https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-ties-more-than-5000-political-ads-to-bogus-russian-accounts/
Thousands of Facebook Ads Tied to Bogus Russian Accounts

Amid ongoing concern over the role of disinformation in the 2016 election, Facebook said Wednesday it found that more than 5,000 ads, costing more than $150,000, had been placed on its network between June 2015 and May 2017 from "inauthentic accounts" and Pages, likely from Russia.

The ads didn't directly mention the election or the candidates, according to a blog post by Facebook's chief security officer Alex Stamos, but focused on "amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum—touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights." Facebook declined to discuss additional details about the ads.

Facebook says it had given the information to authorities investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. "We know we have to stay vigilant to keep ahead of people who try to misuse our platform," Stamos wrote in the post. "We believe in protecting the integrity of civic discourse, and require advertisers on our platform to follow both our policies and all applicable laws."

Speculation has swirled about the role Facebook played spreading fake news during the 2016 election. Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has gone so far as to wonder whether President Trump's tech and data team collaborated with Russian actors to target fake news at American voters in key geographic areas. “We need information from the companies, as well as we need to look into the activities of some of the Trump digital campaign activities," Warner said recently.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/facebook-says-it-sold-political-ads-to-russian-company-during-2016-election/2017/09/06/32f01fd2-931e-11e7-89fa-bb822a46da5b_story.html
Russian firm tied to pro-Kremlin propaganda advertised on Facebook during election

Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that the social network has discovered that it sold ads during the U.S. presidential campaign to a shadowy Russian company seeking to target voters, according to several people familiar with the company’s findings.

Facebook officials reported that they traced the ad sales, totaling $100,000, to a Russian “troll farm” with a history of pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda, these people said.

A small portion of the ads, which began in the summer of 2015, directly named Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the people said, although they declined to say which candidate the ads favored.

Most of the ads, according to a blog post published late Wednesday by Facebook’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, “appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.”

There's no human way we can know what's going on all around us. I'll see how this plays out. It's a communication tool for lots of people and organizations important to me.

NY Times Fake Russian Facebook Accounts Bought $100,000 in Political Ads
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/06/technology/facebook-russian-political-ads.html?_r=0

Washington Post Russian firm tied to pro-Kremlin propaganda advertised on Facebook during election
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/facebook-says-it-sold-political-ads-to-russian-company-during-2016-election/2017/09/06/32f01fd2-931e-11e7-89fa-bb822a46da5b_story.html?utm_term=.0aaa614bba74

Great f'ing job!

huh?

TREASON!!!!!!!!!!!1!!

Libel and a RICO violation. Also, a sassy shampoo.

So maybe not technically "treason" but, sure is damn close.

?alias=standard_600x400

If so.. to hell with them.

Foreigners aren't allowed to donate money to a campaign.

Does that mean that foreigners aren't allowed to influence an election? I doubt it. A foreigner standing up on a soapbox and endorsing a candidate seems to be a protected First Amendment activity. If the foreigner hires a hall in which to make the speech, does the owner of the hall break the law by renting it out for that purpose? Again, I doubt it. I'm no election law expert but I'm disinclined to agree with you without seeing a link.

they NEED FB because otherwise they'd have to put some EFFORT into keeping in touch with family and friends

I have a huge family (think just shy of Duggars without the fundamentalism), some who are very difficult to track down on a regular basis. FB is literally the only way we've been able to stay in touch in my family for the last 8-9 years through moves and illnesses and natural disasters and semi-homelessness and other circumstances that life throws at people trying to get by living in many different states. In another time and place I probably would have just lost some of them, not for lack of effort though.

Perhaps I was wrong.

Or perhaps reaching a conclusion predicated on the Fallacy of Unrepresentative Sample is where you were wrong.

I should have responded differently, I just don't appreciate people implying that I'm lying.

... site.

Facebook is EVIL!!!

It just bugged me because, despite its flaws, FB has drastically changed my relationship with my family for the better.

We used to travel by covered wagon to communicate with family.

Then, dagnabbit, they started in with that pony express.

Don't get me started on that telegraph machine.

Then life really went to shit with that new fangled telephone gadget.

Now life is ruined by a series of tubes.

do you get nosebleeds up there on your high horse?

Skype also works. . .n/t

We tried that but, with different time zones and given the internet connections some of my sibs have, it never worked well enough. Plus it's good to have things written somewhere for others to read when they get to a library or somewhere with cell coverage. My family has a private group on FB, and that's been great. Especially for my mom's end-of-life care and a couple of my siblings' cancer diagnoses. Nobody wants to have to keep giving the same information over and over again. It's good to have a central place for that discussion, and to be able to go back and see when the last time mom had her pacemaker checked and what the doctor said about her meds, etc.

I rather like my siblings though.

So I'm still there,unfortunately.

I bet some personal accounts went up even more. Round them up. That total was all Facebook might be aware of.

Me wonders if they were tracking those good marketing employees. Tapes please.

asked repeatedly, and the $ coming from a St Petersburg troll farm group called Internet Research Agency

Plus, I'm not sure that newspapers or magazines or websites accepting ads paid for by a foreign entity would violate the law. (Clearly, the foreign entity that made the expenditure would violate the law and when the money is accepted by a candidate, the candidate is violating the law, but a media outlet accepting payment for an ad -- not sure that would put the media outlet in the cross hairs).

Link to tweet

This Facebook stuff is going to be big, everyone.

Wow! Definitely worth watching!

Link to tweet

What lies were spread by Russia and by the Trump campaign?
Facebook knows exactly what those ads said. But none of us do.

We must demand Facebook release those ads publicly. Our democracy is based on public disclosure of political advertising.

He really wants to be President. Too bad he helped give us the current one.

ugh

That's a wide pox.

BTW, Blue, is your name from the sci-fi books??? I've read most, if not all of the series, but it's been a day or two.

joy

Treason noun trea·son ˈtrē-zən

1 : the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family

2 : the betrayal of a trust.


Taking ad money doesn't fit either definition.

Facebook took tens of millions from the Trump campaign to run ads, many of which were hateful or racist.

Facebook knew what was in those ads yet they took the money.

America needs to see those ads. What did they say exactly? Were the ads racist? Were they homophobic? Facebook is keeping those ads secret.

That still isn't treason as the OP explicitly stated, however.

If Facebook wants to redeem themselves, they should disclose all the dark ads Tuemp and Russia purchased, and disclose all the data that has hidden bots.

They'll never do that, because they make too much money off that kind of shady data. That's why Facebook is bad for America. We need very healthy regulation of Facebook and Google.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/10/12/facebook-has-repeatedly-trended-fake-news-since-firing-its-human-editors/?utm_term=.2cf168dcd1b9

So linking RT and Sputnik qualified as sources? Then Russia could get any story onto Facebook by linking to their own controlled propaganda sites.

Mother posts pic of herself breastfeeding her baby? Take it down!

Iconic photo of young Vietnamese girl fleeing the horrors of war? Remove it!

Facebook accepts foreign money for ads meant to influence U.S. election? Eh, what's the big deal?

FUCK no

I am more concerned about what else this issue brings up: ads.
I use Facebook a lot. Keeping up with old friends, sharing pictures, following famous folks I like, political groups, science groups. What I couldn't tell you is what kind of ads they have on my Facebook. Because I don't pay attention to ads. I don't rely on ads to figure out what toilet paper I buy, what laundry soap I use or to tell my doctor what kinds of medication I may need. So I am surely not going to base my election decisions on an AD!
Even before the internet I could research politicians and issues. There is no excuse not to do that now especially with all that information at everyone finger tips.
Even the ads that fill my mail box at election time get sent directly to the recycle bin.

But, that's just me. YMMV

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$$$
$$$$$$$$$$

Recall that FB cracked down on 30,000 fake accounts prior to the election in France. "Facebook said the accounts were spreading fake news stories, spam, misinformation or other deceptive content."

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/14/media/facebook-fake-news-france-election/index.html