Russian ads, now publicly released, show sophistication of influence campaign

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post




By Craig Timberg, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Karoun Demirjian November 1 at 1:04 PM

Lawmakers on Wednesday publicly shared several of the 3,000 Facebook ads bought by Russian operatives as they sought to shape American political conversation during the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath by inflaming some of the nation’s deepest social divides.

The ads — some of which directly praise Republican Donald Trump or denigrate his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton — made visceral appeals to voters upset about illegal immigration, the declining economic fortunes of coal miners or the rising prominence of Muslims in some U.S. communities.

Some ads also explicitly called for people to attend political rallies amid a campaign season that already was among the most polarizing in recent U.S. history.

A Facebook page called “Being Patriotic” bought an ad touting a “Miners for Trump” rally in Pennsylvania, one of several key swing states.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/russian-ads-now-publicly-released-show-sophistication-of-influence-campaign/2017/11/01/d26aead2-bf1b-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html

[GusBob]

1. I have only seen a couple of the ads

In hindsight, you can tell they were composed by people unfamiliar with common American vernacular language

From the article an example "Hillary Clinton is the only one politician.... "

Even freepers don't talk like that

[certainot]

2. coordinating their trolling is probably why trump's guys studied talk radio in 2014

it is clear form a lot of the memes and content that they were piggybacking decades of talk radio.

sam nunberg told gabriel sherman for new york magazine 4/3/2016 that he "listened to 1000s of hours of talk radio and reported to " Trump.

i suspect the russians figured out long ago, unlike dems and the left, that talk radio rules the republican party and much of the rest of american media and politics, was invisible to dems and liberals, and would be perfect to piggyback.

they probably figured that out years ago and may have been using limbaugh hannity and other talk radio gods for years, maybe since rove lost the white house and control of 1500 radio stations.

in 2009 it was a russian hack that limbaugh used to create 'climategate' and presenve putin billions in oil and gas revenues. why would limbaugh push default of the US govt in 2011? kochs and other billionaire republicans wouldn't like that.

how long has puting used limbaugh and hannity? have they got cyprus bank accts?

dems can't even poll for talk radio.

and we even let 88 major universities broadcast sports on 257 limbaugh trump putin radio stations - and keep them alive.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Yup. They've been focus-grouping phrasing since 1970s.

That's why it is "pro-life" (it is not), rather than "anti-abortion".

We have "death tax" (estate tax), "death panels" (health care apportionment), "tax relief" (when it is a tax heist), etc. etc.

Here is excellent push back from the incomparable Betty Bowers (and I rarely watch videos let alone recommend them):

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017464699

[certainot]

6. thanks! great vid

i need to watch that a few times

[procon]

3. The most insidious aspect of all these ads is that it convinced voters

that "everyone" was thinking just like they were. Those ads were spread everywhere, and they were a very effective brainwashing technique to convince voters to perform exactly as the Russians wanted. It was so easy to steer the gullible American electorate just by repeatedly listing their pet peeves or some like minded group that spouted the same hate, fear and bigotry they had always kept secret. Give the stupid Americans some trite message that they could identify with and then cozen them into believing everything they read on the internet was true and shared by the majority.

Its the same tactics employed at Fox News, so Republican voters would have felt right at home with Russian propaganda.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Yup. They think tRump is very popular

He is well on his way to being re-elected in 2020. Washington is stuck with him for 8 years and in the end he will win and drain that swamp. We may have a civil war in there somewhere but he will win!

76 posted on 2017-06-21, 9:56:28 PM by McCarthysGhost

Huge rally tonight in West Virginia. The turn out will be legion. We will crush these bastards like bugs. The whole thing has turned people right to Trump. He will win 2020 by 30 %. Pray for defeat of the satanists. God is with US!!

79 posted on 2017-08-03, 5:53:30 PM by raiderboy

Trump Jr 2024 is a lock now.

Attacked by the Big State on false charges.

118 posted on 2017-08-03, 6:33:42 PM by TheNext (Deep State are Lunatics)