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Comments
Newly Released Russian Facebook Ads Show Scale of Manipulation
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carlosPochote
carlosPochote,
 User Rank: Apprentice
5/11/2018 | 2:58:13 PM
A reminder that the internet can be divisive
For many years, the Internet has been a great tool for technological advancements, enabling many applications to be accessible by many.  Web portals, SaaS, cloud services, IoT, etc. have made our life easier from a convenience perspective, but social tools such as Facebook, twitter, WhatsApp, G+, and any blog out there has opened a door that we never expected.  And I'm not talking simple annoying messages, this is material that can destroy a nation, lives and disrupt economies and political models.

It is up to those companies to responsibly manage and develop their products as well as to provide security controls to regular users like us to prevent this manipulation.  Our responsibility is to educate ourselves on the dangers that can come through these sources and resist biting the bait.

I does not help when the administration questions its own security agencies, or any other professional recommendation/opinion when talking about cybersecurity.  This is real.

 
JasonTLouis
JasonTLouis,
 User Rank: Strategist
5/14/2018 | 9:59:36 AM
Indicted Russians and the current court case
If you are going to mention that 13 Russians were indicted, it would benefit the readers to know more about what's going on the courts as Mueller is not having a good time with those included in the indictments. One company was not even a company when Mueller is alleging they were. Mueller's team also requested a delay in the case and judge denied this. Then they have all plead not guilty but it's not surprising they would. There's more but there are a few good legal blogs that go into more detail. I'd try to avoid your typical news sites as they do not go into as much detail and what they include and don't include depends on which political ideology they lean. If nothing else, I think it would be good to link to a legal news site or blog that explains in a bit more detail what's currently playing out in the courts with this as it will become very important in the near future and the legality of who can take out ads and who cannot.
JasonTLouis
JasonTLouis,
 User Rank: Strategist
5/14/2018 | 11:36:53 AM
Re: A reminder that the internet can be divisive
I'm not sure this has much, if anything to do with the current administration. The burden is on Facebook and other social media companies to police their own site. These same individuals/companies took out ads that were in favor and opposing both candidates. They started events and groups that were for and against both candidates. We can quibble over who had more "pro" related material taken out on them, but the same actors seemed to have more of an agenda to cause chaos and cause overreactions from both political parties. In my eyes, they succeeeded.

Blaming one candidate or administration is being very disingenuous knowing what we know now. All the Russians involved did the same thing for both candidates. Facebook could have done more to look into who's taking out these ads, starting these groups and pages, creating these events, creating bot accounts, but did not. Only when they were dragged into the investigation did they come clean and decide to take further steps to mitigate this. In the future, it is probably going to be extremely hard to take out political ads unless you are a massive super pac or direct campaign taking out the ads (thinking 2020 campaign season). Who knows as we still don't know half of the information we probably should and I highly doubt Facebook is going to release any information they don't legally have to.

If you are going to blame the current administration, you ultimately must blame the previous as this happened under their watch. It works both ways and if you just blanket one side with the fault, the root of the problem will never get solved.
SchemaCzar
SchemaCzar,
 User Rank: Strategist
5/15/2018 | 1:01:02 PM
Re: A reminder that the internet can be divisive
I agree with your point that blaming the current administration is not useful.

However, I think that the problem with the ads is likely the lack of clear attribution and accountability, and the usual advertisements posted by acknowledged political organizations should not be prohibitive either in price or in ability to get through whatever screening is being proposed.


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