Now wait just a minute here. Steve Bannon co-founds Cambridge Analytica, for the purpose of helping the Trump campaign, then somehow they are able to get person info of facebook clients, analyze it, then send the results off to Russia, presumably for the purpose of targeting the propaganda coming out of Putin's bot farms?????? That is a CLEAR smoking gun of Russian - Trump collusion.
42
This is what happens when people have too much money.
15
Mercer, Bannon, and Kushner were involved in this effort to subvert democracy, is Mueller empowered to investigate this as well?
28
There are so many definitions for the word "smart" in real life, including the great technicians who have no integrity. Unfortunately integrity is not determined by IQ, as we can see in the news every day.
10
Many politicians 'Fool some of the people some of the time' but only the republicans and Trump/Pence successfully fool their base all of the time.
The rest of US suffer the consequences.
How does the other saying go? "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Needs updating to: fool the nation again and again placing party above Country, SHAME on the Republican leadership and its billionaire backers!
VOTE Them OUT
23
I would greatly appreciate your posting here today my answer to those who questioned the veracity of my comments on the McCabe affair.
I have been accused of fake news by Jon California (identified by NYT as a trusted commenter), and asked by L of CT for documentation of my posting re an investigation of the FBI and DOJ in the FBI and DOJ attempts to prevent the election and undermine the presidency of President Trump.
My source is the article: "The Politicization of the FBI by Joseph diGenova," US attorney for the DC, Independent Counsel of the United States, Special Counsel to the US House of Representatives, Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence.
In the interest of an informed discussion of this issue, that would be much preferred to some of the puerile ad hominem attacks on President Trump, I would appreciate your allowing me to post the entire article here.
It may be accessed at: https://www.judicialwatch.org/
Thank you for your consideration. This is an extremely important
issue and deserves robust, intelligent discussion by concerned citizens. I thank you very much for providing a venue for such.
2
Straight from the Play book of Jared Kuschner"s father...gutless, ruthless and yes he did it to his sister.
10
It looks like Cambridge Analytica and its parent company, the SCL Group, use kompromat, straight out of the Kremlin Playbook.
It's also curious that they were talking with Lukoil, the Russian oil giant with ties to Vladimir Putin, about how to target American voters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-russi...
11
Wait...so now it’s Cambridge and not the Russians?
1
You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried. It’s wearying reading the news these days. What’s next?
15
This data issue is very bothersome, if not Facebook every app want access to my camera, contacts, text messages etc. Every app we want to down load no matter how mundane they want unfettered access to your personal information. And most people just click yes and move on without a second thought. Me I have NO APPS on my phone for that reason. We've given away our privacy and the legislative body that is supposed to protect out right to privacy, is relaxing regulations not creating a safe place for our privacy.
All Apps should have buttons that allow the user to give access to certain parts of their phone, like the camera for Snap Chat, but not access to your contacts, text messages etc. Until we the people demand legislation to protect us an our privacy, this will happen again, corporations have nothing to fear. Our elected officials have taken away our access to the courts, by making us go to arbitration. This too is at the behest of corporations, they don't want to be held to account, so congress gives it to them at our expense.
7
Mafia bosses screamed innocence, had a host of lawyers to defend them, and got away with murder (literally), but the FBI didn't give up and eventually some were brought down for other things like income tax evasion. I hope the FBI sees Trump as a Mafia boss that they need to pursue till they can find something on him that will stick.
16
Gut-wrenching and disturbing.... “SCL Elections has clients around the world, and it has experimented with data-driven microtargeting techniques in the Caribbean and Africa, where privacy rules are lax or nonexistent and politicians employing SCL have been happy to provide government-held data, according to former employees”
10
Cambridge Analytica will change its name to something anodyne. Just like Blackwater, (the mercenary military owned by Betsy DeVoss' brother Erik Prince) to "Xe Services" (sounds nice) to "Academi" (much nicer) and will continue to provide its malignant services to willing buyers.
12
Facebook needs to be broken up ... it is a Monopoly and wields too much power.
Next, I wonder how many of our Politicians have been videotaped in compromising scenarios? We are being led by fools ...
7
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-non-...
Cambridge Analytica employed non-American citizens to work on US election campaigns in apparent violation of federal law, despite receiving a legal warning about the risks.
The company’s responsibilities under US law were laid out in a lawyer’s memo to the company’s vice-president, Steve Bannon, British CEO Alexander Nix and Rebekah Mercer, daughter of billionaire owner Robert Mercer, in July 2014. It made it clear that most senior and mid-level positions involving strategy, planning, fundraising or campaigning needed to be filled by US citizens.
“Any decision maker must be a US citizen or green card holder,” the memo, seen by the Observer, warned. It also provided a brief legal history of cases involving foreign involvement in election campaigns, drawn up by a lawyer at the firm founded by former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
“To the extent you are aware of foreign nationals providing services, including polling and marketing, it would appear that unless it is being done through US citizens, or foreign nationals with green cards, the activity would violate the law.”
“The prohibition against foreign nationals managing campaigns, including making direct or indirect decisions regarding the expenditure of campaign dollars, will have a significant impact on how Cambridge hires staff and operates in the short term,” the memo stated.
CA ignored the memo. Read for yourself.
14
Now that it is becoming clear the games that were played to win an election and destroy the opposing candidate, we should consider all silent Republicans as collaborators and enemies of the state.
24
They aren't honoring their oath, to protect the constitution from enemies foreign and DOMESTIC.
17
People seems to doubt that this could even work. I don’t think it’s far-fetched at all. People are herd animals. Push the right button, and most of them run off in the same direction, yelling “This is great!” (America) or “That’s outrageous!”(HRC child porn ring). And in the age of social network hyperactivity, pushing buttons is easy. You just need a bit of analysis to find the right ones. No witchcraft. Just a little data mining. People are gullible beyond belief. The underfunded school system, the usually shallow media work, celebrity nonsense, and ever more outrageous marketing claims have dumbified the population.
8
These are the same type of techniques used by anyone that creates a cult following. Jim Jones, David Koresh, and the "Branch Davidians" basically those who pretend to be some conduit to god, is usually lazy and just simply doesn't want to work. But they find people who are weak minded and cannot think on their own, and when faced with overwhelming evidence that their leader is a nut, they still follow them, usually to their detriment, sometimes to their own deaths.
Its the underfunded educational system that would give people the tools to be analytical thinkers, deep critical thinkers that look beyond the here and now, to see what Trump is really like. These techniques are the same ones employed by dictators, and authoritarians, people who want to control and rule over others.
4
Any guesses how many Republicans will demand investigations into the criminal activity of the Mercer family?
16
And now I believe one can see the difference between the Steele Dossier that the Republications commissioned and Hillary paid for and didn't use versus this Cambridge Analytica stolen data. Perhaps one can now figure out who told lies about whom and continues to lie and mislead the American people. Very Sad! Imagine, Cambridge Analytica together with stolen data paid for by DJT MAGA! Scary!
6
I now believe that there is no safe exposure level to Facebook. I know they will still have my data and photos after I delete my account, but at least I can contain the risk in the future.
7
The world won't end if Facebook ceases to exist. The site needs to be shut down, and shareholders paid out. The courts won't do that of course, so I suppose the only option is for users to boycott Facebook. The real power rests with the people and it's the only way to teach Zuck a lesson. April 1 sounds like a good day for everyone to delete, or at least deactivate their accounts.
13
It appears we may finally get to bottom of how Trump campaign used social media vis-a-vis Cambridge Analytica to target unsuspecting U.S. citizens with disinformation. Some of that disinformation was laced with data/information obtained from WikiLeaks who were a cut-out for Russia FSB (KGB) who had hacked DNC emails.
Robert Mueller and Congress need to take a much closer look between and among Trump associates/campaign officials, Cambridge Analytica, Wiki-Leaks and the Mercers who funded all this. Note Mr. Kogan the Cambridge researcher who initially obtained access to Facebook data and then resold to Cambridge Analytica was Russian born and an adjunct professor in Russia. Good chance he was working with the FSB and was not just a 'researcher' as reported.
Need to take much closer look at the Mercer family and other dark money people backing politicians and political agenda. What is puzzling to me is why a man who made his fortune in America as hedge fund manager is spending millions to create division and hatred in America and working into the hands of the Russians. Talk about being un-American.
We also need to find way to identify legitimate anmd fake news and educate people that what they hear or read on Facebook or lot of right-wing cable channels is fake news. People like Limbaugh and Hannity make millions spreading misinformation. shame on them all.
15
Nix's comments are genuinely astonishing and they are on tape.
"Cambridge Analytica" needs to be shut down yesterday.
19
Most of the people I know and have discussed this news with are NOT shocked. The Mercers are rabid right wingers and have displayed ruthless tendencies throughout their history but the prime motivator, as always is greed. Greed for more money, more power, or simply just more. It will be poetic justice that their greed is what undoes them and their evil empire.
23
Obama did the same with the cooperation of Facebook
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/magazine/the-obama-campaigns-digital-m...
1
Dear Parents (K-12)
Google's Chromebook assault on the schools has been executed in a similar way. Beware.
8
Help---is there any non-crook internet entity?? seriously?? we would like to know. we already boycott amazon, paypal, facebook, twitter, and of course, all those we know nothing about----we hope.
And HEY??? are the ad-blockers doing this scum too?
1
Unplug yourselves.
1
I am not surprised. I am sure Fusion GPS provides the same services of entrapping politicians but of course, since they helped Obama and HRC, nobody tried to unmask them.
Where is your proof of this?
8
An unethical rightwing billionaire and his daughter founded a company that violated Facebook Terms of Service, stole 50 million Facebook profiles and used the data to drive a sophisticated propaganda campaign--- all so his candidate would have an advantage in the presidential election.
But imagine where a ruthless, unscrupulous billionaire could take this to:
- procurement of already-stolen credit and health records, using them to blackmail opposition candidates and dissenters, and build more advanced propaganda campaigns
- electronic alteration of voter registration databases and changes to vote totals in key districts
- targeted powergrid outages on election day and the days when rallies and primaries are supposed to occur.
- targeted powergrid outages to opposition media outlets
And, don't forget, it doesn't have to be a domestic billionaire (c.f., Vladimir Putin). All it takes is a willingness to violate laws, guidelines, or ethical standard; a team of very skilled hackers; determination; and lots of money. And, of course, a president who won't do anything to defend us because he still thinks a 400 lb guy might be responsible for all previous hacks.
Sound farfetched? Well, before the Mueller indictment of the 13 Russian hackers was released, I would have said that what they did--- allegedly--- was farfetched, too. But Russian probing of our power systems, voting systems, and the widespread theft of personal data of US citizens has already happened.
8
We know why Trump keeps accusing people of conspiratorial dealing behind the scenes: he thinks everybody operates like he does. It is the same with his diatribes about foreigners as sexual predators.
When he attacks profit-seeking drug dealers for manipulating peoples' minds so that they become a danger to themselves and society, he is talking about the lies he and these fellow travelers on the Right use to manipulate people so that they are unable to see what is needed for their own good.and encourages their dangerous rage at others and society.
But most of all what this shows is that all of their talk of "individualism" is a sham. First, it is just a lie about how human beings come to exist and are able to get good lives. Second they don't think of us as thoughtful individuals to whom they can make political arguments, but as easily manipulated creatures enslaved to appetites and emotions, who can be lied to, incited to fear of others and then pacified with flattery of racist and sexist superiority so that we give up our minds and lives to their control.
The articulation of this view was made 40 years ago during the Reagan years by George Gilder.. The wealthy seek to control the nonwealthy men, who they think are basically ravenous gang members, by giving them sex partners (see ISIS tactics) and families to support. And also by giving them people they can blame,such as women, black people and foreigners. instead of the wealthy, for their economic conditions
6
The historians say that the George Orwell's book '1984' was written as a parody about the British Ministry of Information while he was a talks producer at the BBC during WW II (Orwell's real name was Eric Blair). Cambridge Analytica sounds like it might be the real thing.
4
Why are we pretending this is something new and shocking? Before Ralph Nader became a Democratic Party punching bag, GM hired women to stalk and seduce him while he was grocery shopping, in the '70s.
This is what PR work is. It's the world Ed Bernays wrote for us. Apparently nobody noticed amidst all the Facebook notifications, rounds of Candy Crush, and daily tune-ins to their tribe's Howard Beale Show.
2
Why isn't Homeland Security proactively testing the algorithms used by social media companies to verify their validity? Further, why isn't Homeland Security running pilot test projects on social media startups to anticipate, test and perform some "black ops imagineering" to identify, anticipate and possibly prevent various types of nefarious uses of the applications BEFORE they infect the "Internet bloodstream" with devastating bugs that replicate exponentially, take far too long to identify and uncover, and leave humanity with the likes of illegitimate election "victories", Brexit votes and whatever else Putin has on his agenda?
Since Steve Bannon is on the Board, aren't his actions involving the FB data heist, and the subsequent use of that unauthorized data theft by Cambridge Analytica on behalf of the Trump campaign TREASON by definition?
We have mid-term elections approaching, and the Mueller investigation and any subsequent legal actions, if any, aren't going to be completed in time to shut down Russian interference this fall.
Shouldn't Homeland Security shut down FB, Twitter and other social media companies to proactively preclude the possibility of Web-based election interference?
The GOP is clearly unwilling to take any Congressional action to prevent any of this because it clearly would only benefit the Dems who appear to be winning all the special elections.
America is clearly in a state of WAR with respect to this issue, and the GOP is sitting on its hands.
12
i think zuckerberg may be a double agent and actually working on behalf of the GOP
1
If Cambridge Analytica was blackmailing many GOP leaders, along with help by the other intelligence agencies they mentioned in that video, that would explain why they have been so complicit in all this. And then they should all be jailed for their crimes. What is needed is for some of those GOP leaders to, well, find candor, and tell all.
6
they may also have been blackmailing democratic candidates to get them to say some of the ridiculous things they said, like "deplorables"
1
Mr. Nix even offered (at 15:45) to destroy political opponents with things that "don't necessarily need to be true, as long as they're believed." Cambridge Analytica: enough said.
10
Dirty tricks, entrapment and other known techniques for discrediting political opponents have been around since politics was born. People seeking power, for the sake of power has been around since the beginning of mankind.
Facebook, Twitter and other technologies simply allow those same people, in today's world, to deploy the same dirty tricks and discrediting practices much more efficiently and to a much broader audience. Our laws simply have not caught up with the capacity of dirty tricksters and the politicians associated with them to be effective.
It is now time for technology firms to act voluntarily, and very aggressively, or we will have to demand as citizens who have rights of privacy, such actions are taken by the government. Zuckerberg et al, times up.
2
So they're dead to rights on tape suggesting the types of behavior of which the media reported - just reported what they saw - and the response is to deny and decry. This is exactly the type of Trumpian world we live in today and it's maddening. The old saw is implicated hourly, who are you going to believe, me or your own lying eyes?
4
The problem is, these things benefit the Republicans. If Cambridge Analytica was doing something that benefitted Hillary Clinton there would be more investtigations than Benghazi, but so long as it helped the GOP win, it's all good.
5
Aside from the misdeeds and slime that Alexander Nix is ismply admitting, no ifs, and, or buts, Mueller needs to look into the hiring of this band of blackguards, which implicates Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort.
They ascribe the quote "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest." to Winston Churchill.
The Trump campaign is an onion-like structure having several more layers than the Russian puzzle. But Special Prosecutor Mueller needs to keep unpeeling it, and see what sits at its core.
Hmm ... wonder who that might be? Any guesses?
3
it is outrageous that foreign entities such as cambridge analytica and fusion gps are allowed to influence our elections; we need to put a stop to this and prosecute the candidates that colluded with these organizations.
3
Prison sounds like a good idea here. An uncomfortable maximum security prison for a long time.
10
It always takes two, the giver and taker, to commit corruption.
5
This firm allowed a "Professor" in england to give users a survey but then he was able to obtain 5 millions account info and preferences. Turns out he was a also a faculty member at a Russian University??? AND Lukoil a Russian oil company with links to the Kremlin got the same info about users for "marketing" purposes according to a CA whistleblower. He recalls being puzzled by the need for this information transfer but now it all makes sense because the Russians were behind it.
3
One stark lesson we are learning from this perverse administration is the utter disregard of the law by international businesses and people: money laundering, tax evasion, political payoffs, bribery, dirty tricks, shell corporations and fronts.
Congress should impose strict ethics regulation on every company doing business in the United States and hold corporate officers and promoters personally liable.
1
yes, like fusion gps and all those who facilitated their dirty work even if they are in government
My first take away is that Nix sounds as though he is playing right out of the Russian play book on how to get kompromat, right down to Ukrainian "girls" being brought in to create disrepute for an organization or individual. Where did he get these ideas? Hmm.
It is sad and pathetic that the most we in the USA can hope for in terms of reform of an organization like Facebook is to see what the EU does to limit its reach. Apparently Europeans put a higher value on privacy than Americans. Don't expect any reform from US Congress.
That Facebook could have conspired with Cambridge Analytica and Trump staffers ads an interesting layer to the question of collusion. I hope Team Mueller is digging this deep.
8
absolutely. Mueller should also be investigating Zuckerberg who looks like he's been working on behalf of the GOP
4
So Trump won through illegal personal data profiling conducted by Bannon, Mercer and Cambridge Analytica with the help of the Russian hackbot army. This finely targeted propaganda machine stirred up enough misogyny, racism and anti-Hillary hysteria to game the Electoral College and make him president, against the wishes of the majority. In this way American democracy was defeated in 2016. You can't measure his behaviour by the usual standards because he is illegitimate from inception. It’s a paradigm shift. The destruction, discord and instability that Trump embodies are precisely what the unholy alliance wants and have achieved beyond their wildest expectations. They knew better than we what Trump was about. Is this not perfectly clear by now? And they will continue to back Trump and the GOP by any means. They know useful fools and tool when they see them: Manafort, Flynn, Page, Kushner and the Trumps were all ripe for the plucking, a dream team. And the GOP has a veritable larder-full, like Nunes, on the take and primed for sleaze by the Kochs, the NRA and worse: Putin. All to build their little Ayn Randian Utopia. Defeat is very hard thing to admit, but that is exactly what Trump represents; every day that goes by without facing the fact that America lost when Trump won makes matters worse, because it is still going on. Our pride is blinding us. This is no time for parades; the biggest cover-up in American history is underway.
9
Now I can imagine where President Trump coined the term "fake news" from. This can be added to his crediting himself with the economic term of, "priming the pump." So much for his, "making America great again." Groan...
1
What is the ultimate agenda? Is Robert Mercer's motivation purely about money? Because if so, it's a despicable thing. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. It's like cloning. Facebook isn't without culpability in this manipulation either because they allowed the targeted dark posts which enabled Trump's Electoral College win. Why can't these big brains turn their attention to something truly useful like weaning the world off of fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy? I'll miss my FB friends' posts, but the social experiment should end and these people need to go to jail.
3
This strange man, who reportedly can't usually even bring himself to speak to other people, is apparently all about the money.
A quote from Janet Mayer, author of Dark Money, about him:
"He has, according to his colleagues, a theory of humans which is that they have no inherent value. That a human being is only worth as much as they can earn. He argues that he earns thousands of times more than a school teacher, which makes him that much more valuable than school teachers. And people on welfare, he suggests, have no value. They have negative value. He argues, though, that cats have value—because watching them provides pleasure to people."
Scary weirdo.
https://www.thenation.com/article/one-of-trumps-biggest-donors-thinks-ca...
1
If our government doesn't move soon to remove Trump from office I'm afraid there could be blood in the streets. Those of us who work, pay our taxes, obey the law, try our best not to lie or cheat and conscientiously refrain from adultery, sexual harassment or rape are starting to wonder why the same rules don't apply to our so-called president and other right wing Republicans — and it's making us furious.
5
yes, it's a good thing we still have the 2nd amendment so we can fight back against government tyranny
1
The Mercers are funding an out and out war on legitimate governments and politicians, using blackmail and stolen ("misused") research, payoffs to authorities and a Mafia-style criminal gang.
If the Mercers don't go to jail for this, law and order in the U.S. is a myth.
4
What does the fact that this firm did some work with the Trump campaign have to do with the rest of the story? Nothing other than just another attempt to disparage the POTUS somehow. Certainly putting that in the headline could have no other valid journalistic purpose.
3
Somehow? A sleazy firm obtains data under false representation and teams with a foreign power to tilt an election to someone indebted to that foreign power all bankrolled by an anti-american billionaire who aspires toward minority rule.
4
Seriously? This firm was created by Steve Bannon who was the supposed head-honcho of Trump's campaign. This POTUS and his administration are the dirtiest in history and come 2018 when liberals retake one or both Houses of Congress, this POTUS and his administration are going down.
1
...another good reason to shun Facebook. I’ve never understood the appeal.
8
Is anything I know about my fellow Americans real? If there are indeed 50 mil fake people pumping out opinions and outrage created by those with a monetary stake in the outcome...is any of it real? I'm suddenly suspecting that only a dozen people (hello Mr. Mercer?) support unlimited guns or a return to coal, yet these data firms have used their bots and hired "honey pots" to make us feel like everyone outside our bubble wants an AR or a washing machine powered by coal. When I think about what is possible with this level or data, with this level of access to our eyeballs, with this level of moral debasement...no wonder we don't have universal healthcare, free college, prison reform...
6
I think you are fundamentally misunderstanding.
Critical thinking and ivoting during midterms is required.
Well .... I suppose the public could always resort to the nuclear-option:
Going back to legitimate news sites for information, instead of social media.
9
Republican politicians have an agenda that benefits the very wealthy few. In order to gain power, they have to convince enough voters to vote against their own interests, and/or reduce the number of voters who can or will vote in elections. They have a long history of dirty tricks, going back at least to the Nixon administration. They have a vast propaganda machine in the form of right-wing media to further their interests. They regularly engage in voter suppression by passing laws to limit voting, and they gerrymander congressional districts to further their interests. They have installed right-wing activist judges and Supreme Court Justices who further their interests by turning money into speech, corporations into people with religious rights, etc. They have moved into more sophisticated methods as technology allows, but it is what they have been doing for decades.
They have now expanded their methods to include help from a foreign adversary, Russia. They have done nothing to keep Russia's manipulation from continuing for the simple reason that they welcome the help from Putin to further undermine our democracy and increase their power.
6
First, it was all news centered on possible Russian interference in our 2016 elections. Now, we are learning of this organization called Cambridge Analytica. What else could we be learning in the coming days? Not only is this all interesting, very intriguing as well.
Many questions lead to everyone's concerns. Facebook, was well aware of the leaks in its systems, as far back as for over two years. Subscribers were not advised, and yet, did nothing. Facebook lacks adequate rules, policies to safeguard people's personal information. If data of over 50 million users were swept away for another party's nefarious activity, and Facebook was ignorant about it, there is a major problem there.
What an organization such as Cambridge Analytica stands for, what they have been doing all this time, is a subject for debate elsewhere.
What we have to be concerned here is the manner in which the Social Media groups are conducting their business. They are all technology driven, set up to facilitate communication between people, across the globe. At the same time, having huge deposits of people's personal information. This is what they thrive on. All the social media organizations have a responsibility to provide the desired security for the information they hold.
Today's technology, with innovation is moving at lightning speed. There is the good and the bad side to it. It is time the country's lawmakers move in and develop legislation to address proper regulations for all social media groups.
I suspect Cambridge Analytica (if ever there was a euphemistic name, this is it) of not just hacking into data about voter preferences, of not just resorting to dirty tricks—including dangerously illegal ones—but of hacking the Brexit vote itself and the American election in 2016. How naive of us not to start questioning this every time their name comes up in connection with either of those upset victories.
We should also be looking into Trump's team in San Antonio, led by Brad Parscale, which billed $88 million for using that Facebook information, which he admitted to in an NPR interview in December 2016: https://www.npr.org/2016/12/06/504520364/how-trump-waged-an-under-the-ra....
Really, $88 million for a year or two of work? And you've got something like 15 guys working on it?
I remember watching both the Brexit returns and the Nov. 8 returns and being stunned by how quickly they flipped toward the end of the vote. And they both flipped convincingly. Cambridge is more than capable of hacking the voter booths. And morally willing to do so. Now we need to not be afraid to admit that our system is fallible.
5
If any arch conservative Trump apologists (he's a victim, right?) see this as "guilt by association" in terms dismissing the file on Trump and the whole FBI's investigation, they need to consider that the Trump file is of a very different nature from what is described here, that the company's investigation of Trump was originally requested by republicans before Trump got the nomination, that the file was brought to the attention of the FBI by the former MI5 operative himself rather than by the democratic party, and that the Trump file is only a small part of the FBI's investigation, coming in after it had already started.
What is described here is along the lines of project (non)veritas fabrications, which should also give Trump apologists pause; they should look in the mirror, long and hard.
2
Renewed scrutiny of Facebook is true, but the bigger question is what about prosecution of Cambridge Analytica? This is a criminal act and these are illegal actions they have been caught doing, surely? This firm needs to be shut down immediately and we need legislation that protects against this kind of gross violations of privacy and tampering with the Democratic process. If these guys were doing it so quickly and so successfully, that means there are hundred more "data scientists" out there trying to do the same thing.... and probably succeeding.
It makes a guy want to pull the plug on all social media and internet usage. It's such an abuse of our freedoms.
Could not agree more.
Our wisdom never seems to keep pace our new technologies.
I'm not seeing the problem here. Not all that different from what Obama did and was praised for - micro targeting voters.
1
Here is an example of big, often dark money doing bad things. Let this be an argument against accumulations of big wealth. At least let's have transparency of wealth-what are they doing with their wealth.
1
The scope of this is staggering. I hope those most responsible are brought to justice.
Please wake me up from this nightmare - the level of anxiety I have about raising my new son in this strange "new world" increases with each passing day.
How am I supposed to teach him the value of reason, truth and justice when these fundamental attributes of a civilized society are being torn out at the roots by those looking to simply make money, because that what it is at the end of the day, isn't it?
And for what? To buy a new car? An island? Get some tax breaks? You get about 100 years on this Earth these days - I am utterly flabbergasted that someone would spend it trying to hoard as much as they can as if you can take it with you.
Can you describe what laws they broke? Or maybe we should start constructing Gulags in Alaska to house political prisoners?
I remember the day when D.T.,Jr gushed about thec wonderful contribution CA made to his father's victory. Brilliant!
1
Our government is controlled by some of the biggest-pocketed, malevolent, remorseless, and unscrupulous among us—sadly, not the result of a government overthrow. We are witnessing the disintegration of our democracy, those freedoms and rights our benefactors provided for us. We've taken for granted what our forefathers, and others since, fought for and lost their lives for, and we haven't had the common sense to see that, rather than simply letting it slip away, we have actually helped hand it over with nary a struggle.
Our freedom allowed us to reach "the mountaintop" but the glitter of obscene wealth over-shadowed the substance of what democracy is and we developed a "green grasser" mentality: covetousness. Our more primitive instincts draw us to glitter so we could find water in the wilderness; had our consciousness advanced with our technical progress, we would understand we no longer need glitter to succeed as a species.
If we continue our current methodology of electing leaders, we’re going to find ourselves officially governed by plutocrats or oligarchs, which is our current de facto state. We need to adopt different methods that do not favor wealthy contenders over qualified contenders. We need to make continuous campaigning obsolete. We need to develop a reasoned set of requirements necessary to hold public office, including a desire to serve the public, and enact term limits.
How we do this is for the political scientists among us to figure out, not the lawyers.
2
Again we see the Mercer family trying to damage democracy. Of course, with that kind of money, they will never be held accountable.
3
The Trump success story may be that we are getting tmi and it a country on overload, that may be a grand awakening.
"F.T.C. investigating Facebook in use of personal data by firm tied to Trump."
If you believe this will be a fair, diligent and genuine effort, then I have just the presidential candidate for you. The Trump campaign stole from Facebook the comprehensive data for 50 million Americans. The F.T.C. has two missions. Protect customers and preserve competition. This administration has already undone every consumer protection they can think of, without any public F.T.C. opposition. This president was the direct beneficiary of the wrongdoing that the F.T.C. now promises to investigate. In part because Facebook is a natural monopoly they are now one of the most powerful companies in the world. Yet the F.T.C. has done nothing to preserve competition. "Fake news," Mr. Zuckerberg said, at a time when he was already aware of the "aggressive Russian activity."
4
Isn't it an entrapment what the Channel 4 did? Pretend to be somebody else with purpose of secret recording? if an entrapment is bad, how comes it is OK for Channel 4 News?
2
Because they are not law enforcement.
1
Nix was not induced to commit a crime but rather shoot his mouth off. If free of misleading editing the reporters obtained a story and did not cause CA to hire prostitutes or blackmail. James O'Keefe is not only less skillful but needs to create his desired end. Thus the reliance on selective editing.
1
This not only borders on criminal. It goes way beyond it !
It shows a blatant disrespect for the privacy of voters, for honest political systems and elections. This is manipulation in full swing !
With everything in hindsight now, the 2016 US elections and UK Brexit referendum seem to have been completely rigged.
If this is indeed the conclusion, what about annulling the results ?
This has never happened before in any real democracy.
It borders on tyranny, and the work of malign, power-hungry individuals, who have no other intention than to further their own private interest rather than that of the people.
What an amazing development for the so called 'biggest', but now most laughable democracies on earth.
Once upon a time safety in numbers served to guard the average person's privacy. Now, when social media algorithms are busily defining even non users down to the colour of their shoelaces, the very notion free choice for anyone but the obscenely wealthy is in ever greater doubt.
How is this different than poisoning our water supplies?
There needs be be serious legal ramifications.
1
It seems almost daily that there a re new revelations about collusion by the Trump campaign and now Facebook. Earlier it was Wikileaks. How much data will the Congressional GOP need before they initiate a real investigation into collusion by the Trump campaign versus the whitewash that the Nunes committee produced? The Republicans are not serving the interests of our democracy. Vote the Republicans out in 2018 and lets re-set the principles of democracy that we all enjoyed before the GOP and Trump took power. Americans who vote for any Republican candidate in November are doing the country a disfavor.
An interesting, somewhat untold story aligned with these recent revelations is how astoundingly accurate the "liberal" media was during the presidential campaign.
This stuff -- from Cambridge Analytica and Robert Mercer to Manafort and Flynn to Russian troll farms and oligarchs -- hardly comes as a surprise to people who read the various exposes on Vice, Politico, Buzzfeed, The Guardian, etc.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/11/senator-ted-cruz-preside...
December 11, 2015:
"Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign is using psychological data based on research spanning tens of millions of Facebook users, harvested largely without their permission, to boost his surging White House run and gain an edge over Donald Trump and other Republican rivals, the Guardian can reveal."
That article, of course, refers directly to Cambridge Analytica, which worked for Cruz before working for Trump.
1
When the internet was becoming a must have in every household I said we are beginning to see the beginning of the end. Think about all the harm that has been caused by people manipulating the internet for nefarious purposes - bank accounts raided, the ability to sabotage power plants, propaganda wars, cyber bullying etc.
Frankly, I don't understand the fuss. Whatever you post on Facebook can be accessed by at least a certain segment of the public. This organization just developed a more efficient way of mining and collating it; you could have hired pollster, telemarketers, or monkeys to do the same thing.
1
How about making the intentional spreading of fake news, by companies like Cambridge Analytica, criminal? Each transactional fake story intentionally entered into the "bloodstream" of the internet would constitute a felony. Pundits still talk about what Cambridge Analytic did as "unethical." Perhaps it's time to provide legal safeguards, so that this kind of activity is considered criminal.
Of course, one might try to persuade people with compelling arguments, rather than use these shenanigans to gain power, but that would be too democratic.
More money and power for the Mercers is a tough sell. The Republicans have to lie. And that goes back to Nixon.
1
Once the Supreme Court ruled in the Citizens United case--ruled stupidly, myopically--the Mercers, the Kochs, the Adelsons, the Uihleins, or any old rich person with crackpot ideas--appeared out of "nowhere" and started to buy our democracy. Just as important, transparency of contributions to candidates or to PACs that are "not allowed" to coordinate with candidates, vanished. So we have foreign money pouring in to influence (not really a strong enough word) our elections and our policies.
Meanwhile, giant unregulated corporations spread the garbage "news" and manipulate and sell people's "data" they post online.
So, what do you call that when corporations and unsavory (I'm being nice) elected officials work together to rob people of democracy, privacy, and power? There's a word for it: you can look it up on google.
1
It may be culmination of negative campaign tactics started by
George H Bush against Mike Dukakis with 'Willy Horton' ad to
throw dirt on his rival. GOP took it to another level by constant
negative attacks on Bill Clinton. It is much more the same- negative
attacks, more vicious the better. With Facebook and Twitter it has
become easy to spread the lies. Facebook has become a dangerous
tool for venal politicians and their cohorts. Facebook and Twitter
should be regulated and negative ads in election campaign banned.
Public should clearly show the disapproval of negative ads in any
election.
Don't forget Nixon.
Interesting to compare the ethics of this company, founded and funded by Republicans, with the ethics of Christopher Steele, hired with money from the Democrats.
1
Facebook gets very little from me. Puppy pictures mostly. They’re welcome to it.
If our elected officials in Congress would actually do their jobs and oversee POTUS we would not be in such a state.
1
Whoever has seen the movie which exposed the personalities involved in the inception of the idea for Facebook at Harvard can easily decide on the character of the founder and subsequent roll out of the organization. How friendly to socializing is this organization really?
Does this mean that without Russia's meddling, Clinton would have been the winner of a fair election? If this country were a rational one, we'd repeat the election process immediately. She'd win by a landslide.
2
I feel vindicated. I never have joined Facebook and have only seen a few pages of other people. Then again, I never had a mobile, cell, smart, or android phone until recently. I fought it as long as I could. Now I find myself on it way too much. While I can't go back to being phoneless, this news will keep me from starting to use Facebook.
On a more political point, am I wrong to want to go way back in history to the way things used to be? Am I wrong to imagine standing in a crowd watching people like the Mercers being carted through the streets of New York in the tumbrils of the revolution? They would be far more deserving of the bumpy ride and the jeering crowds than any who were carted through the streets of Paris.
1
My stomach was feeling queasy yesterday morning from something I had eaten.
Now it is all the worse from something I have read.
2
It is truly mind-boggling how, in so short a time, America has lost its bearings. I would love nothing more than to blame everything on the Russians, Facebook, think tanks, those collecting every shred of intelligence on the minutia of our lives, or 45 for his alleged criminal activities, treason, collusion and perverted sexual practices, but I find I simply can not.
As a country, we have been asleep at the wheel for far too long. Many of us haven't wanted to take the time to inform ourselves on the issues during any voting cycle. Some of us haven't bothered to vote at all. We have a responsibility to uphold the values we cherish and the tenants of our venerable Constitution. No one else can do this for us, or has the right to interfere with our standard of life or liberty.
Some of us have abdicated our parental responsibilities. It is far too easy to put our children in front of a TV, cell phone, iPad or any other tech device, rather than take the time to teach them the value of life, common courtesy or decency and the importance of forging friendships in the real world, as opposed to virtual friendships.
Is it any wonder data mining firms are looking to younger generations as a source of monstrously valuable information and that they think nothing of manipulating this information for nefarious purposes at their discretion?
We have barely instituted any constraints on the internet to date. I am sorry, but this must change.
Brain Dead since Nixon. Reagan at the very least.
This is the World's Watergate. Except it's risen to a different level that most of us could not imagine. Thank you, journalists. Keep it up.
1
These are the sorts of people and the sorts of organizations that the man who is now president of the United States associates with. That is truly frightening.
1
Is Mr. Mueller looking onto this election fruad, or do we need another special prosecutor? This is exactly the type of thing that got Richard Nixon to resign the presidency - an organized effort to subvert the election using covert means. But this appears to be even worse and much more insidious and evil.
This is yet another HUGE issue facing the criminal enterprise that is the trump administration.
2
Mr. Nix was talking about Sri Lanka, where bribery is widespread. The notion that the same techniques would be used in the US is a stretch. As for Channel 4, they got their information about Cambridge Analytics' undercover fraud by perpetrating an undercover fraud. Not only is this a bit ironic, but the same technique was used against Planned Parenthood to the outrage of the liberal establishment.
3
michjas - You mean because US politicians aren't as susceptible to bribery as Sri Lankans? Or US politics is somehow "cleaner" than Sri Lankan politics? And one wonders why Americans come across as delusional...
6
No. It's not a stretch. The secret meetings, plots, thefts, blackmails and lies we thought were the realm of spy fiction or imaginings of conspiracy theorists have turned out to be true. Every month brings new revelations, and there is no reason to assume that this is the final one.
The right-wing nut job Planned Parenthood smear campaign was different in two respects: it was a political hit job, rather than journalism; and the story they came out with was, not surprisingly, a lie.
5
Such nonsense! Read last week's New Yorker re: Steele. It already happened here. Take off the blinders! Putin is our leader.
1
If this isn't treason, what is? It isn't just plain American politics...or is it now, with the Russians thrown in for good measure...
Trump and their Mercer, Koch and Bannon cadre will sacrifice our country for their financial gain and total control.
2
To those who've expressed skepticism as to the utility of "psychographics" I recommend doing a bit more research. I've been involved in political/behavioral research for 30 years and can easily believe behavioral manipulations are a) possible and b)it is highly likely that such techniques were and will continue to be used. The components of how are clearly illustrated in the developments surrounding CA, SCL, and the Trump campaign.
Far too often the art of persuasion involves triggering emotional responses on the part of the target. If you can identify the respondents' individual vulnerabilities using a fairly rudimentary survey instrument and directly "micro-target" those individuals with messages uniquely directed at them and based on their profiles, I am convinced massive manipulations are possible. You may not be able to generate 180 degree changes of minds, but dollars to donuts you can push enough buttons to nudge someone over the edge.
I would not be at all surprised to find a Russian hand or two in the CA mix and wonder about their and/or SCL involvement in Brexit. I suspect this will get much more interesting.
6
People are quick to dismiss psychology as a legitimate discipline until this sort of thing occurs.
1
Nix offered "attractive Ukrainian women" and potential videotapes to help clients. Similar procedures to those in the 'dossier'
Funding from Mercer/Koch $$ through Bannon/Stone/Flynn/??
No wonder Mueller's investigations are painstakingly complex.
What is the ultimate goal? kinda like an elaborate poker game-with the 'winner' -puppet-master in control of -what?
1
Was any of this illegal? If not, then why are we talking about it? Whether these were "dirty tricks" probably depends on which way you voted in the last election.
It's a modern world. Social networks have replaced email, broadcast news, or newspapers in how people get their information. There is a massive amount of data available for those savvy enough to use it. In elections where hundreds of millions of dollars are spent, and votes can swing on a moment's notice, targeted political messages can be the difference between winning and losing.
All of Donald Trump's opponents, both in the primary and the general election, had social media campaigns, statisticians, analysts, and consultants working on similar lines. Hillary Clinton was especially adept at using social media to quickly adjust the message when her opponents revealed any vulnerability.
I hate Donald Trump as much as anybody reading this. He's already the worst president in American history, and the bar is continuously being set lower every day. He's corrupt to the core, a habitual liar, stupid, and lazy. What is most surprising to me is that anybody is surprised at this news. Facebook sells your information all the time. Every time you enter personal information, post a comment, or like something, you've given Facebook data to sell. Are you really surprised someone is using it?
4
Whether or not we are "surprised" is not the most important aspect of this new development. There are personal choices that need to be made. Information is necessary in order to make useful choices.
There are calls for government regulations to control the uses of information-this administration is not amenable to regulation.
Aleksandr Kogan obtained the information under false pretence and colluded with a foreign power.
For one, by passing on data in this way, Facebook violated its user agreement. And, yes, that’s illegal. And, no, not all candidates used the same dirty tricks. Just like not every athlete uses performance-engancing drugs. The ones who play fair end up losing. That’s wrong. We shouldn’t be governed by cheaters.
As this story continues to unfold, It’s disturbing yet telling to read “audience persusian” on Aggegate IQ’s website (https://aggregateiq.com/).
Is it simply naive to ignore how personal info/data can be used/manipulated? Is it realistic to expect lawmakers and law enforcers to protect us from something we may be partially responsible for?
While relying on my ability to be discerning, I’m now actively addressing how easy I make it to be manipulated by my data.
3
Is it time to cancel my Facebook account?
5
Yes. A nationwide boycott is all Zuckerberg will understand or respond to in a responsible way.
2
Yes. I did yesterday. Feels good!
2
Definitely!!!
Democracy doesn't die in Darkness it is destroyed in Corporate Shell Companies.
7
How is it legal FEC wise for Steve Bannon, who was paid by trump campaign to be directing campaign funds to Cambridge, whom he is a Vice President. It would be icing on the cake to take Robert Mercer down with them.
5
DICTATOR Trump will (try) to do anything to discredit our Democracy,
leaving him to continue to 'play footsy' with Putin. WHAT A MESS we have
gotten into with Con-Don.
4
We've been hacked. Not by the Russian government - by the presidential candidate who sits in the Oval Office today and his henchmen, including but not limited to Nix and Cambridge Analytica.
Two words to ponder: 'Brad Parscale.' Welcome to '1984: The Sequel.'
2
Don't forget the Mercers. Trump and the GOP are gophers for billionaires.
"Dirty tricks", yes...sort of. But, I have no ethical opposition to testing polticians with this sort of Red Team operation.
2
Like Bottom's dream (in Midsummer Night's Dream), the black box of the utter corruption, sleaziness, and illegality of Trump and his gang has "NO bottom."
The cesspool seems endlessly deep!
Trump's misrule = "A MidWinter's Nightmare" for the USA and the world?
2
All of this is nothing compared with the '12 Obama campaign "harvesting" data from Facebook and beyond. Of course, then the disgusting NY Times just offered high front page praise.
1
Yea, right.
Whatever democrats have allegedly done pales mightily when compared to the cynical 30 year Republican 'long game' campaign to undermine voting access, gerrymander districts, willie Horton ads, withholding a vote on Merrick Garland, etc., etc.
Lie, cheat, steal data, sue, they do virtually anything to retain power... Since they can not win the popular vote, their best option is gaming the system. Wake up, people.
For Hillary or democrat haters, I liken her and/or the Dems you can't stand to (your) having an annoying stomach virus. While, the republicans and trump/pence and their administration = stage four colo-rectal cancer... oh yea and thanks to Republican Congress your health insurance is no more.
1
It’s incredible that the already horrid news about Trump seems to get worse every day. Yet the GOP politicians choose to just ignore everything no matter how atrocious it is.
Just about any normal person other than Trump would not aggressively go after the messengers. I think things will get even uglier before they get better. We need to watch out for Pence maybe he thinks he’ll slide ride into the presidency.
Before too long the potentially treasonous Paul and Mitch may react. Perhaps Paul Ryan might be so fired up he’ll shrug his shoulders. Mitch McConnel might even open his mouth to whisper something, Heck of a good job Paul and Mitch. NOT!
3
What else could possibly be expected from Bannon and Mercer other than a well-funded, criminal enterprise? And there's a connection with the Russians and Wikileaks. The line can now be drawn from Trump to Bannon to Cambridge Analytica to Russia. Collusion anyone?
4
The 'line' curves around in a circle. Who/what is wagging the dog?
So long as we have a Congress bought by corporations and billionaires such as the Koch brothers we will not be protected against these predators who seek power through any means. Czar Putin murders his adversaries, is this how we will end up with politicians so power hungry that they may contemplate criminal activity? Let us not be naïve. We need to take care buckle down in our communities in each state to resist the edicts that will be dished out now that the Pretend King Trump got his orders from his master today about how to handle Mueller and the Press. We need to remember who we are before they started using psychological schemes to create confusion over what is right and what is wrong. Hitler and his team were masters at it and it is apparent Czar Putin has decided to throw it at us indirectly. Hold on tight, we are in for a ride.
5
" Open Sesame ", friends and foes. Our country is wide open for you to plunder us. Thank you Mr. foolish, power-giddy President and thank you greedy, unscrupulous Republicans. Your patriotism is unbelievable. Our country is open for business. Tariffs or not you are welcome to our loot. Mr. Mueller, please carry on your with your tireless, thankless job to uncover the biggest con job by this President and his scoundrel sycophants. But please hurry! If you are dismissed ( quite likely ) these treacherous men will have pulled off the greatest heist.
2
So how likely is it that they have something on Trump, too?
2
@ Jill O, Ann Arbor: My hope is thatMr Mueller is winding thousands of tiny silken threads around his prey, like the Lilliputians taking down Brobdignagian Donald. Anyone who wants to spell check Brobdignagian please have at it. That info is lodged in a very distant part of my fading brain!
from now on: ZIP!
2
Trump will employ the Reagan defense and declare he was too inept to be paying attention or in charge. This was a multi layered conspiracy and beyond Trumps ability to mastermind alone.
1
This far along in this administration and we are gradually learning revelation after revelation, of the Whys, the where's, the How's. They plowed through the election from every angle, every means, every crooked way possibly known to man. And when we raised our voices in protest at its conclusion , the same repetitive words were spoken and are still being said. " You voted for him., He won!!, The people have spoken!" Really!? Where on Facebook, with Putin, with Koches, with Mercer? Where and when did we even have a chance? When they paid through back door donor tactics to buy this election? Truly UnAmerican Way!
2
Hmm...Maybe Cambridge Analytica has dirt on those GOP politicians who continue to enable Trump's despicable behaviors (i.e. Nunes, Ryan, etc).
1
Cambridge Analytica -- a clever choice of name that implicitly references Isaac Newton and Cambridge University. What bloody nerve those lowbrow thugs have to do that. So happy they've been outed for what they are and their fancy name is now permanently Mud.
3
Poor Hillary never stood a chance in '16. We know for definitely sure that Putin unleashed the entire Kremlin on her. Now we are finding out for sure that the British, with the help of Silicone Valley, were part of the caper. This will probably go all the way to Buckingham Palace.
But, even fighting against two Empires, Hill still won the popular vote. Wow. Even the Founding Fathers and their stupid Electoral College were part of the fix.
And, to think all of this was accomplished with a sleazy six million dollar dossier that was only 70-90% correct and a bunch of psychographic modeling mumbo-jumbo so hoaky that "many have questioned their effectiveness".
1
Aleksandr Kogan - who helped harvest Fakebook data for Cambridge Analytica - another Russian connection?
So, these people are being investigated and indicted for conspiracy...when?
2
This is exactly what we expect from an organization funded by the Mercers and Steve Bannon: lies, distortion, blackmail (in effect), bribery, and dirty tricks. This is why I have nothing but contempt for the Republicans these days. It used to be that I would disagree with the GOP's solutions, now I can't even listen to them because they all seem to be a bunch of unscrupulous crooks.
We are watching the shredding of the American experiment. Our last hope is to finally do something about it. VOTE!
5
Perhaps Nix can imitate Trump and claim it was just locker-room talk.
2
Great example of the real Deep State.
1
I would like to point out that Hillary Clinton spent the last THREE DECADES battling these exact tactics from a whole plethora of adversaries. Does everybody understand now how a honorable and competent woman ended up as the American Wicked Witch? Please remember this lesson NEXT election.
7
I wonder if Cambridge Analytica has any of those golden showers videos.
2
Every day some sleazy probably-illegal slimeball activity closely associated with trump surfaces that is far worse than any relatively-trivial alleged misdoings by Hillary. Not during an entire four-year term, but EVERY FEW HOURS.
But agreed; we shouldn’t look backward and litigate the past election. Let’s move towards a better America – remove trump.
1
Why am I not surprised that trump is linked to this...
1
What do the Mercer's own so we can stop buying it?
1
They got busted by the very techniques they were trying to sell. This is delicious! Irony and payback seem the share more than a few genes. The joy shall be complete when Mr. Lock-Her-Up goes to jail.
2
So now we really know why Trump was outraged about Hillary's private email server - he couldn't break through the firewall to steal and manipulate her data ! "Lock her up!" he said - hah - the irony of it all ! She is smarter than his whole Staff (apologies, H).
2
How to STEAL an election. #1 Find a rich donor willing to fund data theft. #2 Find an IT firm willing to do the data theft. #3 Steal the data & the election.
2
This Thug administration and all of its henchmen are SO caught. Everyday a new branch of the Mafia like organization is discovered.
Of course the base 40 will never ever believe anything they hear. Trump could be tried, convicted and jailed and the “Moronic 40” will still be bobbing their MAGA hats and screaming “Lock her up”.
2
Facebook is bad. I knew it a long time ago; stealing your private information. How can people be so gullable when it comes to social media?
2
The Republican party has devolved into something very low and treacherous.
4
The "Deep State" - as theorized by the extreme right - "Does Exist" as created by Steve Bannon and the Mercers !
Clearly, the exact opposite of what the Deplorable Fox Gang are crying about.
Now, the GOP is poised to set up a new "Special Council" - one which will be constructed to flush out the Right Wing Conspiracy Theories - where the DOJ and specifically the FBI has falsely targeted Donald Trump to delegitimize his 2016 victory.
To "sell" this scam, Trump is hiring "Fox Game-Show-Host News Commentators" to join his legal team, for the sole purpose of discrediting Bob Mueller, the DOJ, and the FBI.
Speaking of Mueller, it has been leaked that his investigation has focused mostly on activities which transpired "since" the biggest inauguration ever - Like the firing of Comey . . .
I hope that this new information on Bannon's Propaganda-Scam-Child will cause Mueller to step back and take a closer look at activities under the direction of Steve Bannon and the Mercers during the campaing.
Creating LIES and dripping them into the web - "watching them grow" - giving a push when needed -
IS THE DEFINITION OF FAKE NEWS ! . . . And Trump's Team is Behind it.
Clearly, we are dealing with Traitors of the highest order !
4
Every day, new evidence emerges of Trump's corruption and malfeasance. The stench around Trump has reached such an extent that the public is growing immune to its putrid smell. We cannot let this become normal.
Resist. Organize. Vote.
2
sounds like a criminal conspiracy ,why is he walking around free
This article portrays the bad ethics of Cambridge Analytica. Alexander Nix is a scam artist who resorts to chicanery. He oversees an organization that uses psychographic modeling to harvest personal information from 50 million accounts in Facebook. By constructing fake websites and presenting propaganda, they manipulate elections for the political advantage of immoral candidates. These techniques may be understood as constructs for equivocators who are running for public office
1
Oh, what do you expect. The guy is a casino owner by trade. You know. This is the sort of thing you get.
1
Is there anything that's not dirty about Trump cheating his way into office? This is garden variety behavior for the illegitimate president.
1
Is any one else worried about Robert Mueller's safety and the safety of his team with the Russians murdering people at will in the U.K.? Notice that many of Trump's jerks, like Pruitt, have made sure they have extraordinary security for themselves. Hope the Mueller team does as well.
37
No.
Cheryl,Cheryl...get a grip...seek professional help for your Trump Hysteria Syndrome.
I have been worried about Mueller for months, and more so recently. As far as I'm concerned, our president is also Russia's highest ranking foreign agent.
"Entrap Politicians"--isn't that what happened to Hillary when a citizen captured her on video going down like an overdosed racehorse?
6
Hey Alice's....I know they're using big words in here, but try to focus on the topic: organized, deliberate weaponizing of personal data to manipulate an election. That's the pattern of dictatorships. Why do you care more about one irrelevant moment that happened over a year ago than discovering the principles of our country are being undermined?
2
Uh oh, willing to go old school with booze, drugs, and hookers. This I can get my head around, the Facebook stuff not so much.
Gerrymandering, voter suppression, fear mongering, Cambridge Analytica and Russian troll factories. Seriously Republicans, how much are those tax cuts really worth to you?
51
If u pay attention u will note that , in other news, Obama and his team got more data from Facebook than is normally allowed. It cuts both ways
Every dollar!! For every dollar they give to Mercer and his ilk will - 5-10 cents will come back to them for re-election, voter intimidation/ suppression, PAC attacks on opponents etc.
Let's dispense with the illusions about the right-wing billionaires, the Mercers and the Kochs. They are NOT conservatives, they are fascists trying to undermine the American republic. They have more in common with Krupp and Thyssen and Bosch than they do with any American conservative movement.
167
What in the world to the Kochs have to do with this? I guess they are to "progressives" the ubiquitous villains?
Kind of like how conservatives blame George Soros for everything.
Wow. The Founders would be so proud of us.
32
And the traitors in the ruling GOP still choose to remain blind to all these sinister machinations.
53
The GOP should be called the party of sex scandals and their farless leader is sitting in the White House. However the GOP go to church every week proclaiming there belief in God. The GOP is more of a comedy hour than a bad reality TV show, you cant take them seriously
5
Some of them actually believe Trump was sent by God itself to save America. Way scarier than a comedy hour...
No collusion? Really?
Every day there are more dots linked to Trump's corrupt organization. Rep.s think there needs to be "proof" in the order of videos or tapes of Trump actually saying to a Russian: here is a bag of money for you--let's plan how I can win this election.:"
Sorry, Rep., Trump is not that stupid. And there are other ways to "prove" things.
23
He’s not that stupid? We shall see.
3
In other words, they offered to engineer and deliver "Kompromat" to their clients. Now, who does that remind me of..
39
Why, it reminds everyone of Hillary, her campaign and the DNC --> Fusion GPS --> Steele --> dossier --> Russians.
The dots are starting to connect...
Russian influence was suspected and being investigated...
Flynn, Manafort, Papadopoulos, Kushner, Trump Jr...
Facebook ads and misinformation campaign designed to help Trump win...
And now we find out about Bannon & Cambridge Analytica also manipulating FB data...
Trump's constant attacks on those investigating...
Who thinks all those things are unconnected???
61
This so called president has his hands in everything unlawful just like the fake campaign they ran for Putin
Do we really need this fake person who is increasingly abusing his power?
When will we ever learn our democracy is under siege by this so called president
We are already in a constitutional crisis but we just look the other way like the GOP Ryan and that melee moused senator who
keeps the GOP in line in the senate
We should shout out against this administration who falsely allow the GOP to look the other way of this wrong doing of firings underhand untruths when will we call our senators and congressman to protect Mueller
Now we find out the so called presidents campaign was up to dirty tricks being caused by unsavory people who are so dishonest and using private information that has nothing to do with this fake presidency!!!!
God help us we need to vote them out in 2018 and holler to the top of our lungs to try and save what’s left of our crumbling democracy because we have a fake so called president that is in a hurry to change our country to his advantage and ABUSING his power!
30
Cambridge Analytica worked for Ted Cruz against Donald Trump until Cruz dropped out of the Republican primary. The Trump campaign hired Cambridge Analytica in June 2016. However, in a March 6, 2017 article headlined “Data Firm Says ‘Secret Sauce’ Aided Trump; Many Scoff,” the New York Times reported that “Cambridge executives now concede that the company never used psychographics in the Trump campaign.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/cambridge-analytica.html
2
Just like Nix said he had no Facebook data and didn't offer to entrap politicians.
Thanks for pointing out that Cambridge Analytica has been claiming not to have used psychographic techniques or its improper cache of Facebook user data for more than a year now. There seem to be plenty of reasons now not to believe those unnamed executives.
Do u believe them?
In this article, they claim they were alarmed by what they thought was a potential client, were just trying to use hypotheticals to draw out this person's intentions and decided to not meet with the person again. However, they didn't just meet once but several times and it's on all video.
This is outrageous. Looks to me like Mueller needs to take a very close look at Bannon, Nix, and the Mercers.
47
So ironic we are afraid of the government spying on us and it turns out that “friendly” social media platforms are the real spies. Big brother is Mercer, Bannon with help from Zuckerberg.
43
FB and MZ are tools of the government. Anyone paying attention knows this.
1
Though many may question the effectiveness of Cambridge Analytica's "so-called" psychological modeling techniques, I for one do not. I offer up two of my interactions Pre-election with Facebook users that would refute those assessments. (Exhibit A.) The musician who repeatedly and insistently referred me to Pro-Russian articles and books he found through Facebook. I literally had to argue against his assertions about how great Russia is and the U.S. is really the bad guy. (Exhibit B.) The old friend in Missouri, who himself was non political, excitedly telling me about his very good buddy who does "incredible research" through Facebook links and discovered that HRC was running a child porn ring out of a pizza parlor in Washington D.C. These are but two small examples. I can site many more interactions I had Pre-Election with Facebook users that confirm my assertion that Facebook's Propaganda Machine worked well Pre-Election and is still very effective! We're in BIGLY trouble here if we don't expunge this new Agit-Prop out of American politics.
41
Thank you. Who doesn't know people like this? The numbers could very well add up to millions.
Psychgraphic modeling tools? That's right up there with homeopathy, e-meters, psychic surgery and the like. It sounds to me that Cambridge Analytica is selling a lot of claptrap to gullible but power-hungry clients. Its got to be a scam that only guarantees results by using tried-and-true methods of bribery, honeytraps, and blackmail. That the name Steve Bannon was associated with it says a lot. The tin-foil hat crowd in the GOP goes ape over psychobabble.
13
This is the article everyone in the UK, EU, and US should read immediately - this is not new information: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-bre...
11
Thanks Lucy this was an eye opener to just how insidious CA and the Mercers are.
1
Thanks. A very interesting read.
It may turn out that the interlocking shadow conspiracies so beloved of Hollywood screenwriters and producers may not have been fictions, or even exaggerations, at all. The actuality is more disturbing than the scripted stories.
I'm sure that there are herculean efforts going on right now in those shadowy corners to hide or destroy other evidence of this before the cleansing sunlight gets to it. I only hope that the news organizations investigating this can keep their reporters financed enough--and protected enough--to continue.
187
I think that when the dust has settled on the Trump conspiracy our nation owes the intrepid, tenacious, diligent, hardworking, brave journalists a nice bronze tribute statute that should be placed somewhere on the Washington Mall. A tribute to the 4th Estate, something like that, because without the press, our nation and all nations are doomed, and tyranny triumphs.
3
I am proud to say i do not wear the computer pants in my family. I missed that bug by about 3 years and I am so thankful for that. My wife started a Facebook page for me years ago. It’s full of family pics and gatherings related to my career, but I could care less. A lot of things are done for the beauty of the moment and live on in my memory and not computer pixels. However there has been something quite unsettling in my craw about FB that I just could not put my finger on. Something this wildly popular was bound to have a dark underbelly and this article is the tip of the iceberg. The public really needs to wake up and take a closer look at these social media enterprises and the vast control they have over our lives. It is a Frankenstein monster in real time.
52
After being on FB for three weeks way back in 2008 I realized the inherent dangers and the efforts to bring me further into the "scam" set of my alarm bells and I began a year long effort to finally sever ties. Mark Zuckerberg has a much moral integrity as the orange one.
All along people have thought Trump-Russian collusion (which is patently obvious to any impartial observer at this point) was the endgame. Clearly the Trump campaign used any and every means - legal or illegal - to win. It isn't the Russians who've attacked our democracy, it's our president.
85
aided & abetted by the Mercers & Bannon!
24
and the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch/Roger Ailes.
10
Trump has cheated his way through life, why would he stop at the chance to win the presidency?
2
If President Trump has nothing to hide regarding the Russian intervention in our elections (no collusion as he says) why is he fighting Mr. Mueller so much? Mr. Mueller's investigation would exonerate Mr. Trump if what Mr. Trump says is true.
52
Why? Because even if he was innocent regarding Russia (he isn't), the subordinate and subsidiary crimes uncovered would put Trump and perhaps dozens of others in prison until the cubs came home and the cows won the series. But he's not really fighting Mueller so much as fighting shadows of his own culpability.
Mercer stepped down from his post at Renaissance Technologies as all his associations with Cambridge Analytica began to boil over. This data mining operation is also a form of insider trading and the focus on facebook, one source, is the distractionary psychology at work again to cover the actual data procurements and uses and whose money set the stage. When and if the money offshore, managed via yachts, is chased to Putin will those be thrown out of the US by Trump? Answer, no. His supporters, data mined, are too busy digging coal or sewing Ivanka's pant suits to then to afford to rise up against these high level users.
28
In the end, Zuckerberg could be the biggest con man of them all. I don't know if he actually views his creation/enterprise as a benevolent force in the world or simply as a tool to be exploited by the benevolent and malevolent alike. Makes no matter, as long as he profits from it.
53
This is what happens when a boy starts a company. No sense of ethics or consequences as he falls prey to big money. I don’t care how much money he used to create a foundation — he had so much money he was compelled to stow some for a tax savings. Reminds me of the bank failures 10 years ago which generated much discussion about ethics and the lack of teaching it in MBA programs.
1
I think that he does view himself, and his creation, as a benevolent force in the world. This is much scarier than a profit motive. He's playing God.
I've despised FB from its inception due to their potential for harm and their total disregard for user privacy until "caught out" and forced to change by public opinion. Too little, too late IMHO.
One of Steve Jobs' last public appearances included his comments about the need to always ask customers whether or not they wanted to "opt in" to software changes BEFORE implementing them, which Apple has always done, and which FB has NOT - they resisted this for several years.
Along with unregulated Wall St. derivatives trading and driverless cars, social media companies should not be allowed to even go public without prior "scrutiny and scrubbing" with authoritative "pilot testing" by Homeland Security reviewers who know how to "think dirty" with respect to nefarious potential hacking activities and the types of harm that could be perpetrated.
(After all, it's only a matter of time before a hobbyist-operated drone brings down an entire commercial jet full of civilian passengers.)
28
Some of us read the Facebook user agreement, did a little thinking, and decided not to sign up. Zuckerberg explained what Facebook was about, the problems were not hard to discern, and millions of Americans signed up for it anyways. He didn't force anyone to hand over their data.
So you can't blame Zuckerberg, and you can't fault a data firm for purchasing data on Americans who don't think too hard - Facebook had assembled the Holy Grail of advertising! How could they resist? If Hillary had gotten there first, we'd be admiring her savvy.
5
Would Facebook users have participated in the survey that eventually led to their information being shared with Cambridge Analytica, if they had known that was the consequence? There's the crux of the matter. Without that data, Nix's company would be much less effective.
16
On the one hand, most Americans never read the small print on anything so maybe expecting them to do so is too much. And they really should. I've sat on non-profit boards and worked in groups where I was the only one that read through all our contracts/ agreements, asking questions where I was confused/ concerned, and I'm not a lawyer.
And there should be rules about privacy, consent, etc. that businesses have to obey.
But ultimately, this is about Americans being sheep and their inability or unwillingness to be skeptical about information routed to them. All the fake posts and news in the world would have little effect if people actually took the time to question what they read rather than spending time watching Youtube and posting on Instagram, Twitter, and FB of course.
I hope things improve but I don't see them getting any better. Cue the two under-10 kids in a busy, cafe line who hardly moved because they were so glued to their screens, emulating their father.
7
The more is revealed in Trump's "universe" and the more it makes my concerns grow ever bigger. Pretty much everyone knows that their personal data circulates all over the web because its worth something for the merchants. Its no big deal. But when your personal data is used in a "malicious" manner and you realize that it participated in the rise of the WH to clowndom, it is a very big deal. I think that the media giants should apply sanctions on Trump. Perhaps like the suspension of his twitter account...
26
Over the past three decades, the U.K., U.S. and other western aid agencies have spent many billions of dollars to strengthen free and fair elections, and democracy more generally, in developing and transitional societies across the globe. How ironic that the more effective work might be done by sleazebags at Cambridge Analytica doing their best to undermine elections and democracy, not just in such societies but in our very own.
24
This (mis)information war and emotional blackmailing (based on almost any divisive issues like religion, race, ethnicity, language, gun, God and so on) not just by 'enemy' countries like Russia, China but also by many major American (?) corporations and their lobbyists seem to be the preferred way to win wars and more wealth (without fighting actual wars). The communist or other dictatorial regimes like that of Putin employed it so successfully against almost every productive and functional democracies.
To oppose such tactics, we must have a very robust and transparent government and an education system which teach people how to think, how to make decisions based on data (and not on emotion or on blind allegiance for religion/God or any political party). Unfortunately, we, as Americans, now started behaving more in the line of those people who are determined to harm and destroy us.
25
Wait, Fusion GPS has a foreign subsidy?
2
its subsidiary, Sparky.
Please look into Senator Cruz as well; see yesterday's story in the Dallas News.
In our rush forward with technology, our laws are woefully inadequate to protect us, to protect our Democracy.
37
This story sounds like an old re-run of the original Mission Impossible TV series. In that case, it was tough to tell if the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) were patriots working for the ‘Secretary’, or just a bunch of vigilantes with a political agenda.
The same can be said for ‘secret police’ organizations. According to the Random House Dictionary (2nd Ed.): “secret police. A police force that functions as the enforcement arm of a government’s political policies and whose activities, which often include surveillance, intimidation, and physical violence a means of suppressing dissent, are usually concealed form the public.”
4
Remember back when Mitch McConnell was refusing to even consider to allow hearings to seat a Supreme Court Justice under Obama?
It's almost as if he and his cronies knew from the Mercers that the fix was in.
The dead silence coming from GOP 'leadership' about foreign meddling becomes much clearer now.
99
Interesting point.
3
The kind of "hypotheticals" that Nix described make the kinds of dirty tricks that emerged through Nixon's "plumbers" in the Committee to Re-elect the President look like Keystone Cops. And we all know what happened to Nixon as a result. (Remarkably and ironically, Roger Stone was involved in both endeavors!)
The insidiousness of the development and use of "psychographics" for propaganda to benefit the Trump campaign should raise a gigantic red flag for all of us in the U.S. There appears to be a link to propaganda used in the Brexit vote in the U.K. as well.
Even more alarming is Nix's admission that they "have a long history of working behind the scenes" in such nefarious ways. The public in both the U.S. and U.K. have a right to know what exactly comprised Cambridge Analytica's and the SCL Group's shenanigans.
If the Trump campaign was complicit in any of this mess, then it's clear that there WAS collusion with two foreign entities - the British AND the Russians. Small wonder that Trump is tweeting with all his might to demonize the Mueller investigation!
This situation requires immediate legal action on both sides of the Atlantic, and the results must be disseminated to all of us!
165
Nix' "hypotheticals" sounds like he was an astute student of the CIA and its shenanigans around the world. Although, to be fair, Nix never threw in assassinations and overthrow of sovereign governments as part of Camb. Anal.'s tools of the trade.
3
offer him enough money see what happens
2
This will all go the way of the Equifax breach. How soon we all forget.
10
Then we should not forget.
Watch Aldus Huxley's 1958 interview with Mike Wallace on YouTube. Huxley predicts this exact manipulation. https://youtu.be/3TQZ-2iMUR0 Fascinating.
11
Yes, I am behind the time but watch Season 4 of House of Cards and see how prescient they are about this same topic. Substitute the Underwoods and their opponents for Trump, etc.; Pollyhop for Cambridge Analytics; and the NSA for Facebook. Manipulation of elections and voting via the Internet.
Libertarians such as Robert Mercer and the Koch brothers hold in their fundamental beliefs that extremely rich people have a fundamental right to be rich, stay rich, and get richer. They need to undermine Democracies to achieve their egregious goals.
Cambridge Analytica, among other ploys, is a tool being used to further their beliefs. By any means possible, legal or otherwise, they will undermine the elections in democratic countries to advance their beliefs.
American government, with its concepts of equality and Democracy, is anathema to Libertarians, who believe that government should be run by the rich for the rich and that the non-rich should either become rich or live in squalor. True Democracy, one man one vote, is in direct opposition to the goals of Libertarians since poor deluded voters will vote for the support of social programs to help the non-rich. The Citizens United decision by the senile befuddled Supreme Court was one of the greatest gifts Libertarians could imagine, since it is a license to spend as much money as they wish without control and without transparency to manipulate elections.
These awesome revelations about Cambridge Analytica are certainly a stunning revelation of the depths to which the Mercers (and the Koch brothers) will stoop to manipulate elections and suppress Democracy.
49
This fits nicely into the Mercer's overall plan. Use their money to dupe the taxpaying public to gain control over the finances of the U.S. government so they can direct more government largess to themselves. No one else in this world matters except for them.
25
I would repeat the very first sentence ever typed when the telecommunications technology was born in 1844. Samuel F.B. Morse wrote "What hath God wrought?" in Morse code and transmitted it on a line from Washington DC to Baltimore. The telegraph changed American life. That sentence is as true today as it was then but far more sinister.
The internet gives far too much power to evil people. As it is, the internet is far more wilder than the Wild West. There are no controls (except in China and Russia). The so-called democratization of communications has led to dozens and dozens of Cambridge Analytica-like operations around the world, some even state sponsored (like China and Russia).
Anyone who does almost anything on line gives up his privacy and is vulnerable to all kinds of propaganda and political mischief. If the internet was in existence in the 1930's it would have been the greatest gift someone like a Goebbels could have imagined.
The democracies had better wake up. As it is, Trump is the first sign that we're all in trouble as a result of internet manipulation in the service of evil.
16
Cambridge Analytica is clearly a bad actor and deserves punishment.
However, Facebook must also be held accountable for its nefarious behavior in making Facebook users' personal information available to pretty much anyone who will pay for it.
Rest assured that political operatives and candidates of all parties have used "big data" mining to analyze, target and manipulate voters; for example, Obama's campaign was given special access to private Facebook data in 2012. And, of course, manufacturers and vendors do the same thing all the time.
This sort of mining of personal data has been going on for years; is the sudden shock value due to the fact that most people didn't know about it?
5
Mon Ray,
“Obama’s campaign was given special access to private Facebook data in 2012”
Incorrect, the Obama campaigns built their own models based on data they collected. In 2008 the campaign collected and analyzed voter information data. All campaigns do this, some better than others. In the 2012 re-election campaign Obama supporters willingly downloaded a Facebook data collecting app.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/509026/how-obamas-team-used-big-data-...
3
Do the American people fully understand what happened here? Steve Bannon's Cambridge Analytica embodies the dark side of humanity. The company offered the sort of shady services one might find behind enemy lines in a cheap spy novel. That they collected vast swaths of U.S. voter psychological profiles, figured out their deepest fears and exploited society's more ugly prejudices is most chilling of all. Because as history now shows us, their wicked game of manipulation worked.
39
I've no doubt that these type of activities have gone on, in some for or another, for centuries. Human nature can be pretty ugly when power and money are at stake. Fusion GPS is just as bad; no difference. What's confusing to me is that readers think this is a 'GOP' or 'Trump' thing. It's not.
20
Don't believe there are any reports of Fusion GPS, initially hired by GOP, blackmailing or hiring prostitutes
1
This particular thing is a Republican/Trump thing, why are you confused about that? You offer a homily on human nature over the millennia instead of looking what is right in front of your face today about a specific instance.
1
Fusion GPS is an investigative and consulting firm. They gather information on political opponents. Did Fusion GPS trap politicians with prostitutes? No. They also consult on political strategy. Did Fusion GPS make incendiary target adds on face book to divide our nation politically? No. Mercer wants to “divide and conquer”. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I’m unaware of any sort of agenda of that sort with Fusion GPS.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/opinion/republicans-investigation-fus...
3
So, is this the way Robert Mercer wants to be seen? Is this what Conservatives do to gain the trust of the American voters? How sad. As for Bannon, he appeared to be the sleaze he is from his first days in the White House.
Take note my fellow Americans. These are the people who got Trump elected.
25
And we should vote trump and his republican conspirators out.
7
Such a fitting partnership between these 2 criminals (and how many others?) It's how a crime mob operates.
14
"Cambridge Analytica ... said the report was 'edited and scripted to grossly misrepresent the nature of those conversations and how the company conducts its business.'
The company said that it was the undercover reporter who had raised the idea of entrapping politicians, and that the executives had been trying to assess his intent."
If that is the case, this reporting is no better than the garbage Project Veritas puts out. We need to see the full tape to judge for ourselves.
Go to about 13:15. The tape starts there.
https://www.channel4.com/news/cambridge-analytica-revealed-trumps-electi...
1
Political dirty tricks have been going on since ...forever.
However, it’s time for Congress to start making
regulatory demands to protect internet consumers from both privacy invasion and propaganda.
I just don’t think our elected representatives have either the will or the expertise to address this task.
67
Until Congressional term limits are enacted AND there is significantly effective campaign finance rules changes, including the repeal of Citizens United and McCutcheon, our elected officials will not do anything about this or any other election interference or outside attempts to influence our votes. I don’t believe having “the expertise to address this task” is germane as that could be delegated to congressional staff or consultants.
1
@FJM,
It seems that our elected reps not only lack the will the fight this but actually help to feed this monster for their own purposes.
1
So there were how many Congressional hearings, spearheaded by Republicans, on Benghazi claims by the right wing? I'd expect an equal number of Congressional concern about Facebook and Cambridge Analytics attempts to fool American and British voters, wouldn't you, she asked sarcastically.
149
How about what happened in Niger?
Of course we believe this story. Because we've learned it fits the pattern:
No, I have no relationship.
It would be okay, even if I did.
My staff might have but I didn't know about it.
I had limited exposure.
It's a witch hunt. All we did was talk about adoptions. It was innocent.
I have nothing to hide. No you can't look at my taxes.
The other pattern this fits is that trump always tells us what he's doing by claiming others were doing it. Just remember his list:
trump was rigging the election when he charged the Dems with rigging;
trump was working with Russia when he asked them to find the emails;
trump was working with WikiLeaks via Stone when Guillani announced the coming leak of Podesta emails;
trump charged that the Clintons were laundering money, cheating on taxes, and misusing the charitable foundation - all of which trump was doing.
Of course we believe that Bannon, Mercer, Nix and trump would work together to misuse data in order to fund the 2016 Election Heist.
17
Finally the undertakers of democracy are being exposed. Let’s hope it’s not too late to put it back together before Russia shuts off the power grid before the midterm elections.
17
I have to wonder if this hasn’t been done already. It would explain why Republicans in Congress appear impotent and have done very little to contain the President.
23
1. So, yesterday Facebook lost $30 Billion in capitalization. I bet you Zuckerberg is paying attention this morning.
2. I also have to wonder if Brexit was also an engineered vote to split U.K. from the rest of the West, along with the Russian attack on USA elections.
3. Conclusion. We are just looking at the tip of the iceberg regarding the magnitude of the attack on our Democratic institutions carried out with the help of political operative turncoats.
32
the tree fell not far from the Apple.
5
What's this story got to do with Apple, a company whose business model is based on manufacturing hardware rather than surveiling its users and selling their data to advertisers, including underhanded political campaigns?
Seems Facebook supplied user info to completely unethical crooks. How could that happen? Well $$$ have been known to encourage self deception, and lack of regulation means the moral and social consequences are minor, easily soothed by an increased bank account.
9
It’s okay when the CIA does it though.
5
No, actually it is not.
1
The creeps who work to subvert election campaigns need to be identified and brought to justice! We deserve accurate information about candidates and the right to go to the voting booths and have our vote count.All the cute tricks, subversion of candidates and data mining are attacks on America.Do these bad actors realize they are undermining our country?Brave men and women in the military do their jobs every day protecting the United States.We owe it to them to rid the internet and blogosphere of these threats to our democracy.
7
Part 2
“Facebook cares so much about its image that the executives don’t want to come out and tell the whole truth when things go wrong..."
We need another #TimesUp movement to protest the deliberate and irresponsible behavior of social media companies and their top execs. They are in serious need of Federal regulation, as they clearly foster the proverbial "unintended consequences" of harming not only individuals, but also our democracy, the details of which are only now being identified, investigated, analyzed, interpreted, understood and communicated.
Just as the Wall St. banks were allowed to run amok leading up to the 2008 meltdown of the global financial system, without any consequences to the CEOs or other top executives involved, which I term "financial terrorism", the social media companies are not being held accountable for the capabilities they create to generate revenue, which can also be "weaponized" by our enemies, and which have clearly created "data terrorism" that is now recognized as undermining not only American democracy, but European democracy via election meddling through psychological manipulation.
Such state-sponsored behaviors are "acts of war" and should be treated as such, both domestically and internationally.
Social media technology, per usual, is way ahead of humans' ability to understand its full implications and the potential consequences of its effects on anyone individually, and everyone collectively. BEWARE
9
Kompromat! The Putin business model spreads!
14
Why, yes, Mr. Nix, "having video evidence of corruption, putting it on the internet" as the Channel 4 report shows, is very effective in exposing bad actors.
This is what the kids call a "self own," buddy.
8
Why is this article not in 25 point headlines? Bannon and Mercer, two of the slimiest people on the planet created a business for the express purpose of election fraud.
The only thing trump got wrong in his campaign chant of "lock her up" was the gender.
At least the UK seems to be taking this seriously. Here in the good ole USA, we will just appoint an investigator to investigate the other investigators. And of course our congress will utilize their most powerful weapon, a Congressional Investigation. I'm sure people are quaking in their boots already.
164
Cambridge Analytica: From the country that gave us George Orwell and "The Prisoner"
"Number Six: I will not make any deals with you. I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own!"
7
From, chess-master Garry Kasparov, brilliant strategist with a lifetime experience of dealing with (read: confronting) Putin and his manipulation schemes.
"The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth."
Cambridge Analytica is a pawn in Putin's war against the US and the rest of the Western world.
17
Good grief - how about giving us some news. Dirty tricks have been around as long as politics, and certainly a lot longer than the US. They've been providing newspaper stories for ages.
4
So you only support reporting on forms of lawbreaking that you haven't read about in the newspaper before? What's the logic behind that attitude?
5
Just like wars have been around forever. Let's not report about them. Corruption also. No need to report about that. Same with crime. Only "new" stuff should be reported on. I think there is a cable news channel that fits the bill.
How not to use 'hypothetical' in a sentence: "To be sure, though, Mr. Nix said that he was speaking only in hypotheticals. “Please don’t pay too much attention to what I’m saying because I’m just giving you examples of what can be done and what, what has been done,” he said."
By saying "...what has been done," the speaker, Mr. Nix had moved from the realm of possible to factual. Not a big deal, good reporting, but this is like nails on a chalkboard for the reader.
8
If 50 million people left Facebook today, it would establish that American's care about our privacy. If 50 leave, I'll be surprised.
8
The very second someone signs up for a Facebook account, he or she gives up his privacy. Facebook is the most sinister idea every to become reality. Quite simply, it monitors your every post and shares it for money with anyone willing to pay for it.
Facebook is a monster. The Chinese know it. The Russians know it.
Why don't we know it?
13
Thanks a lot Silicon Valley and Citizens United.
8
Although Trump would gleefully accept such services, he is not smart enough to collude. Look to his son-in-law for the actual crimes.
5
The Mercer’s financed both Breitbart, Cambridge Analytica, Ted Cruz ( the most disliked member by the entire membership of the Senate), and Donald Trump!
The Fox Propaganda networks provide no coverage of REAL News.
When will Republican LEADERSHIP in Congress step up?
They are turning a blind eye to these corrupt actions because they fear the Trump -Mercer/Bannon smear machine.
Where are the true American heroes like Sam Irvin during Watergate?
Democrates and any remaining Republicans with integrity should attach legislation to the budget/spending bill up for vote that secures Mueller investigation continues unabated until Mueller deems it is 100% complete.
8
This sounds like a James Bond movie. Mercer is Dr. Evil and clearly enjoying out-smarting everyone.
3
I sincerely hope that all, repeat ALL, Facebook users keep in mind that the data appearing in Facebook was put there VOLUNTARILY. Face book users were not compelled to reveal ANYTHING. When the finger-pointing begins and grows, I hope that the pointers are looking in a mirror.........
4
On the surface, your comment seems reasonable. We give information willingly, often as a necessary function in our lives; however, we have the justified and legal expectation that the information is not exploited. Facebook has operated outside common information practices, often misleading users to believe information was protected.
4
Open and shut. . . . Put Trump's name in the same headline sentence with anything nefarious and there's your proof of guilt. Keep cranking those headlines out. he'll be behind bars in so time with such adept manipulation of data. There seems to be a little Cambridge Analytica in a lot of things, perhaps.
3
Could it be that although Trump won the election by manipulation and lies, he gets away with it cause there are no laws against what he did? The question then becomes, can a President be a lying cheat, an unethical low-life, be allowed to serve by serving himself cause he did not break any laws, or can we say, we don't want this guy for reasons of morality and he must be impeached?
19
He'll never suffer from looking bad or unethical, his base has set the bar so low that unless he gets caught on the act killing someone, he won't go anywhere
3
Ah, the real 'fake' is actually President. We follow this hollow man due to so many sordid reasons. We are all culpable, we are all victims.
But, we did know he was a liar, bully, adulterer, bankrupter that was a greedy as they come. And yet, 60 million people voted for him. He is the Republicans' prayers answered: he cut taxes on the rich. Trump and the Republican Congress made sure the rich would get richer & the poor and struggling would get scraps. So, 'mission accomplished', at least for Republican leadership, billionaires, super-PACs, etc. The evangelicals and gun hobbyists bought in, too. The destruction of this man & this party won't be fully known until we look back and add all the horrors up.
Democrats can help this country heal and thrive. We can.
But, don't let up on the criminals. Trump, Russians, sleazy internet goons, Republicans, & more have dishonored America. We've been had. Sold-out. Shamed.
After the traitors fall, it will be a time to mourn. But then, we need to lead. We need to raise the taxes on the richest. Billionaires and those with hundreds of millions of dollars are a corrupting influence on democracy and the ideals of equality. We can't walk away from that (again).
There are enough rich in each party to not be too interested in any redistribution to the many (no, they've led a vile redistribution to themselves; at the expense of this community).
If we want a 'more perfect Union', this seems like a good time to start.
Democrats must lead.
22
"Democrats must lead."
Would that Dem leaders had any agreed interest or path in doing so…
The American Citizen has been reduced to mere pawns. We have virtually surrendered our identity and our democracy to artificial intelligence!
I selfishly have to admit to being in my “ Sunset” years, and will leave behind any offspring or close relatives.
Tom Franzson Brevard NC
5
I just deactivated my FB account. I am appalled at FB's inability to police its own platform, allowing Russian Bots and Cambridge Analytica to misuse over 50 million FB users' accounts which enabled Donald Trump to get elected.
Before I deactivated my account I sent FB the above message. Sayonara Facebook. I'll find another avenue to let my friends know what I am eating for lunch today. . .
14
trump knew all along the election was being rigged. There has to be a way to hold the owners, the Mercers, responsible.
16
The Mercer family ought to be indicted. Why do they get to collide with foreign government? Oh, I forgot we worship the wealthy. Sorry master Mercer. I’ll get back to my low paying job now.
18
Prostitution? Bribery? Strong-arming? All par for the course in the trump administration.
14
I guess this explains Lindsey Graham's and Bob Corker's reversals on Trump.
6
One wonders about the beginning for little Nix and the moment he decided that this would all be oaky doaky and what a good way to make a living.
This is one creepy guy.
Evil. It glares so harshly.
18
"Oh Brave New World that has such people in it!"
9
How will Republicans explain away the Trump Organization’s nefarious by any means necessary taking of the Presidency?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2017/05/26/jared-kushner-in-h...
6
Aha, actually the real 'fake' is Trump!
Shame on US.
8
CA was linked to Russian organizations before the 2016 election.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-academic-trawling...
There is your collusion, Mr. Mueller.
8
So it was not the Russians, but the British who meddled in US election ?
My head explodes !
1
That's how Charles Cushner, father of Jared Cushner trapped his own sister in family feud with his sister's husband. it was prosecuted by former NJ governor, who is now disgraced from Trump inner-circle.
6
In the midst of being incredibly disturbed and appalled by the prospects of this.....does anyone else find it interesting that Cambridge mentioned 'getting Ukrainian girls', and there was recently a times article about a 'Ukrainian girl', a sex worker, arrested in Turkey, I believe, who said she had video and would tell all in exchange for her freedom and protection ? Coincidence ? Wacky conspiracy theory ?
9
She was arrested in Thailand. When I read the article, I remember hoping that someone would spring her out of jail and bring her to safety; story, video or not.
Yes ! Thailand,. Her story, and her indications that she knew things and had some evidence was reported at least week or more BEFORE the Cambridge story broke. That's what makes it so "interesting". Some of what she described synched well with what Nix was alluding to in his recordings. They passed her off as just a publicity seeker. Far fetched ? Maybe, but my definition of far fetched has changed completely since Nov 2016.
2
Why do we continue to imbue the wealthy with benevolence when clearly so many of them are involved with dirty tricks. Dirty business tricks, dirty political tricks, dirty behavior in their family relationships. What is the aphorism? "Behind every great fortune is a crime...."
6
"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime." -- Honoré de Balzac. How true.
Social media, like the media, needs a bit of regulation. -- thegamesmenplay.com
Why is this story linked to Trump? How is Cambridge Analytics any different than the dozen other political think tanks that concoct dirty tricks and political slander. How about the democrats hiring an ex British spy who worked with a former KGB Russian spy to dig up dirt on Trump, which was then used by our virtuous FBI to get a court order to wire tap on a presidential campaign! Are liberals so blinded by hate for Trumps that they don’t notice their own sins and hypocrisy?
10
Exposing what actually happened (e.g. the golden dossier) is very different from going out of your way to create the dirt apparently as does Cambridge Analytica. Surely even a trump supporter can reason this much, no?
12
It's linked to his name because it's a company that was started by a man who for a time both ran his campaign and served as one of his primary advisors, and because the company's primary financial backers are one of his primary financial backers (who it appears had a significant financial stake in his winning the presidency). And let's not forget that the Steele work was initiated by members of the Republican party.
11
Founded and bankrolled by Bannon and the Mercers? As to the Steele dossier, it was originally funded by the Republicans. Good try on the bait and switch!
3
Who is surprised by this Trump plays dirty, Kushner's own father went to Federal prison for similar tactics used against Kushner's uncle.
6
trump - making America great with one sleazy scandal after another !
7
Hope Facebook tanks, and Zukerberg is held personally liable.
5
I hear a knock at the door at Cambridge Analytica: it's a good morning subpoena from Robert Mueller!
6
Reality check easy solution cancel your cell phones an shut down net world would not stop turning .
3
Dick Nixon would be proud.
2
A company formed by Mercer and Bannon?
That prepares you for the sleazy details that certainly will follow.
5
Nix said, "..These sorts of tactics are very effective, instantly having video evidence of corruption". Oopsy!!
Hopefully, Cambridge Analytica and the like, will soon follow the same fate of others, for ex., the Weinstein Company. Trouble is you almost need GPS tethers on "bad actors" like Nix, or they soon pop up again in another venture, funded by the "Mercers of the world", or in some chaotic administration looking for the "very best" people.
4
There is no reason a company like Cambridge Analytica should be in business. Its operations should be shut down globally. Bannon & the Mercers should be tried and put in jail.
15
Oh oh, we just thought Nixon's dirty tricks were despicable!
7
This is our country, our hopeful democracy.
It does not belong to the amoral wholly corrupt Mercers and Bannons and Trumps.
It belongs to us and we must fight to get it back.
In the name of Washington and Franklin and Lincoln and King and Obama.
Don't get fatigued by all this high drama, we must fight back, we are not for sale and we must put an end to this loss of values, loss of direction, loss of leadership, loss of liberty.
Vote. Run for office. Support everyone fighting these smug selfish fools.
Everyone must raise their voice, resist this monstrous invasion of our rights and liberty.
We are a democracy. And we are better than all this garbage.
10
When I was campaigning for Hillary I ran into a Trump supporter who wanted to clue me in on the "22 murders committed by Hillary Clinton". He said "get on the internet, do the research." He was dead serious and quite sincere. He'd been down a Mercer-Bannon-Putin-Trump rabbit hole.
18
When my wife's mother finally decided to take the plunge and get an email account in the early 2000s, the very first email she sent out was a forwarded chain letter about those same 22 murders.
2
This is great
Someone please pay them to entrap Trump
4
Facebook is for fools. Never used it, never will.
9
I use it for business. I would never go on vacation and post photos to it. I only post after the fact. And therein lies the complexity. Social media and the internet are tools -- like a a vehicle. You can use a car to deliver Meals on Wheels or you can use it to run down your enemy. There's no reason that Facebook can't be more than OMG LOL juvenile stuff. But that requires an informed global citizenry. -- thegamesmenplay.com
Time to start prosecuting the brains and financiers behind Cambridge Analytica -- that means Bannon and the Mercers.
4
How ironic if C. Analytica/SCL were involved in entrapping potus with compromising pics?
2
The poetic justice of Channel 4 entrapping Cambridge Analytica is just delicious.
11
INVESTIGATE. Ch 4 UK clearly shows illegal political activity. Trump/GOP /Mercers used Cambridge Analytica;Brad Pascal leads Trump's 2020 campaign. INVESTIGATE. Ray Sipe
4
There are a lot of incredibly stupid people in the United States. If you don’t know your own mind well enough to avoid being swayed by misleading information put out on Facebook you need to go back to school. The faults in our educational system are becoming apparent to the world.
17
I think Facebook knew the power of their platform and allow one an all to use it in any way they saw fit to advance their cause while they looked the other way. There is no morality when it comes to profit.
10
Reading this article left me wondering how on earth one becomes so bereft of standards of decency that it is possible to propose the ruin of another person in completely innocuous sounding business terms. Perhaps the answer is that they never had them in the first place. People don’t matter except as commodities to be exploited for profit, as the reference to Ukrainian women demonstrates. Lives ruined—no problem, winning at all costs is the way it is done. Everyone else is a loser.
The dirty tricks in the politics of the past seem quaint by comparison. Where is the outrage? Who can fix this?
166
Destroying your opponents is political common practice. A la Karl Rove, the king of dirty tricks and many before him. Innuendo, out and out lying, gross misrepresentation, half quotes. It’s become the paradise of fiends. thank you Justice Roberts for Citizens United. You see the galloping rot and perversion of all that counts once you declared corporations were people? If they can’t be imprisoned for their crimes, corporations are not people. Your measuring stick has been woefully inadequate for protecting all of us who do not represent the 1%or are not members of that elite group.
10
Maryanne, WE can fix this. VOTE BLUE in every election, even dogcatcher! Dems aren't perfect, but they will hold this president and his lackeys back from the worst of their impulses until we can rid ourselves of them. If we don't act in meaningful ways, we will lose our Democracy forever.
10
Do you remember Ross Perot firm offering to game the energy market in CA in the late 90s? Which Enron thought it was a swell idea and, instead of paying somebody to do it, did it themselves and almost bankrupted a whole state.
You want to do something to help all of this? Delete your Facebook account. It is a shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater but when the little baby turns into Typhoid Mary it needs to be quarantined by itself, out of all social contact.
17
Silence Trump: quit Twitter.
Until there's an independent investigation, we won't know whether Cambridge actually did the stuff they bragged about. Consultants, investment bankers and lawyers (among others) typically inflate their expertise and experience when pitching potential new clients. You need help with this? We've been there, done that.
11
Perhaps- but we invaded Iraq on nothing more than the word of Saddam Hussain that he had weapon of mass destruction! I'm all for ripping that company to shreds right now. What do we need it for anyway? Who would it harm to take the thing apart and destroy it and make all such activities illegal? In other words- why should we care about them? It's not like they cared what they were doing to us.
3
Camb. Anal. did all of the stuff, or The New York Times would not have published this expose on Page A1 of the print edition. That's the truth.
1
Offering to use dirty tricks in a campaign is wrong, whether the dirty tricks were actually used or not. Furthermore, bragging that you did immoral deeds shows that the bragger feels no shame about either doing, or pretending to have done, those deeds. An ethical business, a ethical executive, wouldn't make such statements.
Do a search on youtube of "diGenova" and count the videos is support and praise of him vs. those simply reporting on him. Then look at the names of the posting entities. Then consider how little time elapsed between diGenova's name hitting the news and the posting of these videos. There's a pervasive, highly organized effort to influence perceptions that needs to be looked into immediately. Cambridge Analytica is just the tip of the iceberg. Are you listening Google?
27
“Mr. Nix said they’ll could find some Ukrainian women.”
Seems to me that anything Trump connected to Russia/Ukraine isn’t an innocent coincidence. And Devin Nunes closed down the House’s “investigation into FISA’s “hounding” of Carter Page? This was all part of a Clinton-inspired plot to undermine Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign? I’m not buying the GOP kool-aid here. Trump’s as dirty as Nix. Maybe dirtier. I hope Robert Mueller’s team nails down the details of that 2016 meeting with Donnie Jr, Jared Kushner and the curvy Russian femme fatale. Soon.
26
The best thing to do is vote. Flip the majority and Trump, Mercers, Bannon etc. will be treated as a deathly contagious disease that know one will want to work with or be around.
28
Trump's lawyer claims to have paid Stormy Daniels out of his own pocket. Cambridge Analytica's denial is merchandised as having "humored" the questions of the Channel 4 reporter. We live in an era of bald-faced lying, with our president the proud poster boy, and run the risk of being desensitized to the point of total gullibility or indifference.
29
This firm is attempting to become a "private" intelligence agency, assuming functions normally performed by a government agency. This is a continuation of the conservative trend towards the privatization of government, from mercenaries in foreign conflicts to mental health therapists who keep latent active shooters on the street. The end game is simple: replace government with organizations that respond only to the demands of the wealthy and powerful. It is the end of democracy.
29
and they resist single payer healthcare for the same reason! What a way to control people- specifically women by holding their children's healthcare hostage to the whims of rich and powerful men instead of the vote of the people.
4
What has this got to do with Trump? Why is he in the Headline?
Oh, I dunno...it's just that we lib'ruls get all fussy when we see far-right billionaires who support Trump paying millions to found companies run by Steve Bannon that play fast and loose with the law and steal personal data in order to, you know, support Trump.
4
“The firm’s so-called psychographic modeling techniques, which were built in part with the data harvested from Facebook, UNDERPINNED ITS WORK FOR THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN in 2016, though many have questioned their effectiveness.”
The connection is right there (not to mention Bannon’s and Mercer’s even stronger connections with the company). These kinds of tactics are Trump’s bread and butter. Sure, he’ll try to dig up dirt on his personal and political enemies, but if Trump does not have evidence of something, the entire world knows he won’t hesitate to simply generate convenient “alternative facts.” He openly bragged about it on the subject of our trade “deficit” with Canada. His staff have admitted that they have had to tell “white lies” on his behalf. Merely documenting the lies Trump has spoken just during his campaign and presidency is a full-time job and fully unpacking them will be the work of historians (to say nothing of Trump’s notorious lies uttered as a private citizen).
We can keep swatting at the swarming flies and maggots or we can (collectively) admit the obvious: Trump is the rot to which all these... creatures are drawn.
4
The company was deeply involved in the Trump campaign and possibly made use of improperly or illegally obtained personal information of millions of Facebook users for the purpose of targeted advertising and (mis)information.
4
I'm deeply worried that Mr. Nix and Cambridge Analytica will get the same treatment as the Equifax fiasco... A slap on the wrist, and on your way.
Call me pessimistic, but if Equifax can find a way to make money off of their wrongdoings, then I can only imagine that these events might play out the same.
23
Buy your friends and families access to THIS paper.
Support and spread truth.
26
''“We have a long history of working behind the scenes,” Mr. Nix said.''
To a layperson that means we have a long history of committing criminal acts.
Once again follow the money trails.
29
The only entities I’m comfortable with working that far behind the scenes on an issue so important to running the U.S. is our security arms.
1
It’s richly ironic that the scammers bent on conning the world were themselves exposed by their own methods. And then they cried wolf. The expose rings true, and it’s very interesting that Steve Bannon owns part of the company. As a dear friend who was a former CIA station chief told me after reading my published paper on the psychological warfare principles use by the 911 bombers, “if you thought about it, they already did.” I was miffed, but it’s true. And now we know more about the tilt of the 2016 election.
39
This is exactly why I do not have a Facebook page, use google for search and limit my online exposure. It ain’t safe. It has no privacy.
18
Feel the same, but your info is out there, like it or not. The question is, when they "target" you with propaganda, does it influence you?
Question: what part of the Cambridge Analytica actions was illegal? And if the answer is nothing, why the fuss about this?
Extortion maybe?
6
We are in new territory with digital activity so there are not laws for every egregious infraction on the books yet. These actions require laws to regulate and prevent them. It’s an interesting thing to say something is not a problem if it isn’t illegal. That’s would mean child labor would still be in, driving without your seatbelts on would be no problem and every other aspect of civil life where people have to interact and depend on each other would be wide open and anyone with ill intent could operate without consequence. I can’t even imagine proposing a question like that and seriously thinking the only answer is “make no fuss about this.” Wow. Perhaps Trump would embrace that and work on instituting it
4
How many In Congress are being blackmailed by these guys? I bet more than a few....
104
David Nunes?
4
Hence the 'deafening' silence?
All Nix needs is "on" at the end of his name....
5
There is much more to this story I am sure.
Manifold provided many of Tump's Russia connections and Bannon brought in Cambridge analytical with stolen Facebook information used for dirty campaign practices.
There seems to be nothing above board in Tump's victory.
46
Erdogan, the president of Turkey, did exactly what is described in the article: destroy opponents with dirty videos. I feel that establishing dictatorships has become an international business.
29
Nix should be tried for treason.
26
Nix is a British citizen.
3
So should Bannon and every Mercer involved in this company.
2
Never fear in Britain NIX will be awarded medal MBE for loyal services to the BREXIT election campaign as stuffed with claims "TURKEY to join European Union" to a tired nation. Or President Trump ready to help Britain from Russian operatives on park benches? One of the Presidents more special relationships?
1
"I'm afraid the election's going to be rigged. I have to be honest," Donald Trump, August 2016.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/01/politics/donald-trump-election-2016-rigge...
I remember thinking how strange it was that Trump kept on insisting that the election was rigged. I attributed it to the idea that he wanted to blame his possible loss on other factors and discredit Hillary.
Now we know that it was Trump who rigged the election through Russian hacked emails, "harvested" Facebook data and conspiring through Russian contacts.
No collusion, just cheating to win the presidency, President Trump.
179
Even more sad when this is your modus operandi. To him it's normal to the rest of us who have morals and ethics it's lies, cheating, more lies and bigger cheating.
Hold him accountable, lock him up!
4
Donald Trump’s modus operandi seems to be accusing others of what he’s actually doing himself. We need to pay attention to this and when he accuses someone else of something criminal, we should immediately start looking for where he has committed this.
10
Trump thought he would loose but was not about to go quietly into the night. His goal was and still is to disrupt the system that served us well for the past 250 years and go down in history. If he lost, he and his army of followers were ready to do damage.
6
Electronic psychological nerve gas for hire in the dark quest for raw political power.
Put “into the bloodstream to the internet,” ......“Then watch it grow, give it a little push every now and again, over time, to watch it take shape"....metastasize and consume America's brains so badly as Americas foam at the mouth and elevate the most unqualified moron to the highest office in the land.
"Excellent.....excellent !" said the nefarious Mercers and psychopath Steve Bannon.
Perhaps a little regulation is in order, starting with radical campaign finance and disclosure laws and serious internet regulation of the Frankenstein that Mark Zuckerberg and others are destroying America with.
Blowing up America was great fun, guys....now it's time to blow up Facebook.
264
Trump may be right about one thing -- Americans are stupid.
We are stupid when we give away the details of our personal lives to faceless, greedy and malevolent men.
This story is still breaking in the UK. The Guardian reports that Aleksandr Kogan worked for St. Petersburg State University in Russia where he lectured about “New methods of communication as an effective political instrument.” The Russians are fighting WWIII. Wake up!
195
Alongside the fraudulent harvesting of 50m Facebook profiles, and shady, indicted members of the Trump Presidential campaign, have the GOP had "enough of winning"already?
81
Time to make sure you have non-Facebook emails, phone numbers, addresses, etc. of those who you want to stay in contact with if Facebook is forced to turn off the lights.
23
Why wait?
2
It's not 'just personal contact information. "Liking" pages, taking their IQ, spelling and other 'who/what am I most like" quizzes gives them loads of profiling data about your preferences, education level, what you like...
Is there any end to the rot of political campaigns now? I’ve never thought of politics as shining with integrity and high ideals but now we find nothing but rot, then another level down from the highest level and worse rot all the way to depraved rot. Makes one wish for a regulated campaign system where there is no money other than a big pot they can all access for some TV and Internet exposure and a fact checker with a gong sitting nearby. Interaction with a representative audience who gives real hypothetical questions and requires thoughtful hypothetical answers. We’re doomed if this continues.
119
Too late! SCOTUS says money = free speech. It has reached Second Amendment status: it is untouchable.
3
And that corporations are people. Unfortunately we can't put them in jail.
1
The beginning of the end for America. Trump's campaign used this same service with help from the Russians to spread disinformation. Trump should be arrested for treason as well as the republican leadership who knew about this.
230
The beginning of the end actually began with Reagan, his "starve the beast" deregulation, i.e. financial starving of our regulatory agencies, anti-union activities starting with the PATCO firings, dysfunctional trickle-down economic policies, blanket anmesty for immigration felons instead of sensible management of our immigration laws, tax cuts and loopholes for his campaign donor pals, etc. The GOP, the NRA, Grover Norquist, Wall St. bankers, F 500 executives et all have been on an organized destruction of our founding democratic principles ever since.
10
Trump just used the unequal system we ourselves created. Why Trump? We should all buy mirrors.
Because its treason and is destroying democracy that's why! Already we have detention centers for millions of immigrants, whose next? Maybe you!
"Though many have questioned [modeling techniques'] effectiveness," is like saying, "we're ruling out death by a thousand cuts, because we can't pinpoint which cut just hurt and which was the actual death blow." If targeted "advertising" didn't work, they wouldn't spend millions doing it. Can we stop with the PC appeasement?
34
So this is where Trump's Campaign got its start: an immoral consulting group (Cambridge Analytica), owned by an immoral conservative billionaire (Mercer), working for an immoral Republican candidate and future President (Trump).
This is about as heinous an act of treason as there possibly could be, executed by greedy and immoral Republicans. If those involved in this treasonous act aren't prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, there is no justice in America and we have become a Banana Republic.
Save a Republic, remove a Republican.
333
If you read the article you will find the only mention of the Trump campaign is to say that the reporter was apparently trying to dig dirt on the Trump campaign. Nothing else in the article justifies the mention of Trump in the headline. Just yet another attempt at disparagement by association.
Indeed, the Bannon-founded Cambridge Analytica shared and office and staff with the Trump campaign. The two organizations are largely indistinguishable.
5
I goes this gives new meaning to Facebooks's Sanders recommendation to "Lean in" Cambridge Analytics and Facebook are both examples of corporate capitalism gone wrong. If this doesn't cry for regulations I can't imagine what does.
95
Finally, we can begin to understand how such repulsive characters as Trump and Ted Cruz could be elected; sure it required a cohort of disaffected, self-victimized, alienated white males, but at bottom, they were played by a sophisticated propaganda effort shepherded by Robert Mercer and Steve Bannon. Bannon, with Mercer's money, is largely responsible for electing Trump. The Russians were involved because they shared the same goals as Bannon and Mercer, but they probably weren't the originator of a grand plot. They were more likely efficacious opportunists.
110
Facebook is the problem. Shut it down.
50
And Fox News, please!
1
And Twitter. If everyone quit Twitter today, Donald Trump would melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. It's worth a try!
1
Is there any person or organization tied to Trump that is legit?
157
Satan.
10
Even KFC and Tic-Tacs are sullied by association.
Robert Mercer has, according to this story, "put at least $15 million into Cambridge Analytica." Without knowing the numbers, I would nonetheless be willing to place a hefty bet that Mercer's seed money has been returned through to corporate and individual tax relief bill pushed by Trump and OKed by Mercer's other Republican lackeys.
Trump may not have needed to collude with Putin (that is not say he did not, only that it may not have been necessary). Instead of Watergate Plumbers, we now have Cambridge Miners.
132
It's so fitting that Cambridge Analytica was undone by their own tactics.
84
Facebook is a surveillance system, and Cambridge Analytica used the data to curate lies they knew would work on their target.
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." - The Art of War
We are losing the war for the truth because our enemy knows us better than we know ourselves.
71
Take a moment and go Look at the Fox News website. The scariest aspect of this story is that the 30% of american voters that have guns will never see it. I looked at Fox this morning and they actually had a story about making microwave popcorn. POPCORN! The President of the United States hired a firm that thinks Deception prostitutes and blackmail are legitimate tools of electioneering and they are talking about Popcorn The second story on their web site was about a High School newspaper depicting Trump as a Nazi. So a Paper put together by eight 16 year old students and seen by 400 people takes precedent over the possible treason of Trump.
Yet the right wing complains when we call them Low Information voters.
407
JHayes- mmmmm, popcorn.
sorry what were you talking about I got distracted. good thing no news organization ever do such a thing purposely!
6
I still question why a foreign born man, Rupert Murdock, is allowed to control so much media in the US and where did his seed money come from??? When Ronald Reagan eliminated the broadcast rule of "Equal time" for opposing positions... he set in motion the wheels of disinformation and "alternate facts" that go unchallenged. We need to reinstate "Equal Time" rules for broadcasters... and lets see what happens to Faux News.
11
JHayes, the sad part is that they really don't care, these voters. As long as they have their guns, that is all they care about.
The rest of us who choose to walk around with our eyes and ears open clearly see what is coming; we already have the weapon of societal destruction in the big house, they are still worried about their guns.
7
Just read what Jared Kushner's father Charles did to his own sister. Any surprise that Jared teamed up with these guys for the biggest fraud in American history?
Lock him up.
180
Wake me up. I feel like I'm having a bad dream and the world has been taken over by evil masterminds who have turned all of us into humanoid robots who are being programmed and controlled by real computer bots. They fire good cops that get close to uncovering their scheme. They have installed brutal dictators all over the world and are financed by ultra wealthy ring wingers who lust after power for the 0.1%.
Their scheme is to get the commoners and disenfranchised to vote the dictators into power. Then the dictators increase their wealth by transferring public dollars to the 0.1%. The crowds cheer and can't get enough of it. The dictators' popularity soar all over the world as they fleece the working class.
But I'm not dreaming. This is the world we are living in today. It could just as well come right out of a 007 movie. But this is no movie. It is Trump, Putin, and the rise the right wing totalitarianism all over Europe. It's a global conspiracy and it worked.
The next question to ask is since there is so much money involved, are any of the right wing media personalities that defend the conspiracy being paid to do so? If they would entrap people with prostitutes, why wouldn't they grease media with cash?
Who will be our hero and crush the conspirators? Paul Ryan? Mitch McConnell. Sarah Sanders? Any Republican. No way.
It will be British Chanel 4, a porn star, this paper, and all parties that the dictators daily trash.
Let the battle begin.
503
I cannot believe it either Bruce. in fact, I'm bordering on despair but vow to keep fighting in my own limited way.
65
Yes, let the battle begin. The left must be demolished if this country has any hope of survival.
1
J
Another brave soldier of the right that doesn't want to identify himself.
33
Nix can't nix these comments.
34
"The information that is uncovered through such clandestine work is then put “into the bloodstream to the internet,” said Mark Turnbull, another Cambridge executive, in an encounter in December 2017 at the Berkeley hotel in London."
In other words, "the information gathered through undercover work"--in effect, lies, sham stories, set-ups, yeah, "fake news" --was for sale.
I watched that video last night dumbfounded. This isn't "psychographic profiling," it's spreading false stories based on hit jobs and making them seem "normal".
I hope these guys get nailed, as I also hope Mark Zuckerberg, Cheryl Sandberg, and yeah, Steve Bannon get nailed. And then, for good measure, the Mercers who funded all this.
Propaganda manipulated to look like something other than propaganda is still propaganda. Hiring foreign nationals to do dirty "influence" schemes in some wild culture war violates campaign finance laws.
I hope we learn more about what essentially was an American/British scam integrated with Russian hacking to create an alternative reality and present it as real.
In Dante's Inferno, there's very special place in hell--indeed the last circle---for souls who spent their lives committing this ultimate sin: fraud.
506
Revisit Dante. The ultimate sin is not fraud; it is treachery and this ninth circle is reserved for the likes of Judas Iscariot. Fraud is the eighth circle.
2
Christine - It's actually TREASON against the United States - PERIOD!
Keep up the fight, GOTV and we'll continue to meet on the barricades.
6
Let's not forget to lock up Robert Mercer and his daughter for financing the whole corrupt business. In jail, they could be writers for Homeland.
11