Network tricks

The Americans were called to protest with the help of anonymous Facebook anonymous accounts from Russia, The Daily Beast reports . At the same time, the mechanisms of paid advertising on social networks were used.

In particular, according to the publication, thus in August 2016, rallies were organized in Aidaho against immigrants and Muslims.

The Fesbuk administration confirmed that from accounts closed after an investigation about the possible use of their platform to influence the elections in the United States, placed paid advertising of events. However, what kind of invitations to the rally are talking about, Facebook was not specified.

According to the former FBI agent, Klin Watts, this is the first evidence that attempts to use the social network for the Russian influence on the political situation in the United States went beyond the creation and spread of fake news. “This is the next step,” he said first you force someone to spread propaganda launched by Russia. At the second stage, you influence behavior, prompting people to any actions. ”

On September 7, the Facebook administration reported that when analyzing the advertisement published on the social network for its possible connection with Russian intervention in last year's presidential election in the United States , about 3 thousand suspicious ads were discovered. The total cost of such ads placed from June 2015 to May 2017 amounted to about 100 thousand dollars. Purchases were made from about 470 sub -pages, connected to one another and allegedly managed from Russia. Since the Facebook policy does not allow the use of fake pages, they were removed.

Most advertisements are noted in the report, did not concern the elections directly. Publications were aimed at deepening contradictions on various issues, such as LGBT community rights, interracial relations, immigration and the right to carry weapons.

As stated in the Facebook report, advertising was analyzed at the slightest suspicion of her Russian origin. The social network administration notified the American authorities about the results of the study. What the advertising, placed after the election, called for, was not explained in the report.