Russians FaceBook Page_ UPDATE: Google YouTube Also

Part 1 below comes from the The Advocate and written by TRUDY RING. 

The Russian propaganda campaign leading up to the 2016 presidential election included a page targeting LGBT people.

LGBT United and several other Facebook accounts set up by Russian operatives said “relatively little” about who to vote for but served “to identify voters and sort them into buckets based on the issues they responded to,” The Washington Post reports. This was the first part of the Russian disinformation effort; the second was targeting those voters with ads. And the goal seemed to be discouraging voter turnout.

Jonathan Albright, research director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, analyzed LGBT United and five other Russian-backed Facebook accounts and published his findings online Thursday, the Post reports. They are among of 470 Russian-created accounts have been identified publicly, all now been shut down. All 470 came from what the Post calls a “Russian troll farm” known as the Internet Research Agency.

The six accounts analyzed by Albright saw their content shared 340 million times. That represents how many times the content turned up in a Facebook user’s news feed but doesn’t indicate if someone read it. But the accounts also had 19.1 million interactions, indicating engagement with a post — hitting a “like” button, making a comment, or resharing with Facebook friends. Extrapolating from these numbers, all 470 accounts, now shut down, may have had their posts shared billions of times.

Besides LGBT United, the accounts Albright studied were Blacktivists, United Muslims of America, Being Patriotic, Heart of Texas, and Secured Borders. They were “tailored to fit seamlessly into the ordinary online conversation of their particular audiences,” the Post notes.

“The tone of the posts varies strikingly by the page,” the Post report continues. “The one seemingly managed by a lesbian is intimate, confidential and chatty, with complaints about parents and teachers not understanding the challenges of being young and gay. The English is nearly flawless. One popular post said simply, ‘Bi and proud!’ with a thumbs-up emoji attached to the end.”

Other LGBT-related posts uncovered by Albright discuss news stories of the time — Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis’s court battle over her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples; out actress Ellen Page’s take on homophobic Republican presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and Mike Huckabee; a study on the importance of family acceptance for LGBT young people. The posts on LGBT United and the other accounts analyzed by Albright often posed questions, a factor that led people to comment on them and reshare them.

If the Russian accounts have any “discernible political motive … the goal seemed less to inspire enthusiasm for one candidate than to dampen support for voting at all,” the Post reports. Albright told the paper. “A lot of these posts had the intent to get people not to vote. This is a concerted effort of manipulation. Based on the engagement and reach and the outcome of the election … I’d say it’s been fairly successful, sadly."

Facebook had no immediate comment on the study, according to the Post.

Part 2

Adam Gonzalez, Adamfoxie Blog

If you did not vote in the past presidential election and you had then, an active Facebook page chances are the Russians over $100,000 secret ad fund worked on you.  Wait don't get offended just hear the evidence, you don't have to buy it but you can't erase it from the history books either.

Why do I say that? Because that was the thrust of the Russian efforts to disrupt the American elections. Yes, they wanted Trump to win but only because they wanted to disrupt the elections and divide and disrupt the American people and their lives. It seems that if Trump did not win still they would be happy to get people disparaging each other, just like Bernie's supporters were doing to Democrats publicly saying they were voting for Hillary. Did that ever happen to you at Facebook or Tweeter? People came at you like you rape their grandmother? No other place (Google and Tube were found also) was these phenomena happening because that is where their money went {Facebook and Tweeter}.

The money also went to help Bernie's campaign because (not directly) that would be the guarantor of their preferred outcome. There were no made up stuff leaking about Trump or Sanders. Most voters were not even aware of the FBI investigation of, No not Hillary but of Mrs. Sanders for helping to drive her back to the curve with loans to her and others that were not sustainable. As a matter of fact after Trump and his mannequin AG Sessions came to power the case has been put on the back burner. The Trump administration did not want to prosecute, rather settle. Why? Another election is coming and those players might need to repeat their performance if they are available. The Russians seem to plan whatever worked for them then to have an encore. This time they are going to need Trump or Pence more than ever because they are concern what a Democrat might do in relation to them and their secrets from the White House. They got their shovels ready the only questions are which Democrat and whether it will work again. We know the Election college system favors five states that voted for Trump, so a democrat is going to need a massive popular vote to change the numbers.  Again it seems like turn out and correct information would be the game changer.
UPDATE:

Google has discovered Russian operatives spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads on its YouTube, Gmail and Google Search products in an effort to meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a person briefed on the company’s probe told Reuters on Monday. 

The ads do not appear to be from the same Kremlin-affiliated entity that bought ads on Facebook Inc but may indicate a broader Russian online disinformation effort, according to the source, who was not authorized to discuss

details of Google’s confidential investigation. 

The revelation is likely to fuel further scrutiny of the role that Silicon Valley technology giants may have unwittingly played during last year’s election. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow’s goal was to help elect Donald Trump. 

Google has uncovered less than $100,000 in ad spending potentially linked to Russian actors, the source said. 

Both Twitter Inc and Facebook recently detected and disclosed that suspected Russian operatives, working for a content farm known as the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg, Russia, used their platforms to purchase ads and post content that was politically divisive in a bid to influence Americans before and after the November 2016 presidential election. 

The Internet Research Agency employ hundreds of so-called “trolls” who post pro-Kremlin content, much of it fake or discredited, under the guise of phony social media accounts that posed as American or European, according to lawmakers and researchers. 

Facebook announced last month it had unearthed $100,000 in spending by the Internet Research Agency and, under pressure from lawmakers, has pledged to be more transparent about how its ads are purchased and targeted. 

Google’s review had been more robust than ones undertaken so far by Facebook or Twitter, the source said. 

Russia’s ad purchases were first reported by the Washington Post. 

Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, did not deny the story, and in a statement pointed to its existing ad policies that limit political ad targeting and prohibit targeting based on race or religion. 

“We are taking a deeper look to investigate attempts to abuse our systems, working with researchers and other companies, and will provide assistance to ongoing inquiries,” a Google spokeswoman said on Monday. 

Google runs the world’s largest online advertising business and YouTube is the world’s largest online video site. 

Congressional committees have launched multiple investigations into the Russian interference. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have said Russia intended to sow discord in the United States, spread propaganda and sway the election. 

Google officials have been invited to testify publicly about Russian attempts to use their platforms to influence the election before both the House and Senate intelligence committees on Nov. 1 alongside Facebook and Twitter. While Facebook and Twitter have confirmed plans to attend, Google has not. 

Additional reporting by Makini Brice in Washington; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jeffrey Benkoe