Thread: Facebook says likely Russian-based operation spent money on ads on issues

I believe in free speech and have absolutely no problem whatsoever with foreign countries running ads about our country. I actually like a bunch of those ads. i don't know if they're "Russian" or not, but if they are, they've got it down on the immigration issues.

Congress needs to concern itself with restricting immigration, not free speech.

USA has spent much time, money to influence elections elsewhere - it became part of life w/o the best results (corruption, misused funds)- but always best to be aware of modern techniques/the times - ads are part of history. Russia is very competitive and always looking to be connected/involved with the best 'USA'. Would rather be friend than foe.

Originally Posted by artist

USA has spent much time, money to influence elections elsewhere - it became part of life w/o the best results (corruption, misused funds)- but always best to be aware of modern techniques/the times - ads are part of history. Russia is very competitive and always looking to be connected/involved with the best 'USA'. Would rather be friend than foe.

Yes, they would! I totally agree with you artist. I hope Trump can further a new relationship with Russia. I think Americans would really enjoy knowing more Russians, doing business with more Russians, and having Russia as an ally. We have far more in common than our government for some strange reason has ever wanted us to know.

Originally Posted by artist

USA has spent much time, money to influence elections elsewhere - it became part of life w/o the best results (corruption, misused funds)- but always best to be aware of modern techniques/the times - ads are part of history. Russia is very competitive and always looking to be connected/involved with the best 'USA'. Would rather be friend than foe.

Yes, we have influenced elections all over the world. Sometimes just through propaganda, sometimes through funding some pretty nasty characters and sometimes through violence.

Right now, I don't believe we would be having any discussion about NK, if we were working with Russia and China. They are the ones who could/would have the most influence on NK.

I just read somewhere the US has been conducting 'exercises' for some time in northern South Korea near NK border. If so, that would seem very provocative to NK, wouldn't it?

Russia more than China.

Facebook handed Russia-linked ads over to Mueller under search warrant

by Dylan Byers @CNNMoneySeptember 15, 2017: 9:03 PM ET

Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team are now in possession of Russian-linked ads run on Facebook during the presidential election, after they obtained a search warrant for the information.

Facebook gave Mueller and his team copies of ads and related information it discovered on its site linked to a Russian troll farm, as well as detailed information about the accounts that bought the ads and the way the ads were targeted at American Facebook users, a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN.

The disclosure, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, may give Mueller's office a fuller picture of who was behind the ad buys and how the ads may have influenced voter sentiment during the 2016 election.

Facebook did not give copies of the ads to members of the Senate and House intelligence committees when it met with them last week on the grounds that doing so would violate their privacy policy, sources with knowledge of the briefings said. Facebook's policy states that, in accordance with the federal Stored Communications Act, it can only turn over the stored contents of an account in response to a search warrant.

"We continue to work with the appropriate investigative authorities," Facebook said in a statement to CNN.

Facebook informed Congress last week that it had identified 3,000 ads that ran between June 2015 and May 2017 that were linked to fake accounts. Those accounts, in turn, were linked to the pro-Kremlin troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency.

In those briefings, Facebook spoke only in generalities about the ad buys, leaving some committee members feeling frustrated with Facebook's level of cooperation.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN last week that Facebook had not turned over the ads to Congress. Warner has also called Facebook's review "the tip of the iceberg," and suggested that more work needs to be done in order to ascertain the full scope of Russia's use of social media.

Warner also indicated that his committee may call Facebook,

Twitter and other social media networks in for "some level of public hearing."

As CNN reported Thursday, Facebook is still not sure whether pro-Kremlin groups may have made other ad buys intended to influence American politics that it simply hasn't discovered yet. It is even possible that unidentified ad buys may still exist on the social media network today.

The special counsel's office has not yet responded to a request for comment.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/15/medi...ads/index.html

Mueller is going to go down in US history as the Village Idiot who violated civil rights chasing a political hoax designed to take down an elected President.

Russian-bought Black Lives Matter ad on Facebook targeted Baltimore and Ferguson