Russians' Biggest Facebook Ad Promoted 'Blue Lives Matter'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Daily Beast




A Kremlin-backed propaganda campaign designed to sow chaos in the U.S. electorate had its biggest hit with an ad ostensibly backing American law enforcement.

SPENCER ACKERMAN
05.10.18 2:40 PM ET

The most viewed Facebook message secretly created by a St. Petersburg-based Russian troll farm was one that allegedly backed American cops.

“Back The Badge” appeared to be an authentically American community on Facebook rallying support for police officers. In fact it was Russian, a creation of the Internet Research Agency, an online propaganda mill that special counsel Robert Mueller indicted in February on conspiracy charges.

The ad itself was nondescript, a simple portal to Back The Badge’s Facebook page. It showed the group’s logo, an officer’s shield, over a background image of a cop car’s flashing blue and red lights. “Community of people who support our brave police officers,” the ad read.

That ad, released on Thursday by Democrats on the House intelligence committee, ran on October 19, 2016, less than a month before the election. According to material turned over to the committee by Facebook, it appears to be the most influential single ad the troll farm is ever know to have concocted.

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/russians-biggest-facebook-ad-promoted-blue-lives-matter?ref=home

[Mike Rows His Boat]

1. That will make Trump supporters happy that Putin is involved.

[rzemanfl]

2. K&R. It's a good thing stuff like this did not

influence the outcome of the election.

[Girard442]

3. I'd like to have a roll of Russian-flag stickers and put one on every "Blue Lives Matter" sign.

[Igel]

5. You confuse "promoted" with "originated."

There were BLM groups that got funding and pro-BLM ads, as well. Want to have a roll of Russian-flag stickers and put one on every "Black Lives Matter" poster?

Many still miss how disinformation usually works. It takes fault lines and dissent and fans the flames. Hence supporting (publicly) BLM = supporting "Blue Lives Matter", and it makes sense to support both of them. Because that's a fault line, and the more you can rile up both sides the more you win. The hard part is when you're riled up in righteous indignation because the side that's promoted is the one you already believe in, and the points of contention that are fanned make you feel both more righteous and more indignant.

This is how it worked in the 1910s. And 1920s. And 1930s. And 1950s. And 1960s. And 1970s. And 1980s. Whenever you see a fracture in society there's *always* the possibility that some enemy is making you feel more animosity that you would, so that you become their tool. The way to fight *that* enemy is to find some modus operandi that involves cooperation and coexistence. That's often via xenophobia, "All our problems are caused by the foreign enemy"--for some it's Russians, for some it's that "other" non-white immigrant, and for some it's a domestic enemy (possibly those who don't like law breaking but can be put in some convenient category not of their own making). In fact, that's pretty much the only way to fight it. All other ways involve repression and ultimately oppression, not just the possibility of self-repression.

I doubt the US can muster the intellectual fortitude and good will to do this. We're too far gone, I suspect. A house divided and all that.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. A formal "Cyber-Threat Notice" should be sent to every PD in the U.S.

at least once a month and disseminated and displayed in every precinct, with a list (and screenshot) of every one of these fake "ads".