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Russia used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter, Muslims

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Russia used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter, Muslims

#51

Post by scarmig »

hellbanner wrote: post #41
Harimwakairi wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the outrage needs to be kept down No. If a foreign power attempted to influence one of my country's elections for its own gain, I am outraged. The amount of effort or money spent is quite immaterial to me.

You're American (USA)? How often do you get outraged about your country's government interfering with OTHER country's elections?

...all the time?

This line of questioning comes up a lot as the ultimate gotcha, but the people upset about Russian meddling today are also the ones most likely to be upset about American meddling in the past.

Re: Russia used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter, Muslims

#53

Post by chris11 »

monochromatic wrote: post #35
frandroid wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is there even anything wrong with any country It's illegal? But you ask good questions.

You may well be right, but what law would it violate?

US Law (specifically the Federal Election Campaign Act) generally tries to prohibit foreign nationals from donating to political campaigns.

It seems like that act has some pretty broad restrictions: "The Act prohibits knowingly soliciting, accepting or receiving contributions or donations from foreign nationals. In this context, "knowingly" means that a person: ... Is aware of facts that would lead a reasonable person to inquire whether the source of the funds solicited, accepted or received is a foreign national."

So a candidate could be taking a legal risk if he took a large donation from a foreigner and his excuse was that he didn't realize who the donation was from and wasn't interested enough to find out who was making the donation.

But I don't really think the US has decent enough disclosure laws for political donations or enforcement of current laws to adequately prevent or prosecute foreigners donating to political campaigns.

https://www.fec.gov/updates/foreign-nationals/

Re: Russia used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter, Muslims

#54

Post by thedevil »

nthitz wrote: post #24

Seems right out of Foundations of Geopolitics [1]. > Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – ex…

Somewhat tangential, but does anyone know why Russia likes the word "geopolitics" so much? Does it mirror a Russian word with a similar meaning?

In my experience, it's used so much by Russian propaganda sources and so rarely elsewhere that it serves as a good fingerprint of the Kremlin's influence. If someone uses it, I know there's a good chance that either they're Russian (and read Russian news) or that they read/watch RT.

Re: Russia used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter, Muslims

#55

Post by [deleted] »

scarmig wrote: post #51
hellbanner wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're American (USA)? How often do you get outraged about your country's government interfering with OTHER country's elections?

...all the time? This line of questioning comes up a lot as the ultimate gotcha, but the people upset about Russian meddling today are also the ones most likely to be upset about American meddling in the past.

[deleted]

Re: Russia used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter, Muslims

#56

Post by kiernanmcgowan »

nthitz wrote: post #24

Seems right out of Foundations of Geopolitics [1]. > Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – ex…

Other eery points:

The United Kingdom should be cut off from Europe.

Ukraine should be annexed by Russia.

Russia needs to create "geopolitical shocks" within Turkey. These can be achieved by employing Kurds, Armenians and other minorities.

Re: Russia used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter, Muslims

#57

Post by mythrwy »

Gargoyle wrote: post #49
mythrwy wrote: post #47

I find it hard to believe anyone susceptible to having opinions on BLM or Muslims would be measurably influenced by an ad on facebook. Maybe that's why they only spent 100K. A similar op by Western intelligence services would cost what... maybe 10 million? 100K in ads, 9.9 million for contractors and mid level management bureaucrats.

You're downvoted, but this has been exactly my thought all along. The people who saw these ads weren't going the other way anyway.

No, no they weren't. Which make the whole drama even more objectively silly.

For the record I have no doubt the Russians do engage in covert activities not in the best interests of the U.S. But these straw grasping dramas have gotten tiresome.

Re: Russia used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter, Muslims

#58

Post by daodedickinson »

Harimwakairi wrote: post #36
tynpeddler wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The $100,000 may well have been a small fraction of what was actually spent, but until we have proof the outrage needs to be kept down. We're in real danger of revisiting yellow journalism and creating an even more polarizing political situation.

> the outrage needs to be kept down No. If a foreign power attempted to influence one of my country's elections for its own gain, I am outraged. The amount of effort or money spent is quite immaterial to me.

This happens for just about every election. Obama spent money attempting to influence elections in Israel, France, all sorts of places. Look at what Clinton did to interfere in Russia's elections as lampooned in the Jeff Goldblum film Spinning Boris. Clinton just about ran Boris Yeltsin's campaign. You're on course for permanent outrage if you deeply research any particular election happening currently on this planet, I feel.

Re: Russia used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter, Muslims

#59

Post by Shivetya »

chris11 wrote: post #53
monochromatic wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may well be right, but what law would it violate?

US Law (specifically the Federal Election Campaign Act) generally tries to prohibit foreign nationals from donating to political campaigns. It seems like that act has some pretty broad restrictions: "The Act prohibits knowingly soliciting, accepting or receiving contributions or donations from foreign nationals. In this context, "knowingly" means that a person: ... Is aware of facts that would lead a reasonable perso…

well to get around that one well known campaign simply made sure the donations from "unknown" sources were sufficiently small and diversified in identifying data so they would not be reported/flagged.

the current political parties set up the donation game so they could work it to their advantage and eliminate possibility of a 3rd or more parties.

Re: Russia used Facebook ads to exploit divisions over Black Lives Matter, Muslims

#60

Post by dgudkov »

thedevil wrote: post #54
nthitz wrote: post #24

Seems right out of Foundations of Geopolitics [1]. > Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – ex…

Somewhat tangential, but does anyone know why Russia likes the word "geopolitics" so much? Does it mirror a Russian word with a similar meaning? In my experience, it's used so much by Russian propaganda sources and so rarely elsewhere that it serves as a good fingerprint of the Kremlin's influence. If someone uses it, I know there's a good chance that either they're Russian (and read Russian news) or that they read/w…

The interest in geopolitics is deeply imprinted in the Russian mindset from the Soviet era. Since the dawn of the USSR the Communists always thought in terms of geopolitics and influence expansion. It constantly translated through the state propaganda to the masses. Therefore, an average Soviet person would be more interested in the progress on "helping our friends / fighting our enemies abroad" rather than in having good schools and roads in his/her local community. The vast majority of the country were in ruins yet its people were immensely proud of advances in Korea/Afghanistan/Vietnam/Egypt and whatever other warzone the USSR was involved at that time. This mindset has successfully survived the collapse of the USSR and is now widespread in Putin's Russia. Only this time it's about Georgia/Ukraine/Syria as warzones in a traditional sense, and US/Europe as cyber-warzones.
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