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Celerity

(42,669 posts)
Thu Feb 20, 2020, 01:28 PM Feb 2020

It's Not Just Trumpers Spreading Pro-Trump Propaganda On Facebook. This is extremely worrying.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/its-not-just-trumpers-spreading-pro



WASHINGTON, DC -- Last week, we learned about one of the most terrifying political operations in recent memory. Journalist McKay Coppins published an article for The Atlantic about Donald Trump’s “Death Star” in Rosslyn, Virginia -- an office space in which Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, along with a staff of hundreds, is engaged in "the most extensive disinformation campaign in U.S. history."

The mission of Trump’s Death Star is to micro-target registered voters on social media with countless political advertisements and other posts designed to spread pro-Trump propaganda, in most cases straight-up lies. All in all, the operation effectively weaponizes the Russian Internet Research Agency’s attack on the 2016 election, but originating the same brand of awfulness domestically and under the full control of the Trump machine.

We also learned that the Republican National Committee, which has merged with the Trump campaign, possesses around 3,000 data points on every American voter. That’s you. That’s me. That’s every living American who’s registered. These data points include your biases, your flaws, your preferences -- everything that might be pulled from your social media presence, and which Mark Zuckerberg allowed to be harvested without our permission. And speaking of Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder decided after meeting with Trump that it’d be fine and dandy to continue allowing on the platform political ads that contain lies.

The idea is to manipulate voters into willingly circulating the pro-Trump, anti-Democratic lies without flinching, turning Facebook users into distributors of free media -- of lies and propaganda. There’s so much more to the story -- way more -- so I urge you to read it carefully from top to bottom. It might be the most important political news story of the year. Since I first wrote about the Death Star last week, I’ve heard from quite a few readers on the left who condemned the dumbness of Trump supporters for spreading Trump agitprop -- for falling for the obvious deception.

But it’s not just Red Hats who are falling for Trump’s propaganda..................................................

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It's Not Just Trumpers Spreading Pro-Trump Propaganda On Facebook. This is extremely worrying. (Original Post) Celerity Feb 2020 OP
3,000 data points on every person? Yeah, right. A little much, I'd think. Especially if one is .. SWBTATTReg Feb 2020 #1
How many voters did it take to get trumPutin installed in 2016? Hermit-The-Prog Feb 2020 #2
Not just social media unc70 Feb 2020 #9
The article did mention social media, but who really knows what that means, it depends on who... SWBTATTReg Feb 2020 #10
Still have a lot of data even if you are not online unc70 Feb 2020 #11
I'm glad I quit Facebook! young_at_heart Feb 2020 #3
+100 Spot on! abqtommy Feb 2020 #7
They just make me mad. I scroll on past leftyladyfrommo Feb 2020 #4
I avoid Falsebook entirely. No getting mad, no selling my soul to Fuckerberg. lagomorph777 Feb 2020 #6
"under the full control of the Trump machine" lagomorph777 Feb 2020 #5
and that's not counting Russia... stillcool Feb 2020 #8

SWBTATTReg

(21,859 posts)
1. 3,000 data points on every person? Yeah, right. A little much, I'd think. Especially if one is ..
Thu Feb 20, 2020, 01:34 PM
Feb 2020

inclined to not be active on public forums etc. and thus are relatively unknown. Biases, flaws, etc. all drawn from one's social media presence. I'd say that they are probably not getting a 100% accurate view of the voting population if this is all they are banking on. There a vast underground of people who don't participate in the social media world (older folks who didn't grow up w/ it, those that can't afford it, those that don't believe in it, etc.).

There's a saying I've always believed in, garbage in, garbage out.

unc70

(6,095 posts)
9. Not just social media
Thu Feb 20, 2020, 04:36 PM
Feb 2020

Thirty years ago, it was just info like what magazines you read, the type of your car, any court records, your voting history, and such. Now, even without using social media, they can also track things like what you buy online, much of what you buy offline, where you visit online, and nearly everything else.

SWBTATTReg

(21,859 posts)
10. The article did mention social media, but who really knows what that means, it depends on who...
Thu Feb 20, 2020, 08:00 PM
Feb 2020

defines it (social media), what they include, etc.

unc70

(6,095 posts)
11. Still have a lot of data even if you are not online
Thu Feb 20, 2020, 08:04 PM
Feb 2020

Not as much as someone often online, but still lots of ways to collect and compile your "private" info.

lagomorph777

(30,613 posts)
5. "under the full control of the Trump machine"
Thu Feb 20, 2020, 02:31 PM
Feb 2020

...and the Turd machine is under the full control of the Putin machine.

stillcool

(32,626 posts)
8. and that's not counting Russia...
Thu Feb 20, 2020, 03:07 PM
Feb 2020

anything and everything is subject to scrutiny. Even positive stuff about Democrats. People always start out being leftish, until they get a little bit of cred, than they flip.

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