Tactics were similar to Russian disinformation efforts in 2016 using social media.
WFB: A group promoting progressive health care policies in Nevada paid for Facebook advertisements in which the source of the content appeared to originate from a pair of local, state-based news organizations—news organizations that did not exist in any meaningful sense.
While the ads in question rolled out in 2018, the tactics of Health Care Voters for Nevada have contemporary importance as recent reporting has revealed the scope and influence of the organization’s dark-money parent group, the Sixteen Thirty Fund.
“Trump’s new tax law will hurt Latinos the most,” one such ad reads, which appears to emanate from a posting by “Nevada News Now.” However, there is no world wide web URL for Nevada News Now, and if it was a Facebook group, it has since been deleted.
Similar ads also appear from a group called “Silver State Sentinel” but little proof such an organization is real exists.
Facebook did not respond to requests about whether Nevada News Now or Silver State Sentinel was ever a Facebook group, but parts of the content suggest they both were.
Many of the ads were short videos between 20 to 40 seconds with brief on-screen claims about health care policy. However, those ads would often end with a graphic inviting the viewer to “Tell us what you think in the comments” followed by a professional looking graphic for the so-called news outlets.
Facebook began organizing and publishing a searchable database of paid political advertisements on May 24, 2018, at a time when the company was under public and congressional scrutiny in the wake of acknowledgements that Kremlin-backed groups had been using the platform in deceptive ways to divide Americans against each other and to influence the 2016 elections.
The posts by Nevada News Now and Silver State Sentinel stopped just three weeks after the Facebook archiving tool was begun. Given that the archive did not start until May 24 of that year, it is impossible to know how many similar ads were run prior to that date. more here
Facebook needs to be taken down for the sake of freedom in America. It is completely out of control. Where are our so called gov’t reps? Where’s the DOJ? Where’s the State AGs? Where’s the FBI? Are we really going to let this candy ass little punk destroy America?
Social media suppression on the front end, and “vote-harvesting” on the back end. Whale oil beef hooked if we can’t stop it.
This is why there needs to be a minimum IQ threshold, below which you aren’t allowed to vote.
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups”. -George Carlin
If donations to these “dark money” groups are tax deductible then the names of people who donate and take the tax receipt should be made public. By taking tax write-off if means that every taxpayer is supporting (however minutely) this group.
That’s criminal.
Pffft. I did this in Wisconsin for 120 bucks.
All I learned is that I should have asked for more money to save Scott Walker
@A.Moose: they are all on Facebook liking each other.