Saturday, February 17, 2018

Facebook VP of Ads responds: I've seen all the Russian ads and can say definitively that swaying the election was not the main goal. It's not well known that most Russian ad spending was AFTER the election-Rob Goldman twitter, 2/16/18

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Update, 2/20/18: Rob Goldman apologizes for his statements not cleared by Facebook: "Facebook Ad Executive Rob Goldman Apologizes for having “Uncleared Thoughts”," tcth, sundance

Two points: It turns out that Herr Mueller's multi-million dollar report on alleged Facebook Russian trolls was taken mainly from already published reports (2/18/18, "The Russian journalist who helped uncover [alleged] election interference is confounded by the Mueller indictments," Washington Post, Adam Taylor). Second, the hammer/big money behind being anti-Trump is the criminal, parasitic Endless War Industry which is desperate to launch a US taxpayer funded nuclear war with Russia. People who started out just being anti-Trump (and perhaps also anti-war) eagerly joined with the Endless War Industry desperate for a US taxpayer funded war with Russia. It doesn't matter that US taxpayers are global slaves of the Endless War Industry. Since World War I, every baby born in the United States is born in bondage to the Endless War Industry ("The Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming"). Everyone assumed this money laundering operation would continue forever, no questions asked. Trump the candidate agreed with his 63 million voters that US taxpayers can no longer afford to finance endless foreign wars, especially wars that are never won. This should be obvious. We want to be friends with everyone and help whenever we can, but we can no longer bear the burden of putting our own country's needs last. Trump the President is different than Trump the candidate, someone whom the War Industry should be thrilled with. But they're not. Their main issue is we don't get to choose-they do. US citizens cannot be allowed to select their own president. We were told you can have either Jeb Bush or Hillary. Virtually identical, both extremely open borders, extremely globalist, extremely endless foreign wars, and massive free trade deals. We're now presented with Communist style elections. All candidates are pre-approved by the Politboro. Voting is meaningless.
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2/16/18: Facebook VP of ads, Rob Goldman, explains key facts of Russian actions that still aren't well understood following Rod Rosenstein reading indictments from Mueller committee. From Mr. Goldman's twitter account (8 separate twitter entries follow):

"Very excited to see the Mueller indictment today. We shared Russian ads with Congress, Mueller and the American people to help the public understand how the Russians abused our system. Still, there are key facts about the Russian actions that are still not well understood. ... 

Most of the coverage of Russian meddling involves their attempt to effect the outcome of the 2016 US election. I have seen all of the Russian ads and I can say very definitively that swaying the election was NOT the main goal. ... 

The majority of the Russian ad spend happened AFTER the election. We shared it, but very few outlets have covered it because it doesn’t align with the main media narrative of Trump and the election. ...

The main goal of the Russian propaganda and misinformation effort is to divide America by using our institutions, like free speech and social media, against us. It has stoked fear and hatred amongst Americans. It is working incredibly well. We are quite divided as a nation. ... 

The single best demonstration of Russia's true motives is the Houston anti-islamic protest. Americans were literally puppeted into the streets by trolls who organized both the sides of protest. ... 

The Russian campaign is ongoing. Just last week saw news that Russian spies attempted to sell a fake video of Trump with a hooker to the NSA. US officials cut off the deal because they were wary of being entangled in a Russian plot to create discord. ... 

There are easy ways to fight this. Disinformation is ineffective against a well educated citizenry. Finland, Sweden and Holland have all taught digital literacy and critical thinking about misinformation to great effect. ... 

We are also taking aggressive steps to prevent this sort of meddling in the future by requiring verification of political advertisers and by making all ads on the platform visible to anyone who cares to examine them."

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Below, 8 twitter entries from FB VP Ads Rob Goldman reflecting text above 































 















































Above 8 twitter images from Facebook VP Ads, Rob Goldman twitter
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More on Russian ads:

2/11/18, "A group of industry insiders is putting Russian election meddling up for ad awards," techcrunch.com


"A group of industry insiders is putting Russian election meddling up for ad awards."

Image from TechCrunch
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Added: 9/11/2017, from Daily Beast: Alleged Russian Facebook group promoted an Aug. 2016 rally in rural Idaho. No proof exists that the rally took place or that anyone attended. It's possible to claim attendance on Facebook to events that don't exist. In this case the 'rally' was scheduled for a Saturday at a government location that's closed Saturdays:

"It is also possible to claim attendance on Facebook at an event that didn't exist."

9/11/2017, "Exclusive: Russia Used Facebook Events to Organize Anti-Immigrant Rallies on U.S. Soil," Daily Beast, Ben Collins, Kevin Poulsen, Spencer Ackerman

"Russian operatives hiding behind false identities used Facebook’s event-management tool to remotely organize and promote political protests in the U.S., including an August 2016 anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rally in Idaho, The Daily Beast has learned....





The three-hour protest was titled “Citizens before refugees,” and would be held at the City Council Chambers beginning at 11 a.m. The notice provided the street address and ended with a fiery exhortation....

[parag. 10] Although 48 people clicked that they were “interested” in the protest, only four said they went to City Council Chambers that day, according to the event page, possibly because it was a Saturday and the Council was not in session."... 

Daily Beast admits there's no way to tell from Facebook pages if anyone attended alleged events or if events even took place: 

"It is also possible to claim attendance on Facebook at an event that didn’t exist."... 




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