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Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

#51

Post by fabrika »

balance_factor wrote: post #31

As it is rarely mentioned in the US media, I'd just note that the US pretty openly interferes in Russian elections, and has been doing so for a long time. It's curious this is virtually never mentioned amidst all the accusations of Russia involving itself in US elections. There are many tentacles to the US octopus, for starters you can look at an organization created by and funded by the US congress, the soi disant N…

In fact we don't have any elections. Opposition leaders are banned or get killed (Navalny, Nemtsov). The opposition is only allowed to have marginal media (Echo of Moscow, TV Rain). An opposing media that becomes popular gets seized by loyal oligarchs supported by corrupt courts (NTV, Lenta.ru, RBC).

Re: Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

#52

Post by LeifCarrotson »

pamqzl wrote: post #12
vkou wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, as a related question - should there be? What about a foreign corporation? A foreign corporation with a domestic presence? A domestic corporation? None of these groups are beholden to the public interest.

Or just a foreign individual? I'm a foreign individual who went around making comments on the US election... what's the difference between me doing it privately and a company doing it?

As much as America would like to think their laws apply across the globe, they don't actually have jurisdiction over you. There's nothing they can do to prevent you from talking about the campaign.

They do have jurisdiction over the candidate and campaign you endorse, though. If you contacted your candidate and offered them money or services in the hope that they could use your help to get elected, and they accepted your offer they would be guilty. You wouldn't be.

Unfortunately, it seems like a fairly impotent law if all you have to do as a foreign national with an interest in the election is to support a candidate without their endorsement.

Re: Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

#53

Post by havetocharge »

trhway wrote: post #40
eroo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because foreign agents buying political ads violates US federal law

and if that Russian company was an agent of Russian government ( 101 chances out of 100 that it was, i.e. any reasonable person would think so :) then FB doing that company's bidding was acting as an agent of Russian government, and doing so without registration as such a foreign government agent sounds to me (not a lawyer though) like a violation of another item of the federal law. At least it looks like doing such…

You can take your assertions further -- every Russian, national or not, is an agent of the Russian government with 101% certainty at that. Furthermore, everyone who associates with Russians is an agent as well, with a reasonably high degree of confidence.

Re: Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

#54

Post by makomk »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #7

Out of curiosity, are there any laws on the books right now which are meant to prevent this sort of thing? For example, let's assume a foreign government decided to purchase ads either backing or attacking a US political candidate, and they were completely overt about it. (No hiding behind shell companies or transferring funds anonymously; completely out in the open.) Are there any laws or systems currently in place…

Well, it's important to bear in mind that most of these ads supposedly didn't back or attack a particular candidate, and that banning foreign funding of political and social activism of this kind would be a very Russian thing to do. Claiming they're foreign agents is one of the Russian government's favourite tactics for raiding and shutting down inconvenient political NGOs and activists. Frankly, I wouldn't entirely put it past them to fund these ads partly to bait out something they could use to justify their own domestic crackdowns and spin US criticism as hypocrasy.

Re: Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

#55

Post by guelo »

balance_factor wrote: post #31

As it is rarely mentioned in the US media, I'd just note that the US pretty openly interferes in Russian elections, and has been doing so for a long time. It's curious this is virtually never mentioned amidst all the accusations of Russia involving itself in US elections. There are many tentacles to the US octopus, for starters you can look at an organization created by and funded by the US congress, the soi disant N…

Somebody else that manipulates and corrupts Russian elections: Putin.

Re: Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

#56

Post by raquo »

havetocharge wrote: post #46
raquo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, both Putin and the US have good-to-them reasons to interfere in each others elections. And to interfere in Russian elections. On a serious note, the reason you don't hear about it is because US interference in Russia, whatever that was, didn't come even close to turning Russian elections.

So, if I was to draw a parallel, murder is only bad if it is successful?

First, that's not much of a parallel. The morality of generic murder is clearcut, the morality of interference with other countries elections is not. Not everyone subscribes to prime directive. As a Russian I personally appreciate that someone is at least trying to instill some positive change in Russia.

Morals aside, you said

> It's curious this is virtually never mentioned amidst all the accusations of Russia involving itself in US elections.

I told you why. Because whatever the US did was not effective, and it's not as newsworthy as things that are happening in the US and affecting Americans.

Re: Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

#57

Post by toephu2 »

havetocharge wrote: post #46
raquo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, both Putin and the US have good-to-them reasons to interfere in each others elections. And to interfere in Russian elections. On a serious note, the reason you don't hear about it is because US interference in Russia, whatever that was, didn't come even close to turning Russian elections.

So, if I was to draw a parallel, murder is only bad if it is successful?

That is somewhat true, I believe attempted murder sentences are lighter than actual murder sentences.

Re: Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

#58

Post by gfosco »

balance_factor wrote: post #31

As it is rarely mentioned in the US media, I'd just note that the US pretty openly interferes in Russian elections, and has been doing so for a long time. It's curious this is virtually never mentioned amidst all the accusations of Russia involving itself in US elections. There are many tentacles to the US octopus, for starters you can look at an organization created by and funded by the US congress, the soi disant N…

I bet we spend a lot more on it than the maximum $150k discussed in the article. Talk about a nothing-burger.

Re: Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

#59

Post by Clubber »

>Most of the ads focused on pumping politically divisive issues such as gun rights and immigration fears, as well as gay rights and racial discrimination.

When I read this I thought that this is what the US press does every single day wither it's WaPo or Limbaugh. It's all about selling fear and division. There's no longer nuance, no longer presenting both sides of an argument. It's all this is good or this is evil.

Re: Facebook says it sold political ads to Russian company during 2016 election

#60

Post by roywiggins »

balance_factor wrote: post #31

As it is rarely mentioned in the US media, I'd just note that the US pretty openly interferes in Russian elections, and has been doing so for a long time. It's curious this is virtually never mentioned amidst all the accusations of Russia involving itself in US elections. There are many tentacles to the US octopus, for starters you can look at an organization created by and funded by the US congress, the soi disant N…

Russia doesn't have free or fair elections anyway- how could the US possibly corrupt it any more than Putin cronies personally controlling almost all domestic Russian media?
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