| Of course Russian agents are exploiting Facebook, Twitter and all manner of social media to influence Americans, especially during election seasons. That's their job. Blame instead Americans who opt to participate in so called "social media" and subject themselves to the propaganda. They are the ones who should know better. YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE ON FACEBOOK! |
| Black Elevation appeared to be an organization dedicated to fighting racism to the tens of thousands of people who visited its page on Facebook.
The group promoted events and coordinated activities in several cities. It messaged activists and asked them to spread the word. It posted videos and photographs that encouraged people to show up at protest rallies. It even advertised a job opening. And it was all a lie. Black Elevation was actually part of an orchestrated political influence campaign, aimed at sowing divisions among Americans ahead of the midterm elections in November, according to Facebook. The Black Elevation page, one of the most popular of 32 pages taken down by Facebook last month, demonstrated how an influence campaign targeting Americans has been far more effective at infiltrating activist circles than previously reported. With 139,217 likes on its Facebook page . . . Black Elevation {Facebook page) leveraged tight-knit groups of activists in the United States to gain a following and persuade people to participate in real protest rallies. Facebook said the pages it recently removed had created roughly 30 real-world events since May 2017. {A}t least two {Black Elevation} videos {. . . } were once posted on Facebook — one had 2.5 million views and the other about one million. Source: "How a Fake Group on Facebook Created Real Protests" By Sheera Frenkel - NY Times - Aug. 14, 2018 Millions of accounts impersonating real people roam social media platforms, promoting commercial products and celebrities, attacking political candidates and sowing discord. They spread fake images and misinformation about the school shooting last week in Parkland, Fla. They were central to Russian attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald J. Trump, according to a federal grand jury indictment on Friday. And American intelligence officials believe they will figure in Russian efforts to shape the coming midterm elections, too. Facebook and Twitter require proof of identity to shut down an impostor account but none to set one up. One real Twitter account, belonging to Jasmine Artis, a health care worker from North Carolina, was cloned dozens of times. At least 75 of those impostor accounts still exist — though some have recently been restricted — each using her picture, her name and a brief bio that refers to the school she was attending when her account was copied. Most of the clones have made only a handful of posts, some in Russian or Japanese. Ms. Artis said she had not been aware of the accounts. Social media companies succeed in the marketplace by amassing as many active users as possible, so most make it relatively easy to create new accounts. Neither Facebook nor Twitter requires proof of identity to open a new account, but both require it when reporting impostors. Source: "On Social Media, Lax Enforcement Lets Impostor Accounts Thrive" By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and GABRIEL J.X. DANCE - NY Times - FEB. 20, 2018 Operating from St. Petersburg, they churned out falsehoods on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. They promoted Donald J. Trump and denigrated Hillary Clinton. They stole the identities of American citizens. They organized political rallies in several states, and hired a Clinton impersonator for one event, in West Palm Beach, Fla. Created in 2013, {the Internet Research Agency, a shadowy troll farm} began a so-called translator project in 2014 that targeted Americans and pursued “information warfare against the United States.” It employed hundreds of people and, by the summer of 2016, was spending $1.2 million a month. Source: "The Troll Farm: What We Know About 13 Russians Indicted by the U.S." By IVAN NECHEPURENKO and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ -- NY Times -- FEB. 17, 2018 The Russians in the indictment acted as an organization, and employees who ran the accounts were directed to create “political intensity through supporting radical groups” and to criticize Hillary Clinton, but not Donald J. Trump or Bernie Sanders. The indictment says that the organization staged several political rallies across the country from June to November 2016. Members of the group promoted the events through their social media channels and used accounts registered under false American personas to recruit volunteers. The social media accounts were sometimes used to contact and coordinate with local Trump campaign staff members. In June 2016, a volunteer for the Trump campaign agreed to provide signs for a “March For Trump” rally staged by the organization. The indictment does not allege that any Americans knowingly conspired with the group. The group also purchased advertisements to promote the rallies. The indictment said that Facebook ads for the Florida rallies reached more than 59,000 users and were clicked on by more than 8,300. The indictment says that from April to November 2016, the group paid for advertisements on social media and elsewhere that expressly advocated for Mr. Trump or opposed Mrs. Clinton. Source: "The Propaganda Tools Used by Russians to Influence the 2016 Election" By ALICIA PARLAPIANO and JASMINE C. LEE -- NY Times -- FEB. 16, 2018 The Russian attempt at long-distance choreography was playing out in many cities across the United States. Facebook has disclosed that about 130 rallies were promoted by 13 of the Russian pages, which reached 126 million Americans with provocative content on race, guns, immigration and other volatile issues. The Heart of Texas group had . . . success with a Houston rally to “Stop the Islamization of Texas,” which provoked an angry confrontation in May 2016. United Muslims of America, another Russian creation, called its own rally to “Save Islamic Knowledge” for the same time and place, outside the Islamic Da’wah Center. A dozen people who turned out for the first event, some carrying rifles, Confederate flags and a banner saying “White Lives Matter,” faced off across a street with a far larger crowd of counterprotesters. The police kept the crowds apart, and there was no trouble at the event, which was caught on video. “The fact that they got people to show up at real-world events is impressive,” said Renee DiResta, the head of policy at Data for Democracy, a nonprofit that has studied the Russian activity. “What we have is an engine for reaching people and growing an audience, which is fantastic. But this shows that it can be used for very shady purposes.” While most of the Americans duped by the Russian trolls were not public figures, some higher-profile people were fooled. The indictment mentions the Russian Twitter feed @TEN_GOP, which posed as a Tennessee Republican account and attracted more than 100,000 followers. It was retweeted by Donald Trump Jr.; Kellyanne Conway, the president’s counselor; Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser; and his son, Michael Flynn Jr. They have expressed no regret that they were apparently taken in by the Russian operatives. Source: "How Unwitting Americans Encountered Russian Operatives Online" By SCOTT SHANE -- NY Times -- FEB. 18, 2018 Facebook and its photo-sharing site Instagram. . . more than any other technology tool, was singled out on Friday by the Justice Department when prosecutors charged 13 Russians and three companies for executing a scheme to subvert the 2016 election and support Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign. In a 37-page indictment, officials detailed how the Russians repeatedly turned to Facebook and Instagram, often using stolen identities to pose as Americans, to sow discord among the electorate by creating Facebook groups, distributing divisive ads and posting inflammatory images. “Facebook built incredibly effective tools which let Russia profile citizens here in the U.S. and figure out how to manipulate us,” {Jonathan Albright, research director at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism} said. “Facebook, essentially, gave them everything they needed.” He added that many of the tools that the Russians used, including those that allow ads to be targeted and that show how widespread an ad becomes, still pervade Facebook. Facebook had disclosed that the Internet Research Agency had bought divisive ads on hot-button issues through the company. It later said 150 million Americans had seen the Russian propaganda on the social network and Instagram. {T}he Russians stole the identities of real Americans to create fake personas and fake accounts on social media. The group then used those to populate and promote Facebook pages like United Muslims of America, Blacktivist and Secured Borders. In October 2016, according to the indictment, one Russian-controlled Instagram account called Woke Blacks posted a message saying: “Hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Blacks to vote Killary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then we’d surely be better off without voting AT ALL.” That June {2016}, for example, posing as the United Muslims of America on Facebook, they promoted a rally called “Support Hillary. Save American Muslims.” For an August 2016 event organized through Facebook, the Russians also paid for a cage to be built that was large enough to hold an actress depicting Mrs. Clinton in a prison uniform. {Facebook} has refused to let outside researchers examine the data on how Russian actors used the platform so effectively. Source: "To Stir Discord in 2016, Russians Turned Most Often to Facebook" By SHEERA FRENKEL and KATIE BENNER -- NY Times -- FEB. 17, 2018 The administration’s action came as intelligence agencies warned that Russia was already meddling in the American midterm elections, using bots and other fake accounts on social media to spread disinformation. “We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false-flag personas, sympathetic spokespeople and other means of influence to try to exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States,” Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee at its annual hearing on worldwide threats. “There should be no doubt that Russia perceives its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 U.S. midterm elections as a potential target for Russian influence operations,” Mr. Coats added. Source: "U.S. Condemns Russia for Cyberattack, Showing Split in Stance on Putin" By MARK LANDLER and SCOTT SHANE - NY Times - FEB. 15, 2018 The most notorious venture linked to Mr. Prigozhin, however, is the troll farm that is accused of attacking opposition figures in Russia and seeking to magnify and aggravate social and political divisions in the West. Despite his frequent denials of any involvement, his critics say he and others like him provide a way for the Kremlin to engage in such activities while maintaining a discreet distance. The indictment on Friday says, among other charges, that {Yevgeny V. Prigozhin . . . one of Russia’s richest men, joining a charmed circle whose members often share one particular attribute: their proximity to President Vladimir V. Putin} frequently met in 2015 and 2016 with Mikhail I. Bystrov, the top official in the troll factory, which ran a disinformation campaign called Project Lakhta that by September 2016 had a monthly budget of $1.2 million. When the troll factory was formed in 2013, its basic task was to flood social media with articles and comments that painted Russia under Mr. Putin as stable and comfortable compared to the chaotic, morally corrupt West. The trolls soon branched into overseas operations focused on Russian adversaries like Ukraine and the United States. Facebook, Twitter and Google have all identified the Internet Research Agency as a prime source of provocative posts on divisive American issues, including race, religion, gun laws and gay rights, particularly during the 2016 presidential election. Facebook found, for example, that the agency had posted 80,000 pieces of content that reached more than 126 million Americans. Last month, Twitter announced it had started emailing more than 677,000 people in the United States who interacted with accounts from the agency during the election. Source: "Meet Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian Oligarch Indicted in U.S. Election Interference" By NEIL MacFARQUHAR -- NY Times -- FEB. 16, 2018 It’s official: President Trump is the single biggest political advertiser on Facebook. Mr. Trump and his political action committee spent $274,000 on ads on the social network since early May {2018} The ads bought by Mr. Trump and his PAC were also seen the most by Facebook’s users, having been viewed by at least 37 million people since May. Source: "The Biggest Spender of Political Ads on Facebook? President Trump" By Sheera Frenkel - NY Times - July 17, 2018 The F.B.I. director warned anew on Friday {4/26/19} about Russia’s continued meddling in American elections, calling it a “significant counterintelligence threat.” The bureau has shifted additional agents and analysts to shore up defenses against foreign interference, according to a senior F.B.I. official. {I}ntelligence officials have continued to raise alarms. Officials including both {Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director} and Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, have said Russia has aimed its influence campaigns at undermining faith in American democracy. “What has pretty much continued unabated is the use of social media, fake news, propaganda, false personas, etc. to spin us up, pit us against each other, to sow divisiveness and discord, to undermine America’s faith in democracy,” Mr. Wray said on Friday. “That is not just an election-cycle threat. It is pretty much a 365-day-a-year threat.” Some intelligence officials believe Russia intends to raise questions in the aftermath of future elections about irregularities or purported fraud to undermine faith in the result. During the midterm elections, Cyber Command conducted an operation to temporarily take offline the most prominent Russian troll farm to keep its operatives from mounting a disinformation operation during voting or vote counting. “If you can be led by the nose by foreign governments, that is the simplest definition of what a successful influence operation looks like,” {said Andrew S. Weiss, a Russia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.} Source: "F.B.I. Warns of Russian Interference in 2020 Race and Boosts Counterintelligence Operations" By Julian E. Barnes and Adam Goldman - NY Times - April 26, 2019 |
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| Comments | Contributor | Date Submitted |
| There you go again, being reasonable. | 2/22/2018 | |
| There you go again, being reasonable. | Linda Denton |
2/22/2018 |
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