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

washingtonpost.com

11–20 of 111 posts

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

#11

Sounds like a surprisingly detailed scenario they've been able to reconstruct based on just $100k of ad spend. It's funny the Russians didn't funnel the money through US based organizations to cover their tracks, it's almost like whoever did this wanted to be discovered. But gosh, why would that be?

Yes, they should've done what the U.S. government does when it wants to spread propaganda - fund "think tanks" to speak on their behalf.

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

#12
post #8
post #6

Main questions and comments that strike me when I see the $100,000 amount is: With Clinton spending $141.7 million and Trump spending $58.8 million on advertising, does that miniscule amount even matter? What was even the CTR with those advertisements? Is there even anything wrong with any country or person(s) doing that or trying to do that since we already have Super PACs and lobbyists? I have more thoughts that ar…

When we test ads on a platform, we always run a small amount first, then scale up. The $100k could be just the test size.

No one tests 3k a day...

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

#14

Sounds like a surprisingly detailed scenario they've been able to reconstruct based on just $100k of ad spend. It's funny the Russians didn't funnel the money through US based organizations to cover their tracks, it's almost like whoever did this wanted to be discovered. But gosh, why would that be?

[deleted]

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

#15

Sounds like a surprisingly detailed scenario they've been able to reconstruct based on just $100k of ad spend. It's funny the Russians didn't funnel the money through US based organizations to cover their tracks, it's almost like whoever did this wanted to be discovered. But gosh, why would that be?

I wonder if the United States under the Obama admin (with Secretary Clinton) tried to influence Russian elections. Maybe this is some personal score settling between HRC and Putin.

That said, I support better relations with Russia.

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

#16
post #12
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When we test ads on a platform, we always run a small amount first, then scale up. The $100k could be just the test size.

No one tests 3k a day...

i reckon that state actors are (often) in their own universe when it comes to behavioral expectations.

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

#18

Sounds like a surprisingly detailed scenario they've been able to reconstruct based on just $100k of ad spend. It's funny the Russians didn't funnel the money through US based organizations to cover their tracks, it's almost like whoever did this wanted to be discovered. But gosh, why would that be?

I wonder if the United States under the Obama admin (with Secretary Clinton) tried to influence Russian elections. Maybe this is some personal score settling between HRC and Putin. That said, I support better relations with Russia.

I'm all for better relations with Russia too, but only if they give Crimea back. This isn't the 1600s, you can't simply invade a country and make it part of yours.

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

#19
post #6

Main questions and comments that strike me when I see the $100,000 amount is: With Clinton spending $141.7 million and Trump spending $58.8 million on advertising, does that miniscule amount even matter? What was even the CTR with those advertisements? Is there even anything wrong with any country or person(s) doing that or trying to do that since we already have Super PACs and lobbyists? I have more thoughts that ar…

First, the $100,000 may not be the full spend, it's just the minimum based on what has been identified as false-flag accounts linked to Russia. There may well have been orders of magnitude more spending that has not been identified as false flag accounts (further, it's not even the total expenditure of resources on the false flag accounts, just the part actually spent buying placement—when comparing to campaign spending numbers, when all the resources spent on content development, etc., and not just placement are counted.)

Second, people may discount messages that are official campaign messages (which have required disclosures to prevent falsifying origin), so there may be a significant influence multiplier for false-flag “astroturf” spending of the kind Russia engaged in.

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