.
10
Russians persistently drove wedges, disunion, and fury all over across America... Ahem, sounds exactly like the President's Twitter account to me.
14
Of course when WE did it and called it Radio Free Europe and Voice of America, that was just us being nice to other nations... not interfering with them.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
11
What kind of a national security strategy is that? Defend the country only against the kinds of attacks that we have never carried out? "Let's be fair to our enemies"?
Ads! Right now in advance of a Nov. 7 vote in NY we are getting vile accusations from both sides that may be "influencing" voters. What are true and what are lies?
Knowing the source of the "information" is the only warning we have, whether from foreign entities or our very own politicians. Or should we flip a coin to choose which side is telling the truth?
Just because these ads come from Russia doesn't make them different from and more damaging than the false advertising we get from everywhere.
As it as been said, Don't believe everything you see or everything you hear.
3
That's what all politicians count on, being able to spew a bunch of lies and nonsense and no one checks for it's credibility, how many people who vote for a candidate actually go into the available for everyone government web sites to see how all politicians voted on certain issues and bills. They'd be surprised to see politicians claiming one thing about what they have done or what the competition has done or not done and then see that they actually voted for a bill that was opposite of what they are spewing.
I'm still waiting for the direct evidence about who and what Russia did. BTW we don't do any of that stuff now do we?. Just look to Venezuela, Honduras or Iran or Pakistan or Cuba etc. Yeah we are pure and never interfere in other countries but then why are we bombing like 10 countries?.
11
Because you punched somebody once, you don't mind it when somebody takes a swing at you today, right? Who are you to say that hitting is wrong, after all, or that it might hurt your head?
I never saw these ads in 2016. But I am curious if they were bought by Russian Americans who happened to dislike Hillary or if they were sponsored by Kremlin., and if so what is the proof of this.
you can listen to the hearing on c-span
It is truly amazing what some of our fellow citizens have for mental process. Wave an ad with Hillary and Satan in front of them and they start foaming at the mouth. Surprising that they weren't equally disturbed with Ronald (6 letters) Wilson (6 letters) Reagan (6 letters): 666, major concern. No doubt Putin got quite a laugh as they were putting this stuff together and getting the goobs to line up behind their boy, trump. Reciprocity suggests we do similar favors for Puty and the Oligarchs.
3
Putin is a master at that game and he taught Trump well. The Art of getting people against each other, to get them to believe the other side is the evil side and you are the good side, get the rock dwellers out in force, tell them YOU know they are the ones being treated unfairly and YOU are the only one that can fix it and give their country back. All dictators who have made it to the top of the hill have used that format Hitler, Putin, Mussolini and Don read extensively on all of them and learned from them. Where do you think Don got the Crossed arms, head down. pushing out the bottom lip frown from, watch videos of Mussolini he is mimicking him
Exact how many people in the United States does not have a facebook, Twitter and google accounts? I am defending Zuckerberg but the politicians have not been paying any attention to the laws of the land, both Democrats and Republican should take part of the blame for their rethoric on the campaign trail. How much hatred has Fox Fake News spewed? On an on it goes with those same politicans ignoring their own duties.
Check your facts all of you look at other sources and take some time to evaluate them.
2
Content to the Russians provided by Bannon/Breitbart. Demographic/voter targeting data provided to the Russians by Kushner/Cambridge Analytica. The collusion dots are getting connected.
1
“Satan: If I win, Clinton wins!”, really?
Will it also be the "Satan in Mrs. Clinton" movie to follow up?
Guys, get a grip, this is simply a joke and there is no reason to make a big public outcry over this kind of wording as the US is doing the same in some other countries such as Bangladesh where the US embassy sponsored an election campaign against a candidate the US didn't like by putting him near the devil.
Still, ads are an illicit way to influence elections and should not be accepted when controlled by foreign countries as most elections are only domestic issues.
But the US would be much more believable if would not do the same in other countries.
So in order to become serious, stop election influencing in other countries and the try again.
2
Note the not-so-subtle implications that Americans are only worried about police impunity and rampant corruption because they've been 'duped' by the Russians
Please
You don't want the Russians to have meddling in American affairs? Fix the problems that Americans are actually concerned about and stop pretending like everything is hunky dory in America..and the Russians won't be able to meddle
...oh, and by the way. Payback (for color-coded revolutions) is a...
2
Does anybody else think these Russian efforts are hilarious- on the level of Boris and Natasha funny?
America, it is time to move on.
2
Why beat up the tech companies and waste time ?
Because these senators do not have the nerve to confront a certain individual who had a private email server, that the Russians hacked to get information that probably gave them ideas for their Facebook ad and bot troll messaging.
2
The Russian "interference" was obviously Pro-Clinton and Pro-Democrat party, otherwise the NY TIMES would have PLASTERED the headlines with ANY pro-republican ads. There weren't any. Again - this is not a story about Russians giving Trump the win, its about covering up the pro-democrat Russian support and financial "gifts", uranium control and Bill's "speaking fees". We wouldn't even be talking about this if Hillary was president because the NY TIMES is liberal biased. Russia LOVES Hillary. But nobody is willing to say that - and that is unjust.
Rather biased article. The ads attacked both Clinton and Trump and targeted soliciting discontent in the masses. While it was slated toward Clinton, this article is completely biased. They released the ads and you can see for yourself.
2
Simply put
Money Talks
Morality Walks
coffee time senators
Only an idiot would think $100,000 worth of Facebook Ads would have any significant affect in Election 2016 -- billed as the most expensive campaign season in history with an estimated $1BILLION spent ($1,000,000,000.) And the Clinton/DNC spent more than the GOP, albeit a lot less wisely according to a 60-minute report that mentioned the Clinton/DNC turned down on-site (free) help from the social media giants, while the Trump/GOP campaign said, please come right over. Thus, Google, Facebook and Twitter employees went to work at the GOP-Trump headquarters every day, helping them custom-target-market their campaign.
2
Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc.. but Why so much talk about them?
as I'm originally from USSR, which I escaped more than 25 years ago, I would suggest you a better solution -->
shut down Russian Empire from Internet Connection ! Let them live isolated in their Cuckoo's Nest :)
Don't know, but I hope it's technically possible.... some expert here can tell us about it.
Russia must be banned from everything, politically, economically and financially.
Тhis is the only way to collapse Putin's Russian Empire !
This from the New York Times story on Trump's reaction to the opiod epidemic (NYT 10/26)
"To combat the epidemic, the president said the government would produce 'really tough, really big, really great advertising' aimed at persuading Americans not to start using opioids in the first place..."
Who needs Russians to write ads, Trump will do it himself with the help of someone who can speak and write reasonably acceptable English.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
Be wary of what even your closest friends and family choose to share with you on Facebook and Twitter if it is political. No matter how strongly you might want to click Like and share their posts further, understand that they and you are being played by outside actors, whose game only works if you give in. Don't.
20
Mark:
Do you believe that you are so easily manipulated even by political messages spread by your family? Even if your entire family posted messages of Trump support, would you become a Trump supporter (or Hillary support if you are already a Trump supporter)?
Or is it that you believe that you are not that dumb but everyone else is?
How is tampering with an election more important than what these tech giants are doing to our children?
The public and lawmakers are ignoring all the evidence that phones, computers, videos, social media, and games are hurting children. The tech giants have undermined education and family. It should be the nation's number one priority.
11
Because elections are the foundation of democracy, that's why!
1
No it shouldn't. Where exactly "outside the echo chamber" are you living? If you are.
"“I’ve expressed how upset I am that the Russians used our tools to sow mistrust,” Mr. Zuckerberg said, noting that Facebook’s profits will probably be affected by the amount of money the company will spend fighting abuse of its platform."
Gee, my heart breaks for Mr. Zuckerberg and his loss of profits resulting from a new-found, but forced, focus on fighting abuse. God forbid he lose a penny of revenue.
The released attack ads on Hillary Clinton are ugly. But they'd be merely laughable were it not for the fact that so many saw, and shared them.. Putin knows his US audience well, a gullible, angry, politically exploited set of voters who thrive on hate and disinformation campaigns.
The Russians will be back, because their social media meddling was a success. Facebook Nation is becoming a demagogue's true best friend--nothing like a little ignorance and animus to substitute for voters' civic responsibility to make informed decisions about candidates.
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Facebook Nation is not alone. Disinformation is at the heart of Fox News, Breitbart and InfoWars.
Mark Zuckerberg is upset now but he wasn't too upset to accept the payment even though Facebook engineers could easily tweak the adtech algorithms to screen for trolls and fakers.
After the first round of machine screenings, it can still engage in human screenings.
Same with Google.
Twitter is slightly more difficult since it is based on a realtime broadcasting model. And if it can accept @realdonaldtrump tweets, a lot of others could slip through. Still, it should be able to screen out some suspicious bots, deployed by both the Russian and the Trump Campaign
11
What makes this all even stranger is the mix of ads ( many have been posted in line). Some pro-Trump, some anti-Trump. There are pro-Hilary, pro-Bernie, even neutral ones like dogs in the mix.
And most / all were apparently real images and slogans already there before Russians reused them.
What appears singular is that they were directed with great care at those most likely to be affected by them.
It looks like they were trying to spread chaos as much as anything.
20
Yes but more sinister is how swing states were targeted.........they had assistance from Americans, facilitated by Facebook disregard.
1
After watching parts of the Senate and House Committee meetings, I came away disappointed that the three entities, each sent their counsel, and not their respective CEOs, also as noted by the committees. Disrespectful.
Facebook's Stretch, was obtuse for much of the questioning, and all three counsel, were allegedly lacking knowledge and their responses. I felt they were evasive, and testified as to the bare minimum to offer.
If they can gather as much information on users as the purport to do, for which they are making billions, I don't see how they can't provide the information requested by Congress. In order to protect our national security they must do more.
If they don't and we lose our democracy because of their refusal to cooperate, they will learn the hard way once Putin and his ilk take them to the wood shed, and they'll be subordinate and owned by Russian oligarchs.
21
I doubt we will "lose our democracy because of their refusal to cooperate". It's more likely because of the willful ignorance of the American voter. As Mark Thomason says, they are preaching to the choir. We need to look at ourselves first.
1
Those ads were preaching to the choir. They were not aimed to convert or convince anyone.
They also were not likely to stir up anyone not already stirred up.
They just were not very good ads. They were not done by real US-style campaign ad experts. They were done by Russian hackers, and they show all the lack of imagination in US politics of foreign geeks.
There also just were not that many of them in an ocean of ads, a mere drop in that ocean, and not even well done.
They should not have done it, but they did it small and poorly, so stop hyperventilating.
The real lesson is it could be a lot worse next time. We need to prevent it happening again, when they might start to get it right.
They did not give us Trump. Hillary did that.
29
I disagree. A political ad, perused quickly online, does not need to win a Clio, it just has to move the sensibility of, let's admit, some pretty dumb folk by a little. And the next, by a little.
And, in an America that was once proudly practical and rational, there are probably millions who believe a Caucasian Jesus wrestles with a black imp with pointed tale and horns. Like my sister does.
3
Glad that you are here to clarify the motivations of the American electorate for us and claim our voices as your own.
2
He lost the popular vote by 3 million. He won the election by a paltry 80,000. Thats about 05% of the 126 million exposed to the ads. It's silly to think that Russia didn't have affect the outcome.
1
Profits are up. So will these social media giants really bother?
"Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay and you're okay
Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team..."
And so on -- with a nod to Pink Floyd and David Gilmour
9
Great "Frontline" program tonight (Nov. 1) on PBS about Russian "tsar" Vladimir Putin's successful sabotage of our presidential election just over a year ago.
31
Yes to PBS!!!! The Putin documentary is OUTSTANDING and I hope everyone sees the 2 part program.....very interesting and more informative then anything I have seen to date. This should be required viewing and should be shown in our colleges now. You can stream it, do yourself a favor and see it today...this is important journalism...which still exists!
Russia interfered in our democratic process Trump denies it and has no interest in protect our country from further interference in 2018-20 assuming that Putin would support him again. Trump's campaign chairman is charged with treason and international corruption. Jared is selling visa to rich Chinese folks Ivanka got 100 million $ from Saudi then Trump attacked Iran deal. TRump has lied and committed fraud often to find out he was a traitor is not a big surprise. A dacha in Russia with 50 billion$ offshore would follow an Exxon oil deal with Putin and he also would get the Russian medal of excellence pinned on by his hero and role model Putin.
18
Everything I know say's it wasn't a big deal. Put down the wrong date and you get to wear a wire. Hillary didn't loose because of the Russians. This admin has never worked in public service. I didn't vote for the man, I'm a dem and I sure as heck wasn't going to be voting that war mongering Clinton and friends. The public is easily led. I thought the ad with Hillary as Satan was apt though. So again, white, her age and not voting for her because I wasn't born yesterday I remember past events.
@Mark Thomason- That “they had their reasons” for choosing to consume obvious falsehoods has the merit of elevating stupidity over such grubbiness. But, yes, research does indicate they are unreachable. See Thomas Edsall’s “Trump Says Jump. His Supporters Ask, How High?”
Should we look into Uranium one?
So, the Russians are responsible for our polarization and all our other problems. That is the way to take responsibility, o wait, never mind.
24
Since you’ve already neverminded, I’ll speak to those who are still listening. Part of taking responsibility is undersanding fully what has transpired. Judgment is best exercised under such circumstances.
No, they are clearly responsible for studying our social cleavages and deliberately setting out to inflame our divisions. In time of war this effort would be recognized as active propaganda And agitation.
Read your history.
I have read a lot of history. And I do not think we are by any means so pure as the driven snow, our divisions being inflamed by the Russians is a joke. You, Robert, need to read some history.
Whether it's Russian propaganda on social media or dishonest campaign ads on radio and TV, the problem reduces to this: too many Americans are simply too stupid to tell fact from fiction. And as long as that's true, there is no hope for democracy in America.
153
"too many Americans are simply too stupid"
You presume this nonsense convinced anyone.
More likely they had their reasons, and Dems refuse to understand those, setting themselves up to lose again.
7
Those that buy Fox 'News' would buy this.
Boy, you hit the nail on the head, Drew! Americans have become so dumbed down by a failed public educational system, so uninterested in drilling down into subjects, so brain lazy, so dependent on electronic media to spoon feed that our democratic system is slowly dying. I'm 74 and have watched this happen over the past 40 years or so.
The real problem is not Russian interference or Trump's collusion with them but that people actually believe what they see on the internet.
The internet as the source of "information" is primarily an echo chamber, simply reinforcing one's current outlook, whether hopes, beliefs, or fears. People go to web sites knowing what they are going to get. And the ads, whether called ads or something else, are merely targeted spots to play into the viewers hopes and fears.
It has come to the point where "news" is that which comports with one's own world view, and everything else is "fake news." Americans no longer even have the same narrative to argue passionately about. We have gone from three middle-of-the-road TV networks and a local newspaper about which we could disagree to 500-channel TV, which allowed everyone to pick a station that reinforced their views, to the internet, which is 500 channel TV on steroids coupled with making the participant the data-mined target of every hustle out there, whether commercial or political.
It's not that we see different things, it's that we look for different things and thus invariably see different things, leaving us no common language with which to communicate.
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Beautifully thought out and perfectly explained by you Steve. If only the rest of our population were as intelligent.
2
Early reading & literacy is essential in a Democracy that needs educated informed voters combined with critical thinking skills we have a chance.....note that these 2 essentials are things that Betsey (Amway) DeVoss is trying to destroy as it makes the people so much harder to heard into low paying dead end jobs. Reading is the key to freedom. A shocking number of Americans are functionally illiterate and that undermines our entire society.
2
We see the world not the way it is, but the way we are.
2
This panel is missing the big picture. A few thousand accounts on twitter and facebook are just the tip of the iceberg. A quick view of many blog posting type websites, and many newspaper websites, are filled with goofy awkward translated responses buried in the comments. The cottage industry around bots goes way past the Kremlin. Many are straight-up outrageous lies designed to get you to click so the author gets paid. These websites are paid by advertisers when traffic appears to be interested in the site. This new breed of web hucksters WANT the goofy traffic--they get paid! There are all sorts of bot authors who specialize in pushing new book titles to the top of the NY Times list. There are those who drive traffic to "like" and "Recommend" and provide fake "5 star" reviews of products. They do it the very same way the Enquirer does with the cover. A picture with an outrageous caption beggin you to throw it into your shopping cart at checkout.
Many social media systems will soon to be labeled what they are...a failed business model. Once advertisers understand the truth behind the actions of bots they most certainly will stop paying for the phantom traffic by ghosts.
There is talk of thousands of fake accounts. The tip of the iceberg. Check out the web and find people soliciting the rental of tens of thousands of fake identities designed to drive traffic. Facebook may be paying for this stuff and encouraging their use--possibly paying for them directly!
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"goofy awkward translated responses buried in the comments" convinced who? Really, anyone?
2
@ Mark Thomason- “Goofy awkward” would describe Trump’s tweets and look where they got him.
Unfortunately a lot of people. If the ads message resonates with you, and given their skill at targeting an audience that is exactly what they do, then it sways and convinces you by reinforcing what you may already believe. They are using you against you. Very, very clever. Think, pause, think and you will see how effective they are.
Have we, as a nation, yet realized what saps we are?
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Um, people are too busy on FB to care.
I watched that pathetic charade and had to either laugh or throw a pot threw the TV. The United States of America has taken over foreign lands and placed despots as their rulers but, Russia buys some few pittance of ad's which are ingenious and they end up being the bad guy's.
9
Well, is not the integrity of our election something to at least work to maintain. No charade here, but a clever manipulation of you against you. The makers of these ads know so well our psychological tendencies tthat they reserve to reinforce what you already believe, worts the ad, existence seems like confirmation of what you may already believe and thus misinformation whiteout dialogue or critical challenges contributes to the anger or despair that you may already feel. Very very clever and old.
Fine hold Facebook and other tech company's accountable but how about addresssing the Murdocks and Fox "News". Talk about a corrupting influence on our democracy look no further. Not to mention the responsibility of our citizenry to be informed so as to distinguish absurd propaganda from factual news stories. More pathetic photo ops and faux outrage from our "public servents" is too little too late if it fails to address all of the above.
is too little too late.
60
And how about our own president's "fake news?" The biggest liar and propagandist of all time in our country is RUNNING our country. When are we going to hold ALL politicians accountable for the words that come out of their mouths. No other profession is allowed to openly lie in order to con people. Why do we tolerate this in the leaders of our democracy?
If Russians inject lies into our elections we have a year of newspaper and cable investigations, non-stop articles, and congressional hearings.
When the Koch brothers or a teachers union or the NRA produce a duplicitous ad we don't bat an eye. Consider it as totally normal.
It's as if we don't mind being misled as long as the ones doing the lying are our countrymen. Weird.
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you should also be looking at Instagram. There are tons of accounts that post conflicting and confounding videos and images related to everything from guns, racism, white supremacy, women's equality. Or the ton's of videos that are straight Russian content framed as American (namely girls, guns, fights, cars).
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The Silicon Valley giants are run by young men who live in la-la-tech land. They are immature, and basically clueless and unwise when it comes to the world outside 00000s and 11111s.
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From what I read Facebook was not started w/ a great altruistic vision, far from it..it was a campus dating profile site....that is rather trivial and not visionary at all. Zuckerburg is no tech visionary like Steve Jobs. Same holds true for Twitter.
And the rubles are so good!
During one of the last series of Presidential "debates," Trump called Hillary Clinton the "devil." not Satan. It was another one of those times when I wished I lived in a country that had moral authorities who stood up and said, "Have you no sense of decency?" the ("sir" honorific uncalled for here).
13
Russia should run an investment fund. They spent $100k and according to some news sources were able to swing the US election. This story is a joke. Hillary spent hundreds of millions. She had the same opportunity to run any ad she wanted but no one was listening? Don't blame Russia. Blame a really really bad candidate. The sour grapes are getting old. Time to move on.
11
Yes, it’s tome to move on from showing Trump apologists the facts.
1
Noone said their ads succeeded in swinging the elections. This is an investigation into their attempts at influencing the election anonymously. You SHOULD be concerned, not moving on. Or do you not consider our election process one that should not be compromised by foreign nations, especially our arch enemy? That okay with you.
1
That solves the Trump no marketing budget issue.
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It only works if you're not immunized against cheap hype and sound bytes. The DOD has no strategic plan to combat our main threat and vulnerability at home-the utter stupidity of the American people.
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Russia is carving us up and the Republicans are cheering them on. And why not? They're not the ones who will suffer when it all collapses.
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There is no clear difference between the Republican and Russia divisive propaganda. That is why the Russians succeeded in remaining under the radar for most of us - we thought it was all Republican, alt-right, Alex Jones, FOX, Breitbart, Limbaugh, etc. narratives and propaganda. Go figure.
Yea, go figure. Next time, in 2018 and 2020 we should be prepared to assume all the propaganda we get originates from Russia and not necessarily from the Republican Misinformation Complex.
Where did all the money Manafort laundered for his Russian clients end up? Republican super Pacs supporting trump? Maybe the real Republican ads were actually paid for by Russian money too. Thank you SCOTUS!
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Actually, if the reports in this paper are correct, most of Manafort's Ukraine fees wound up in Italian suits and personal home improvements.
Amusing how some folks are so willing indulge in selective outrage. The NYT and MSNBC are just as bad, albeit on the side you prefer.
1
Actually, the fees that Manafort received (and invested in suits, etc.) are different from the funds he laundered on behalf of others. Two different things.
I'm sickened pretty much every time I see the homepage of Fox News, so this really kills me: The way you presented this article nearly cancels out its great value of alerting us to Russian disinformation.
Take its main draw item - the Russian ads. Out of the huge collection you only posted three; all anti-Clinton. This makes the Republican lawmakers' comments in the article now look willfully naive, or worse blatantly manipulative while the Democrats come off as sensible heroes. If you actually follow the link though you'll see that the ads are pretty diverse. Fox does this all the time - linking the source but presenting a skewed, more appealing version in their article because they know most people don't check the source if it involves an extra click.
You should have made your three ads more representative instead of subtly skewing them to make us feel righteous and angry. As another commentator pointed out, the main theme of the Russian ads actually seems to be* that they're trying to get one group of Americans angry at another groups of Americans for the benefit of their publisher. Its a shamefully ironic that in highlighting Russian sabotage, you seem to be doing the same.
*No, I didn't code and summarize the available sample of ads statistically. I wish you guys had employed someone take a few hours to do so and posted the methodology beforehand. Lord knows we could use job experience and a name brand on our CV more than feeling smart and righteous.
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"Democrats come off as sensible heroes"
I thought that was the NYT editorial policy?
"Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, emphasized that the real intent was to broadly spread misinformation and create chaos". Check and Mate. The last time a foreign power tried to change our profile from confident and steadfast to afraid and paranoid it worked. 9-11 was Osama Bin Laden's attack on our country. 10-8 was Putin's attack on our soul.
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The tech executives claiming they couldn't let people know if they'd seen a fake ad - they're messing around. Yeah, you can't reliably get every person. But between cookies and logins, and with a blanket banner ad, they can get very nearly every person. It's a game. Oh, no, I can't measure how long Pismo Beach is - the grains of sand shift, so I could never get an accurate number!
1
The real problem is not Russian interference or Trump's collusion with them but that people actually believe what they see on the internet
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Jared and I met with them with the intention of getting usable information. By them, I mean the country that annexed the Crimea, you know, the one we recently placed punitive sanctions on.
2
A bunch of pro Bernie, pro Clinton, pro LGBT, pro Black Lives Matter ads amplifying the Democrats' identity politics agenda. Russians taking a bad idea embraced by Clinton and making it even worse. Facebook said today that the targeting didn't overlap with Trump targeting. The media seems to happily ignore that, all in an attempt to press their agenda.
2
Congress got played by the CEOs and well they should. Can anybody believe these ads influenced anything? Laughable. Hillary had no plan and zero charisma. No fake ads needed.
1
I looked at those ads and I do not get it - What exactly of what the Russians did was illegal or "fake" or even wrong? Or in any way different from any other stuff found on Facebook or Twitter? Certainly nothing I have seen justifies this level of hysteria. So some Russians took an interest in US elections and spent modestly on few obliquely related ads. Is US democracy really so fragile to threatened by that in any way? And why are we talking only about the Russians? Did nationals of other countries not buy political advertisement on Facebook? I would like to hear about Israeli or Saudi influence campaigns in the US and to compare their costs to amounts spent by the Russians. Without such comparison it looks like nothing but a narrowly targeted witch hunt to me.
10
And there's also the inconvenient truth (not Al Gore's) that the CIA does the same, and worse, against other countries.
1
Federal election law prohibits foreign nationals for making expenditures on “electioneering communications.” It defines electioneering communications as any communication that fulfills each of the following conditions: (1) The communication refers to a clearly identified candidate for federal office; (2) The communication is publicly distributed shortly before an election for the office that candidate is seeking; and (3) The communication is targeted to the relevant electorate (U.S. House and Senate candidates only).
However, foreign nationals are allowed to place paid political ads that address issues, but not ads that refer to a specific candidate. So only those ads hat promoted or disparaged specific candidates would have violated election law. Facebook says most of the ads did not mention either candidate. Since foreign nationals residing abroad are not under U.S. jurisdiction, they can't be prosecuted. But Facebook and Twitter could be prosecuted for accepting the ads, if they so knowingly.
2
Trump himself uses the same divisive tactics and spreads the same types of nonsense these ads were selling. Could Congress please address that problem, too.
5
The problem with these companies is the problem with social media in general: a business model focused on making money by profiting off the amplification of messaging - but without responsibility for the content of what is amplified.
When we eliminated the Fairness Doctrine and decoupled News Outlets from specific expectations around accuracy of content we opened the door to all this.
Now, the guy who used to yell conspiracy theories while standing on a box on the corner has been converted to a "leading figure" of one reactionary thought-stream or another.
It just takes a little money - and if you have a lot, you can make absolute chaos on a grand scale.
Is it any wonder that we have become an idiocracy?
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Yes, ground rules for tech companies verifying social media sources are clearly warranted.
But we can't point the finger only at Facebook et al. We must not forget our own burden of educating our people - especially as DeVos pushes religious, science-denying schools and for-profit diploma mills.
Democracy requires an educated populace to survive.
7
With Trump in office who needs ads in social media to divide the nation. Putin's job is done.
1
They still have to keep folks on the left fighting over stupid purity tests through the 2018 and 2020 elections. That way they can't recognize that they agree on almost everything and could change the country for the better if they would just get organized and vote.
1
The internet as the source of "information" is primarily an echo chamber, simply reinforcing one's current outlook, whether hopes, beliefs, or fears. People go to web sites knowing what they are going to get. And the ads, whether called ads or something else, are merely targeted spots to play into the viewers hopes and fears.
It has come to the point where "news" is that which comports with your world view, and everything else is "fake news." Americans no longer even have the same narrative to argue passionately about. We have gone from three middle-of-the-road TV networks and a local newspaper about which we could disagree to 500-channel TV, which allowed everyone to pick a station that reinforced their views, to the internet, which is 500 channel TV on steroids coupled with making the participant the data-mined target of every hustle out there, whether commercial or political.
The solution
1
What a relief to find out that the reason Americans hate each other is because those evil Russians cast a nefarious spell over what had been up to then a non-stop national love-fest. Whew! I was worried we were in trouble
because we are a society of
spoiled, hypercritical, hypocritical, narcissistic, materialistic, unread babies who each think they and their faction is right and everyone else is not just wrong but deliberately bad and hateful. We dodged a bullet there. I am so glad the amnesiac spell has been broken and we can go back to being the loving, nurturing, peaceful, generous, benevolent and loving friends, neighbors and involved world citizens we were just before Boris and Natasha subverted media and hypnotized us all.
19
It's a lot easier, and infinitely more comfortable, to blame the Russians.
In this country it is ALWAYS someone else's fault.
The headline to an earlier story states, "Tech Executives Are Contrite." In the terms of our President, that's fake news. Contrite my you-know-what! These guys, execs and lawyers alike, undoubtedly had more coaching in acting than Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman for "All The President's Men", with their focus-group honed answers written by others for Senators' likely questions, fed to the execs in rehearsals, and memorized up the wazoo. Reminds me of the cigarette company execs swearing before Congress that gee, they didn't know their products caused cancer.
However, those who use Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others like them should keep in mind that these corporations are no different from Wells Fargo, Experian, ExxonMobil and their like. They are about profit, pure and simple. Publicly held (and most privately held) corporations have no allegiance to America, its people, or its values, despite many millions spent hiring ad companies and lobbyists to convince us otherwise. If we use their products, we are enablers. It becomes an "us", not merely "them" that is the problem, no different from a bartender who knowingly serves drinks to a drunk person about to drive off.
6
“What they did is wrong” is only half the reality, Zuckerburg. What Facebook, Google, and Twitter did was irresponsible and continues to be so on many levels, threatening the well being of their users. Tech CO’s continue to deny and distance themselves from any culpability. It’s rotten. It is long past time the FCC designates the internet a public utility and regulates it from abuse on these levels.
2
Make social media companies responsible for the content published on the sites the same was traditional media companies are held responsible for what they publish. Sued for liable? Sued for invasion of privacy? Sued for intentional infliction of emotional distress? The garbage on social media will decline precipitously.
2
Further confirmation that the Russians’ primary goal is to undermine democracy by sowing dissension among Americans.
During the election, they took both sides, but worked mostly against Clinton. After the election, they are again taking both sides, but mostly trying to undermine Trump’s legitimacy. This is not just on Facebook and Twitter, but in the comment sections of NYT, WaPo, WSJ, USA Today, etc.
When we fight each other, demonize opposing views and people, or allow ourselves to despise other Americans, the Russians win.
Let's at least try to understand and respect each other, even when we disagree. If we do this, we will easily defeat Russia's attempts to drive us apart.
2
My wife and her MANY friends all across the country literally live on facebook. and we have yet to hear from ANYONE who saw a single ad during the 2016 election season. They claim that 150M people saw these ads, yet I have NEVER seen ANY commenter on ANY site claim to have seen one. NONE of the commenters here claim to have seen one either. 150M is approx. half of our population. I believe someone is purposefully conflating the numbers MANY times over.
5
Lawmakers and "scorn" or "frustration" for corporate malfeasance? Again? How about a little regulation or punishment for abuse?
3
I wish our politicians were as interested in Trump's involvement with Russia as they seem to be with the tech sector leaders. Another political forked tongue exercise made for TV. I am dumbfounded that grown men conduct themselves in this manner.
“'We have a president who remains unwilling to acknowledge the threat that Russia poses to our democracy,'” Mr. Warner said."
Seriously? Just how dumb are these democrats? The Trump Administration has been extremely tough on Russia. It was, after all, President Trump who demanded that all his agencies come up with a cybersecurity plan to prevent the interference of foreign countries in our nation's activities.
That President Trump refuses to allow Hillary to claim the Russians caused her to lose the election is pure politics, and democrats know it. If they seriously believe the Trump Administration doesn't recognize Russia as a threat, they deserve the low esteem in which the public holds them. And maybe the public should consider impeachment proceedings against them for stupidity.
4
It will be extremely challenging for Facebook and Google to develop algorithms that can differentiate between legitimate Republican misinformation ads and Russian misinformation ads given they are so similar.
6
They should only be allowed to run Democratic ads. That would fix it. Right?
6
Hmm, good idea Mark.
Just saying that even I could build an algorithm that would easily differentiate between a Democratic ad and a Russian ad (which could also be a Republican ad). Tougher to differentiate Russian-Republican ads.
I'd be for banning all divisive, malicious and misleading ads - regardless where it is from.
1
OK so the Russian exploited divisions in the American electorate by focusing on partisan hatred and focusing on controversial issues like immigration and race?
Isn't that exactly what our media does every day? If it so wrong, why do media outlets engage in these practices?
10
Does America really need Russian help in focusing upon an unprofessional police that indulges in violence so often or issues like civil forfeiture, which basically turn police departments and city managers into pirates?
Maybe so since if this was not so much of a problem to begin with the Russians would not have such issues to use.
2
The big media companies, Facebook, Google, etc., don't want to pay the money they would have to pay human beings to vet their traffic. Much easier to have an engineer write a piece of code that looks for a few words associated with hate mail, and then claim you are fulfilling your responsibilities.
2
There is alot of focus on Russian media interference in our election and rightfully so, but do not discount our homegrown mis-information machines particularly the Mercer's Cambridge Analytica efforts. Guardian had excellent investigative article back in March regarding their involvement in the Brexit campaign. Sent chills up my spine.
4
Why hasn't NSA and CIA released the account numbers and locations of every secret Putin bank account, every secretly held property and every last detail of his personal finances and presumably immense fortune, and the details of his family's finances? Spread it far and wide across the internet, in Russian, for every Russian citizen to see. Obviously the NSA must have this information; if not they should all be fired. But I'm confident they're sitting on this. If Putin wants an information nuclear war then let's give him his information nuclear war.
2
No doubt the Russians could do the same to the US financial elite and the politicians who served them by making such an attack. Want that? It would be a lot of fun actually, rather like the Panama disclosures on steroids, vastly better than anything Wikileaks has managed so far. I don't think the US government is up for that exchange.
3
I know one person who voted for Trump and supports him to this day. He doesn't go online, he watches Fox News. University educated and yet...He told me "I don't believe in global warming and neither does Trump. That's why I voted for him." So I understand now these voters decided on a candidate who was in accord with their views, who would support their climate-denying-white-supremist position. The Russian sponsored social media pro-Trump ads would not have affected these voters. Trump has touched their deepest hates and nothing will change their loyalty towards him. They hate anything that inconveniences them, like action on climate change, like immigrants, like regulations, like taxes.
7
Since Facebook and Twitter make their money by selling advertisements, it's really not surprising they were slow to try and stem the tide of false information. It's also not too surprising that many fell for the false advertising. People who get their "news" from social media advertisements are more likely than not to be subjected to false or deceptive information. I think many of us have seen articles and information being shared that we know is false. The important take away from all of this is how easily people are fooled. How willing they are to grab onto sensational "information" which supports views. The Russians may be masters at disinformation, but it also takes a somewhat gullible population willing to depend on information posted by unknown sources as completely factual. Unfortunately I do not have much confidence people will suddenly become more discerning because of this scandal.
2
Facebook is not something you need. Life can go without it. Perhaps another service could be developed without these risks.
2
I have commented over and over again that the infamous tech companies-- Facebook, Twitter, Google -- only look at their fat profitable margins, subsidized in large part of obsolete Internet law that does not treat them as legacy media companies. Facebook employs 10k to review content for 2 billion users, where the Chinese equivalent, Renren/WeChat, hires over 100k with a 1 billion users. Why the difference? In China, disobeying the government has criminal connotation. The U.S. companies just hire more lawyers and lobbyists. That is cheaper than investing in managing content. If these Internet companies' Internet shield were removed allowing individuals to sue these companies, then you will witness more internal management of their content.
This is a new kind of Cold War. Are modern democratic countries are fighting back against this by using social media and other technologies to encourage citizen anger and political dissent in Russia? Would be interesting to know if Putin is responding to a information assault and if so, whether that effort broadcasts instances of Putin's venality and ruthlessness to Russians or whether it also seeks to weaken Russian social cohesion apart from its appalling governance and corruption.
40
The US State Dept under Hillary did exactly that to Putin in 2012, when he was re-elected despite it. The US spent a lot more money, with a lot more election expertise and a number of "NGO" groups funded by the State Dept working inside Russia.
That is what Putin was retaliating for. He said he was outraged right after it happened. This was payback. THEY were "fighting back."
We says our bigger effort did not harm. Probably not. Neither did theirs, but it is a great excuse to avoid admitting the problems with Hillary.
4
Looks like Mitt Romney was 100% correct when he called Russia our biggest geopolitical foe. Makes you wonder if he would have taken steps to prevent this very kind of interference if he had been elected instead of Barrack Obama who basically disregarded the Russian threat.
. The western main stream media and politicans denies the public a balanced view on the Russian sight of the medal. Did you ever hear of the anual "Valdai Club discussion forum"? Certainly not because it nowhere appears in the western media and reporting. You will see for a good reason, but you may , listen carefully 30 minutes to this speach of Putin Held Oct. 19th 2017 and then judge for yourself:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwKw5tn-DPY&t=85s
"Press like to help Jesus win, (with cartoon of Satan and Hillary)" is not an argument. It isn't fake news. Its crazy talk, and I need another article to help me understand exactly what that did to my fellow citizens. I wouldn't have clicked "like" if the candidates had been reversed -- even though I supported Clinton. What sort of "team spirit" is this, and what difference will it make if its there, or if it goes away?
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The argument, paula, is that Republicans are all idiots and that some Democrats (oddly, the ones who so unexpectedly voted for Trump in such numbers) are just as much idiots; and that idiots must be protected from arguments inimical to the interests of the left. And the only evidence that we've effectively scotched the problem is if Republicans are routed and Democrats win all the marbles.
In the end, this is all distraction. Russia apparently mounted an incursion within our borders, the Obama administration failed to see it in time or at any time effectively prevent it, and this epochal and sad failure must be denied by somehow blaming the guy Democrats claim decisively benefited from the incursion, Donald Trump.
Oh, and let's blame Google, Facebook and others because THEY didn't turn back an invasion of our nation by Russian hackers. "The Washington Post reported in 2010 that there were 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies in 10,000 locations in the United States that were working on counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence, and that the intelligence community as a whole includes 854,000 people holding top-secret clearances." -- Wikipedia.
Yet ... it's all Google's and Facebook's fault.
5
Which is worse, Richard, Obama's failure to see the Russian incursion in time, or Trump's holding open the door to the Russians in the hope that he would benefit from their attack on the United States? The investigations aren't over, but one potential finding is that the Trump campaign aided the Russian government in its incursion.
1
Let’s make it simple:
Russia launched a multi-faceted, sophisticated campaign to influence our most recent Presidential campaign. They used social media and hacked emails and state election computers. They tried, and, perhaps succeeded, in injecting their propaganda into their campaign.
Whether Russia affected the results of the election or not, they wanted to and tried to do so.
So what does Trump and the Republican Congress intend to do to prevent this in the future? What are they waiting for?
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Above all they want to pretend that "if" it happened, it had no impact on the election. Too busy abusing power to worry about whether or not it was obtained democratically.
5
Obama - "And, the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because, the Cold War's been over for 20 years."
Great sound bite during the Romney-Obama debate. Turns out Romney was right. Vindication! Dems still wouldn't care if they didn't lose due to a horrible candidate.
1
Porch -- Obama was right. Hillary is wrong. This did not happen because of Putin, it happened because of Hillary.
I read the New York Times thoroughly and know I can rely of the accounts and that commentary is differentiated from news. Now I notice other sources of "information" such as on a supermarket check stand, but it never occurs to me to open any. I am still puzzled about people could be misled on the internet about "news" unless they want to be misled as though reading a supermarket paper or magazine.
We need to teach students to discriminate in reading in school, but beyond that I do not think I can be misled by fake internet news since I rely on completely reliable source and besides I learned how to think critically.
67
The problem is that you're not the target audience, it was people who do not think critically. And there were enough of them to elect the least qualified and capable president in American history.
2
That is not how the digital age works, Nancy. It's fast. It's free. It's untethered. And where The Star, People Magazine and others are obvious and outrageous, these players are secretive and play upon people's ignorance.
need to teach students to discriminate in reading in school
How about just teaching them to read.
4
Considering how the NRA helps tilt every election and the amount of people their products kill every year, maybe we're better off with the direction Russia could possibly tilt them.
4
No, we're not better off with Russia than the NRA -- both are happy to destabilize America if it means more $$ in the pockets of a handful of oligarchs.
81
It's time the tech companies took a stand on protecting our future. Their stand on applying net neutrality to Russian interference is nonsensical, but that election is over, and we are stuck with fascism for a while.
We have a much bigger problem now: Our government has been purchased by the major corporations, including the more destructive sectors, such as fossil fuels, banking, media, and timber "harvesting".
Tech has had many opportunities to do something about our likely catastrophic global warming future. Instead, like our media companies, they choose to avoid offending advertisers, including the fossil fuel, meat, and toxic chemical companies. Unlike those industries- which are in retreat, and acting in desperation- our Tech giants have more money than the world has ever seen. Any of the big ones could swallow the whole fossil fuel industry, which is only 2.6% of GDP. Zuckenberg, Bren, Gates, Cook, and Bezos talk a good game, and build clean data centers, but stand on the sidelines. There is no excuse for this passive form of negligence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMQ3iSQIu2Y
52
How many Trumpsters will say, "My God! I was duped by Russia!" Many? A few None? Or do they simply not care?
Notice how this lines up with the propaganda from Fox News, Sean Hannity, Rush Loimbaugh . Alex Jones and others..
Any American who is not deeply upset about this is a traitor and anyone who thinks this did not make a crucial difference in a close election is eiher stpuid or lying...
Trump is Russia's man and given the damage he has done both at home and abroad, it's easy to understand why..
297
Isn't the lack of outrage an indicator that they were going to vote for Trump regardless?
I don't like Trump, but I have a hard time feeling angry at the Russians. Anything to slow the socialist takeover of this country is a good thing, even if it's help from outside. Socialism is only ok if you expel all the non-socialists first. Else it is theft, plain and simple. Democracy taken way too far.
1
Rush, Sean, Alex etc are all highly paid to spread anger driven propaganda...that is their "business". Are we surprised? These people are not professional journalists, Rush unlike his other family members never even graduated from college. If it was funny they would be considered entertainers but they are not funny, far from it, they are highly paid to keep people riled up and angry, so they can be easily manipulated by the forces that pay these anger mongers. Follow the $ to know who is pulling the strings and what their motivation is. It is not about "making American great again"....it's about endless personal greed & power over others. Not very All- American values I say.
1
Oh my, a “traitor”? What does someone in your house get called for leaving the cap off the toothpaste tube?
Russians just want to create chaos in US society. Most of the Russian social media stuff was aimed at Trump being unfit to be president AFTER the election. What a waste of time and money this whole affair has become. Thanks to the establishment.
15
And yet Trump denied Russia's involvement, attacked the intelligence agencies for reporting it, and has shown zero interest in combatting future Russian interference. Why?
3
"Most of the Russian social media stuff was aimed at Trump being unfit to be president AFTER the election"
If you're "leaning left" it must be because your house is collapsing; your assertion is pure right-wing counterfactual fake news.
2
Trump is President: why does ideology really matter in this instance?
What matters is that there is a vast segment of folks in this country that were manipulated and are still being being manipulated by a foreign power. That power has one goal: the destabilization of our democracy.
So far, the GOP is a useless entity. They cant move forward on health care, immigration, guns, our climate, and Russian interference. What are we paying them for?
154
Excellent post, only one error. We are not the ones paying the GOP legislators, they are virtual employees of the oligarchs, and they are doing what their masters demand and pay for by financing their campaigns: manipulation of the tax law to shift even more wealth to the 0.01%, and elimination of pesky regulations that limit predations by the 0.01%.
6
I never saw a single ad from Russian sources, or a post shared by a friend. Still voted for Trump. I can guarantee I'm not the only one. This story is a farce. Enjoy getting trounced in the 2018 elections and seeing Trump re-elected. A lot of Americans aren't buying what you're trying to sell.
2
"there is a vast segment of folks in this country that were manipulated and are still being being manipulated by a foreign power"
No, there isn't. There is no proof of even one vote being influenced by this garbage.
The idea that any of this was effective is just an assumption. It has no proof. It is made to excuse a result that is "inexplicable" to those who don't want to understand it.
4
Would be interesting if the Committee made all of the social media companies send out repeated notices to the recipients of the ads telling them that they were duped and if this caused them to change their mind they should click on a link that sends a note to their representative to tell them … or something like that … along with instructions on how to look out for fake news in the future (that should go to everyone)
30
How about demanding that our representatives come up with an initiative to stop foreign powers from being able to manipulate social media? So people won't have to know how to identify fake media or wonder whether they were affected? The horses are out of barn--time to move on.
1
IS IT FACEBOOK OR F A K E B O O K now. Be careful what you write, read or
believe.
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Thank you. I have called it that for years.
If you see it on the internet, it's probably advertising and should be treated as such....
But alas, look how many people smoke, drink soda, go to casinos, live in any one of stumpy's garish slums, think they're supposed get erections at every age.... and then buy them....
..... Advertising works because lots of people are incredibly stupid.
99
And that's all there really is to say about all of this.
EEE: "If you see it on the internet, it's probably advertising and should be treated as such...."
Your comment is "on the internet", so is it "advertising"? And how should advertising be "treated"?
EEE: "Advertising works because lots of people are incredibly stupid."
Are you in that group or in the group of people who are _not_ "incredibly stupid"?