Oval Trailer Response:
Fake News, we don’t even know where Russia is…
Seriously, we are seriously screwed as long as most of our younger generations continue to rely solely on social media for all of their “news”, without applying any critical thinking skills…
The Twitter revelations, however, are far more significant: The platform appears to have identified not just the accounts run directly by Russian trolls working for the IRA (now the Federal News Agency, or FAN), but 37,000 automated accounts that generated information that would promote Russian interests in the American election.
37,000 bot accounts seems low. I seem to recall hundreds of 100,000s of new followers of @realDonaldTrump this Spring or Summer when something big was about to pop (can’t recall what it was ATM).
Cc: @samt
It’s not the younger generation (as a whole, though 43% of white males 18-23 voted for Trump) that necessarily screwed us over. It’s the white racist folks who did.
We’re all screwed when people don’t use critical thinking skills. Though I think that’s what the Repubs are after when they talk “educational reform.”
Either way the social media platforms need to shape up and we need to bitch slap Russia for messing with us.
Was not intending to besmirch or blame “younger generation” in toto. But when you have 126 million Facebook users exposed to highly choreographed dis-information, without ever giving it the “sniff-test”, that’s the problem.
It was definitely a combo platter of factors that got Donnie selected, but the Russians / alt-right are focusing on the most effective means of swinging public opinion, and that’s social media.
And somewhere Zuck is crying
There’s no reason to think half of those 126 million, even 90% of those 126 million, didn’t look at the Russian-sponsored content, laugh, and disregard it.
I mean, I saw many obviously bullshit stories floating through Facebook last fall. I didn’t strongly suspect at the time they were Russian bullshit, but they were clearly bullshit.
And can be done surreptitiously, and the lines between advertising and other content are blurred, and can be done while avoiding any real “gatekeepers” like they would encounter if they tried to get their message out through advertising in newspapers, radio, TV, etc.
The paid advertising is the easy part for Facebook and Twitter to police. The harder part is fake accounts and bots, and the basic nature of instant self-publishing, where anyone anywhere can post pretty much anything with the click of a button, and at best Facebook and Twitter are playing catch-up. It’s pretty close to a perfect situation for people carrying out clandestine propagandizing.
It remains to be seen if they have actually figured out ways to get on top of the situation – and for that matter whether they’re really trying that hard, or just hard enough to keep Congress off their back,
Even if they truly want to prevent a repeat of 2016, are their algorithms up to the task of preventing bad actors from exploiting their platforms, or at least catching the propaganda in something approaching real time and deleting it? And can they do that without catching a lot of legitimate political posts in the same net?
Or are they basically preparing for the last war, while Putin’s folks are planning the next one?
I guess we’re going to find out.
The younger generation stayed home for the most part so they did screw us and the ones who voted, for for Stein and Johnson.
I confess, I am at a disadvantage as I don’t “do” Facebook, so haven’t seen any of the Rusian postings. But I would strongly suggest, based on your TPM post’s, that you are in fact a critical thinker, as are virtually all TPM’ers… That’s the difference I’m driving at. Those who think to apply a bullshit filter to what they get through social media, versus those that don’t.
Trumps election felt unreal because it was unreal.
I’m not going to try to guess what fraction of the Russian propaganda was obvious nonsense, but you see a lot of stuff of this caliber:
https://s1.postimg.org/9u2d7r1hdb/obvious-bull.png
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to learn to scroll on by this crap without even really noticing it, never mind clicking on it or allowing it to substantially affect your actions. But it’s “reached”, to use Feinstein’s language, both of us. Pizzagate-level nonsensical crap.
We need a better idea of the quality and type of the Russian propaganda; the number alone is a very incomplete description.
It’s nice FB and Twitter are identifying these accounts, but lets hear that ALL of these accounts were terminated, their IP addresses banned for 12 months and regional restrictions placed on their originating locations. Also, FB and Twitter aren’t the only ones, reddit is another grossly manipulated social media platform (and the one I’m most familiar with), why weren’t they pulled in to this hearing?
There is a personal responsibility issue in there. Yes, younger people use social media more frequently and importantly differently than older groups. But it also seems that a lot of the players flouting the party line and the endless B.S. that shows up are middle age to older. They should have the b.s. filter in place and take the moment to reflect first. The younger group may be influenced by bad information, but the older group I suspect holds tightly to the b.s. because it confirms their own world view and expectation. Facts in that case matter little as long as that world view is protected and promoted. They should know better.
Unfortunately, you are not indicative of the norm in this country (or world) and this kind of crap works on and influences some people. Let’s assume it’s not many. Let’s say it’s 1% of the population. That would still eclipse the margin that Trump won the EC by. And judging by Trump’s current approval rating, and the popularity of Alex Jones or Brietbart, it’s more than 1%. Shockingly more.
Slightly OT, but sorta relevant to the whole critical thinking discussion.
Over the past few days, there has been a media storm over the “rescued sailors and dogs” who were “24 hours from death”.
From the first, it struck me as something fishy, with a scent of someone angling for a movie / book deal.
Turns out, their so-called story had enough leaks in it to sink their boat / story…
There is another piece of the Russian disinformation campaign that hasn’t been discussed at all to my knowledge but that was VERY active in the year leading up to the election: fake posting of comments in the comments sections of major politics/economics/news web sites. The Russians pretended to be “regular folk” posting comments on these sites, but the comments were always inflammatory and intending to paint Clinton as a “crook”, Obama as a loser. Occasionally you would see these people posting comments defending Putin or other Russian interests, but these were in the minority and easy to spot. Once you figured out which posters were Russian trolls you could call them out, but they were VERY persistent. On the web site The Business Insider, I saw some of these Russian professional posters posting hundreds of comments every day. The most obvious one went by the handle “CROOKED CLINTON” (in all caps). Imagine seeing those words hundreds of times a day., regardless of the content of the comment. Very effective stuff. These guys were good.
Also, the younger generation tell me Facebook is for old people. In fact I’m working with a community outreach group for a project I’m on and they made a Facebook page because they are trying to reach homeowners.
Twitter and Instagram, I have no idea. I’m too old. 
Crap, I’m middle-aged and don’t “do” Facebook / Twitter / Instagram. I’m in the Twilight Zone I guess…
Also the whole result of Facebook and other social media platforms is to create/amplify the echo chamber and neatly divide us into groups to sell us crap.
During the 2016 election season, Facebook provided political advertisers with a targetable breakdown of a fractured United States, which could’ve been used as a blueprint for exploiting the country’s divisions.
https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2017-10/27/19/asset/buzzfeed-prod-fastlane-03/sub-buzz-14681-1509146618-5.png
Facebook’s 2016 Election Team Gave Advertisers A Blueprint To A Divided US
