Salon: Republicans paid huge, strange sums to Facebook and a mystery company for "list acquisition

[SheltieLover]

https://www.salon.com/2020/08/08/republicans-paid-huge-strange-sums-to-facebook-and-a-mystery-company-for-list-acquisition/

The GOP paid a mystery company nearly $2 million for lists, just a month into the company's existence. WTF?

After reporting essentially no payments to Facebook for about three years, the Republican National Committee paid the social media company $5.5 million for "list acquisition" between September and November 2019, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

The RNC has also paid about $5 million for contact lists to a mystery company created in January, including a million-dollar buy on the day the Trump campaign sent 88 targeted ads to Facebook users featuring images similar to Nazi iconography.

The RNC's three Facebook filings have not yet been publicly reported. The payments are not classified as ad buys, but "list acquisition," suggesting that the end goal was not exclusively promotional, but the extraction of user data.

More at link. Mystery company? Hackers? Putin?

[empedocles]

1. 'Follow the money', again

[SheltieLover]

2. Always!

Gawd they are so sickening!

Example of why I do not use social media. (Not criticizing those who do.)