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All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

documentingreality.com

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Re: All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

#41

Post by RIMR »

zerostar07 wrote: post #12

i wonder if this release is going to be the turning point for the current facebook anti-hype cycle? the ads don't paint such a horrible picture as it was supposed to be.

The ads were mostly to signal-boost political groups. They were just the tip of the iceberg.

There were many Russian state controlled political Facebook groups with hundreds of thousands of subscribers who joined because of these relatively tame ads. Those groups then pushed a more extreme set of values onto the subscribers, with the aim of turning those groups against each other.

Sure, an anti-Sharia-Law demonstration doesn't seem so bad, nor does a pro-Syrian-Refugee demonstration. But if the same group is organizing both events to take place at the same time and location, then that group is just stirring the pot and trying to divide society against itself.

The ads are a big deal for what the accomplished, not just for what they read at face-value.

Re: All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

#42

Post by lamarpye »

the-pigeon wrote: post #30
lamarpye wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good thing that the media and their multiple layers of fact-checkers and editors didn't fall for the Russian's evil plan. They have learned a lot since the 30's and the Cold War.

> multiple layers of fact-checkers Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not. One of the worst things to come from modern media is that editors do not fact check because they want to break the story before anyone else and fact checking takes time. This has lead to tons of quiet retractions.

I was being sarcastic. The media, IMO, has learned little. They are useful idiots.

Re: All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

#43

Post by 15155 »

stefan_ wrote: post #19
minitel wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that they pander to both sides of any argument to increase the divide and lessen the chances of society making a sane compromise. Much more effective than just spewing insanity and hyperbole. Extreme progressives would destabilize the country by setting up structural racism and sexism in order to achieve "equity", dissolving borders, gutting the police, and over taxing companies. Extreme rightist…

Nothing could ever make compromise more unlikely than a winner take all voting system that has then predictably created exactly two parties whose followers again following the incentives rarely have an original though beyond "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".

> winner take all voting system

It was pretty entertaining watching people complain about the electoral college system in the 2016 election.

"Why should someone in Wyoming have more of a vote than someone in California!?!"

No mention of winner takes all, though: that would enable a certain basket of deplorables in CA to vote (and have it mean something.)

Re: All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

#44

Post by jessaustin »

Sharlin wrote: post #32
lucb1e wrote: post #3

> These are images of the Facebook ads the Russians purchased to try and alter the 2016 U.S. Election. These were released from Congress And what does congress base this on? Looking through a bunch, they don't seem to favor either Hillary or Donald... is it supposed to prove that the elections weren't tampered with? Or am I missing something? Edit: managed to find one! Against Donald: https://www.documentingreality.c…

Eh, of course these aren't even supposed to directly champion one or the other. Their point is clearly to amplify the existing "us vs. them" mentality, make people even more entrenched, and to encourage the thinking on both sides that the other side is out to get them. Classic divide and conquer.

But how does this change results? There are still two main candidates. If those leaning toward A lean harder toward A, and those leaning toward B lean harder toward B, no votes were changed as a result of this effort. There is no box to check on the ballot for "I'm really sure, so count my vote twice!"

A great unmentioned step in this whole bizarre theoretical process is the idea that, absent some FB ads, lots of Republican voters would have looked deep into their souls the night before the election and realized that God and/or Rachel Maddow wanted them to vote for Hillary. This idea remains mostly unmentioned because it is really implausible. Those who believe it should examine this belief critically enough to stop believing it.

Re: All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

#45

Post by RIMR »

ithilglin909 wrote: post #25

I’m sincerely at a loss for how most/many of these could have influenced the election. Part of me think that Congress is making mistakes and Putin is scrolling through these, laughing hysterically that we actually think he’d pay for this nonsense.

The ads were mostly for Facebook groups. Once those groups had a substantial subscribership, the Russians were able to push out far more vitriolic propaganda without having to pay for the audience.

The ads are just the tip of the iceberg.

Re: All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

#46

Post by the_cat_kittles »

RIMR wrote: post #31
johnpowell wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes.. People showed up and got fighty. And this is a tiny blip compared to hacking into the DNC's email servers. I see a lot of these ads are stupid and people totally think that was all there was. The ads were the part of the iceberg you can see.

Yeah, the ads were just the content they paid for. This doesn't take into account all the sockpuppet accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Reddit that were designed to swing conversations in the direction they wanted them to go. Also, link aggregator sites (like our very own HN) are susceptible to vote manipulation, which can promote the content the attackers want, and demote the content they don't want. These ads were j…

i cannot believe we still havent seen a major news story on reddit. the night and day takeover of the_donald was very obvious to me. i wish someone would write an in depth piece on the nature, scale and timeline of the operation there.

Re: All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

#47

Post by RIMR »

newsat13 wrote: post #29

That was anti-climatic. How exactly did these ads sway the election? In fact, many of them are pro-gay and have liberal idea.

The ads were for Facebook groups, so once they built up a decent subscriber count, they had an audience to propagandize to without paying.

As for the pro-LGBT/liberal ads: One of the strategies the Russians used here was to infiltrate and divide. Only propagandizing to one side of the American political spectrum isn't as effective as playing both sides and turning them against each other.

These ads are just the tip of the iceberg. There were still countless bots and sockpuppet accounts used to sway people one way or the other - but typically against one another.

Re: All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

#48

Post by jessaustin »

detuur wrote: post #40
stefan_ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing could ever make compromise more unlikely than a winner take all voting system that has then predictably created exactly two parties whose followers again following the incentives rarely have an original though beyond "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".

Worse yet: "the opposite policy of my enemy is my policy". We're seeing situations on both sides where people are taking positions in arguments solely because it's the opposite position of their opponents. Because taking any less than the polar opposite position would be seen as "going soft on them" by their electorate. It's a total shitshow.

The funniest example right now are the Rs who are against USA violence in Syria but for it in Iran, juxtaposed with the Ds who are against USA violence in Iran but for it in Syria. Syria and Iran are allies, and there is no compelling reason for USA violence in either nation. The whole war media narrative has really gone off the rails...

Re: All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

#49

Post by mistermann »

RIMR wrote: post #38
Cowicide wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, a picture of SpongeBob made me vote for Bernie instead of Hillary. Had nothing to do with her record or anything.

You're trying to make a psychological argument against a sociological effect. No, a single Spongebob meme didn't sway your vote. This is obvious. But hundreds of thousands little manipulations of social media did have ripple effects throughout existing communities, and created a more divisive political atmosphere that absolutely could sway peoples votes. For example: Hillary doesn't really have all that bad a politic…

How do you know so much about this person, are you aquaintances in real life?

Re: All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

#50

Post by jessaustin »

johnpowell wrote: post #16
jonpon wrote: post #9

I see a bunch of the pictures they advertised organized events. How did that work if these ads and supposedly pages were run by Russians? Were those events real? Who showed up? Who organized the protest on the ground?

Yes.. People showed up and got fighty. And this is a tiny blip compared to hacking into the DNC's email servers. I see a lot of these ads are stupid and people totally think that was all there was. The ads were the part of the iceberg you can see.

Wow that's so conspiracy-theory.
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