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All images of the Facebook ads Russians purchased during the election

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

#61

Post by gfodor »

heartbreak wrote: post #55

The complete and utter intentional lack of understanding of the current Russian influence campaign, the ongoing congressional investigations, and the special council investigation in this thread is appalling. Once upon a time I thought HN was: A) Well-informed, and B) Not a place for political discussion. Honestly if you can’t find fact from fiction in news articles, just read the damn source documents. You’d probabl…

Your comment may have been cathartic but it basically leaves me wondering what you are talking about? Which source documents? What "understanding?" So far the press's reporting on this has been appalling, and in general the public has been kept in the dark.

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

#62

Post by bradford »

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?

The Radiolab podcast had an episode a while back where they interviewed some of the event participants. It was organized and funded via remote sources (they were implied Russians, although the organizers weren't interviewed), but attended by locals. Some of the locals that were interviewed felt duped, others were somewhat indifferent.

Pretty good listen if you're interested in a deeper dive.

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/curious-case-russian-flash...

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

#63

Post by heartbreak »

philtar wrote: post #58
heartbreak wrote: post #55

The complete and utter intentional lack of understanding of the current Russian influence campaign, the ongoing congressional investigations, and the special council investigation in this thread is appalling. Once upon a time I thought HN was: A) Well-informed, and B) Not a place for political discussion. Honestly if you can’t find fact from fiction in news articles, just read the damn source documents. You’d probabl…

I think you seriously overestimate how unbiased you are. I say this because you talk as if it's easy to separate fact from fiction these days. If you think it's easy, then I think there are some very important things you're missing.

I wish my point came across clearer. It wasn’t that I am unbiased. It’s that the comments on this story are willfully ignorant of what we do know. For example it hasn’t been a secret for well over a year that the Russian disinformation played both sides. Yet what do we find? Repeated surprise at the lack of onesidedness in the linked advertisements.

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

#64

Post by eric_h »

ballenf wrote: post #20

Any ideas how prohibiting these types of ads next election cycle will pass constitutional muster? Most were several steps removed from references to any election. And non-citizens residents are generally held to have rights under the 1st Amendment ( https://www.google.com/search?q=non+citizens+1st+amendment ) Or will it just be Facebook blocking them by way of policy?

> Or will it just be Facebook blocking them by way of policy?

How do you even formulate the policy? Sure, you can ban/annotate the ads that are specifically about Clinton or Trump, but where do you draw the line?

The fascinating thing about these ads is that most of them plucked on the political strings of the audience indirectly.

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

#65

Post by vivekd »

What's interesting is who they targeted - they targeted right wing patriotic movements as well as left wing gay rights groups and minorities who may feel disenfranchised like Muslims and blacks. It's as if they looked at America's very polarized and heated political environment and saw it as an opportunity to create division.

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

#66

Post by severine »

gfodor wrote: post #61
heartbreak wrote: post #55

The complete and utter intentional lack of understanding of the current Russian influence campaign, the ongoing congressional investigations, and the special council investigation in this thread is appalling. Once upon a time I thought HN was: A) Well-informed, and B) Not a place for political discussion. Honestly if you can’t find fact from fiction in news articles, just read the damn source documents. You’d probabl…

Your comment may have been cathartic but it basically leaves me wondering what you are talking about? Which source documents? What "understanding?" So far the press's reporting on this has been appalling, and in general the public has been kept in the dark.

https://www.2016activemeasures.org/

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

#67

Post by dilap »

eric_h wrote: post #60

This is really a pretty fascinating example of psyops in the wild. Propaganda for both "tribes" assembled in opposition over various issues in order to sow more division between them. Imagery clearly designed to influence with emotion, twisting the dials of fear, anger and pride in the audience. The power to disseminate information (or disinformation) is not one that should be taken lightly. It seems that most of the…

how are these any different than the standard appeal to emotion arguments that groups make in good faith? e.g., why is an ad trying to raise awareness about black lives matter from russia any different than an ad trying to raise awareness about black lives matter from black lives matter?

> The power to disseminate information (or disinformation) is not one that should be taken lightly.

curious to know if you believe the power to disseminate info should be regulated by the govt.

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

#68

Post by empath75 »

jessaustin wrote: post #44
Sharlin wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Rep…

This wasn’t about trump it was about getting Americans angrier at each other.

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

#69

Post by jryan49 »

dilap wrote: post #67
eric_h wrote: post #60

This is really a pretty fascinating example of psyops in the wild. Propaganda for both "tribes" assembled in opposition over various issues in order to sow more division between them. Imagery clearly designed to influence with emotion, twisting the dials of fear, anger and pride in the audience. The power to disseminate information (or disinformation) is not one that should be taken lightly. It seems that most of the…

how are these any different than the standard appeal to emotion arguments that groups make in good faith? e.g., why is an ad trying to raise awareness about black lives matter from russia any different than an ad trying to raise awareness about black lives matter from black lives matter? > The power to disseminate information (or disinformation) is not one that should be taken lightly. curious to know if you believe…

Some of the ads I was reading were would take extreme stances that make the other side get a distorted view of a group. I saw an LGBT ad from Russia that suggested we make it illegal for heterosexuals to adopt. This would do damage to said movements in that people will ignore their legitimate messages as well when them deem them extremists.

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

#70

Post by roywiggins »

dilap wrote: post #67
eric_h wrote: post #60

This is really a pretty fascinating example of psyops in the wild. Propaganda for both "tribes" assembled in opposition over various issues in order to sow more division between them. Imagery clearly designed to influence with emotion, twisting the dials of fear, anger and pride in the audience. The power to disseminate information (or disinformation) is not one that should be taken lightly. It seems that most of the…

how are these any different than the standard appeal to emotion arguments that groups make in good faith? e.g., why is an ad trying to raise awareness about black lives matter from russia any different than an ad trying to raise awareness about black lives matter from black lives matter? > The power to disseminate information (or disinformation) is not one that should be taken lightly. curious to know if you believe…

For instance, you might try to push a particular movement to an extreme by selectively targeting and pushing the most extreme version of their ideology. This isn't standard outreach ("come join our org") but it's trying to build a radical faction inside the existing organization.

The goal is, you destabilize the whole organization and hope to end up either cleaving it in half or getting the whole thing coopted by the extreme nut jobs.

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