What's even more irritating is that these idiots, for their narrow and abject purposes, now have the audacity to pass the hat to fatten their bloated coffers still more with the dollars of clueless suckers. Does it work? Well, evidently yes, as this manipulative little mail demonstrates. Truly, as genuine sociopaths, these people have no decency. Below, the gem one of our editors received today, unsolicited.
Facebook just found $100,000 in ads aimed at Americans during the 2016 election and secretly linked to a Russian propaganda mill. But it won’t release them to the public!
Tell Facebook: Release the Russian “troll farm” ads to the public!
patrice,
Facebook just announced it found $100,000 in incendiary ads aimed at Americans during the 2016 election, run by hundreds of fake accounts linked to a shadowy Russian “troll farm.”1
Depending on the wording of the ads, the Russian agents may have violated laws banning foreign nationals from attempting to influence U.S. elections – but Facebook is refusing to share copies of the ads with the public.
Foreign nationals or governments are strictly banned under federal election law from contributing to U.S. candidates or making expenditures to influence U.S. elections. It’s also illegal for Americans to solicit or coordinate with that activity.
Many of the ads Facebook just uncovered were geotargeted to specific locations and many mentioned candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton by name. And they were all linked to a notorious, Kremlin-linked “troll farm” in Russia named the Internet Research Agency.
These ads seem very likely to cross the legal line, but it all depends on the content of the ads, exactly what Facebook won’t release.
The content of these ads would be invaluable for legal experts, reporters, and public interest groups working to get to the bottom of the attempts to undermine our elections – and to help protect our democracy from future attacks.
These shocking revelations come after Facebook denied for months that Russian nationals had run any paid ads through their system to influence the election.2
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg even called it a “pretty crazy idea” to think misinformation on Facebook played any role in the campaign result!3
In June, Demand Progress’s Rootstrikers project delivered more than 200,000 petition signatures to the Federal Election Commission calling for an investigation into whether Russian hacking and social media activity violated federal election laws, and whether the Trump campaign illegally colluded with their efforts.
Now, as an organization representing internet users, we’re calling on Facebook itself to step up.
After positioning itself as an online “town square” where Americans should spend much of their democratic life, Facebook should act to help the country get to the bottom of the recent attacks on our democracy.
Thanks for taking action,
Kurt Walters
Campaign Director
Demand Progress
Sources:
1. Washington Post, "Russian firm tied to pro-Kremlin propaganda advertised on Facebook during election," September 9th, 2017.
2. The Verge, "Why we can’t trust Facebook’s story about Russian ads," September 8th, 2017
3. The Guardian, "Facebook's fake news: Mark Zuckerberg rejects 'crazy idea' that it swayed voters," November 10th, 2016.
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What’s even more irritating is that these idiots, for their narrow and abject purposes, now have the audacity to pass the hat to fatten their bloated coffers still more with the dollars of clueless suckers. Does it work? Well, evidently yes, as this manipulative little mail demonstrates. Truly, as genuine sociopaths, these people have no decency. Below, the gem one of our editors received today, unsolicited.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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Parting shot—a word from the editors
The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found
In his zeal to prove to his antagonists in the War Party that he is as bloodthirsty as their champion, Hillary Clinton, and more manly than Barack Obama, Trump seems to have gone “play-crazy” -- acting like an unpredictable maniac in order to terrorize the Russians into forcing some kind of dramatic concessions from their Syrian allies, or risk Armageddon.However, the “play-crazy” gambit can only work when the leader is, in real life, a disciplined and intelligent actor, who knows precisely what actual boundaries must not be crossed. That ain’t Donald Trump -- a pitifully shallow and ill-disciplined man, emotionally handicapped by obscene privilege and cognitively crippled by white American chauvinism. By pushing Trump into a corner and demanding that he display his most bellicose self, or be ceaselessly mocked as a “puppet” and minion of Russia, a lesser power, the War Party and its media and clandestine services have created a perfect storm of mayhem that may consume us all.— Glen Ford, Editor in Chief, Black Agenda Report
In a time ago, there was an American Performer that said ‘there is a sucker born every minute’. I can not recall his name but I believe he was a circus owner … how appropriate!
Great article! Now for “ger” the name of the performer was P. T. Barnum founder of the famous circus that bears his name.
Why would we believe a claim about “hundreds of fake accounts linked to a shadowy Russian “troll farm?” The Russian Tale has lost its magic precisely because every anti-Russian claim to date has fallen flat under the weight of the facts. What Russian “troll farm,” and is it the same as our own troll farm? What evidence do you have to support that claim? (And if either actually pays, where can one sign up?) Here, we’re just supposed to take someone’s word for it… What I did find out for myself over the past year is that anyone who has… Read more »