Facebook To Turn Over 3,000 ‘Russian Troll-Farm’ Ads To Congress

Prospective presidential candidate and possible alien Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will be handing over the contents of 3,000 ads purchased by ‘inauthentic accounts’ from the social media giant prior to the 2016 election, which Facebook attributed to a Russian ‘troll farm’ with a history of pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda.

Congress, in turn, will surely mandate that Facebook keep a short leash on opinions deemed to be “hateful,” “discriminatory,” or “Russian” leading into the 2018 midterm elections and of course, the 2020 Presidential race. There are, after all, dangerous communist opinions afoot that might once again convince gullible Americans to elect the wrong person.

As iBankCoin previously reported, Facebook claimed in early September over $100,000 worth of ads were sold to a “Russian bot farm” – most of which were purchased in 2015 and did not appear to favor any particular candidate, according to the company.

“Our analysis suggests these accounts and Pages were affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia,” said Facebook Chief Security Officer, Alex Stamos.

Of note:

• The vast majority of ads run by these accounts didn’t specifically reference the US presidential election, voting or a particular candidate.
• Rather, the ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum — touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.
• About one-quarter of these ads were geographically targeted, and of those, more ran in 2015 than 2016.
• The behavior displayed by these accounts to amplify divisive messages was consistent with the techniques mentioned in the white paper we [Facebook] released in April about information operations.

If true, the implication is that Russia was trying to whip Americans into a political frenzy a year before the election – regardless of the candidates or eventual president.

Facebook rule changes

In conjunction with today’s announcement regarding dangerous Russian thoughts, Zuckerberg announced a series of rule changes on Facebook which he said he hoped would guard against future election interference.

Distilling and summarizing Zuckerberg's statement into 9 responses, succinctly stated. pic.twitter.com/pQF9EXtX89

— David Carroll? (@profcarroll) September 21, 2017

More rule changes via NPR: 

Users have been able to look up the company behind an ad they see, but now they will also be able to see who else was targeted by that company. A move that might give people get a sense of the motivations of the advertiser.

Other steps Zuckerberg announced include stronger policies for review at the company for political ads and it will add another 250 employees to focus on election integrity and security.

In a nod to Facebook’s failure previously to guard against state actors using the site to interfere with elections, Zuckerberg said, “It’s a new challenge for Internet communities.” But, he said, “If that’s what we must do then we are committed to rising to the occasion.”

Don’t forget to check out Zuck’s latest exploits as he travels the country proving he is a likable human who wants to protect you from communist thoughts. 

Mark Zuckerberg loves being a normal guy who casually chats with his fellow humans pic.twitter.com/UDdXBCxGSr

— Hippo (@InternetHippo) June 24, 2017

HELLO I AM MARK ZUCKERBERG A HU-MAN TRAV — I MEAN A TRAVELER

I AM HERE IN IOWA ENJOYING ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTS WITH MY FELLOW HUMANS pic.twitter.com/2exzG7IWUF

— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) June 24, 2017

RT StefanMolyneux "HUMANS EAT FOOD

SHOW ME WITH FOOD

MAKE ME MORE HUMAN

RUSSIA BAD

ZUCK GOOD

I SHALL RULE THE… pic.twitter.com/Hmq2fXiSk0"

— dafuhq (@Camwerld) September 21, 2017

Jeff Bridges in the movie "Starman" about an alien who comes to earth to learn about being human…oops how did that get in there??..? #Zuck pic.twitter.com/hC2nz8yPPI

— Ed (@DowdEdward) June 25, 2017

Is Zuckerberg human? pic.twitter.com/7PJ7sxRPV9

— Sharon Mc (@SharonM44754993) September 21, 2017

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