Why Trump's Henchmen Might Be Laughing Over Ukraine Intel -- Zuckerberg And His Ukraine Accounts

[ancianita]

While the Russian "Internet Research Agency" has received most of the attention for filling the internet with bullshit and bile, the problem is routinely disclosed to be far larger than that ... And while Facebook spends a lot of time insisting they're taking radical steps to police the problem in the wake of genocide in Myanmar, it remains fairly clear they still don't have a handle on the problem.

... another disinformation operation uncovered this week involves a Ukrainian-run "I Love America" Facebook group with more than a million members. In concert with other similar pages like "God bless Donald and Melania Trump and God bless America," the effort lures boomers in with cute kittens and patriotic memes before getting to the real meat and potatoes of the effort:


Many of the posts are just repurposed versions previously pushed by the IRA in a bid to try and stoke existing racial and political tensions in the United States:


... while the usual suspects will likely try to downplay this as "just a few harmless memes," [calling it laughable] the outfit's engagement surpasses many of the biggest, actual news organizations on Facebook, meaning there's still an awful lot of folks having their patriotism and military respect exploited and their heads filled with fluff and nonsense so some Ukrainian nitwits can make a buck:



this effort is far larger than the IRA-linked Facebook groups highlighted in the Mueller report, none of which had more than 390,000 members. The report doesn't think this effort is covert or sophisticated enough to be a government-backed effort (in large part because the Ukrainian backers aren't trying to hide who they are), and is likely just some "entrepreneurs" using pro-Trump propaganda and kittens to make money. Facebook, for its part, doesn't think this rises to the level of "coordinated inauthentic behavior" because the Ukranians aren't hiding their identity (read: it's profitable to Facebook)...

While it may not be part of a foreign-government backed campaign, the end result is the same. Facebook users are being exploited and having their heads filled with rocks for profit. And (at least until this story gets some traction), Facebook's cool with it.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190923/08031243041/another-day-another-major-disinformation-effort-facebook-thinks-is-ok.shtml?fbclid=IwAR0ZOokRpO7Ih8CLRJ51syst4GiQaf2_ck_EBiAAZ1hhFm7-TYiL4cfmm4g

Zuckerberg: First Amendment rights for Ukraine!

[Qutzupalotl]

1. Facebook took down the accounts yesterday:

Link to tweet

... but they never should have been allowed in the first place to repurpose IRA content.

Link to tweet

UPDATE: 8 hours after popular.info's report, Facebook has taken down the Ukrainian "I Love America" page & every other page identified in the piece

[ancianita]

3. The worst part is that FB's Fuckerberg still went along with it 'til called out.

[ancianita]

4. Nothing like sunlight from tech journalists to keep our own corruptions down, eh?

I really am so afraid corporatists have compromised Enlightenment values so much that journalists won't be able to keep up with exposing them.

And the fact that, now, Trump doesn't mind if our journalists get killed, or have "accidents."

[Lulu KC]

5. Very good info

The new information is bringing back the good old days of the Mueller indictments. So much to learn.

[ancianita]

6. Right? It's also a good example of how global technology does harm to democratic maintenance of

self government.

Obviously, this is about money making, and the Internet we've spread across the world is bringing the world into our house.

[dalton99a]

7. Zuckerberg doesn't give a shit about America or democracy - like Trump, all he cares about is money

[ancianita]

8. Yep. Most tech are punting on profitability vs liability. The world is going to beat us silly at

systems hacking if this public doesn't take stock of who the players are, the stakes, and how the rest of us and our country-oriented identities deal with it all.