CCN article claims Russia manipulated Black Lives Matter and others

[KeithH]

Kinda odd for CNN to post this. They say Russia deliberately used the Philando Castile shooting to manipulate Americans. Some news outlets are saying the intent was to discourage and suppress minority voting. Is this stuff true?
https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/06/26/us/...www.cnn.com%2F

[GuanoLoco]

Why is it odd?

https://www.wired.com/story/russia-i...senate-report/

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/a...ussia-election

On Thursday, Congress released more than 3,000 advertisements that the Russia-based Internet Research Agency ran on Facebook and Instagram between 2015 and 2017. More than 11.4 million American users were exposed to the ads, according to the House Intelligence Committee.

In November, we saw a glimpse of what this data dump might contain: memes weaponized to stoke the racial, religious, and political tensions of the country around the 2016 presidential election. Now, all 3,393 of the ads, along with targeting data and social metrics, are publicly available for download.

[Casual Friday]

LMAO at weaponized memes.

[KeithH]

Why is it odd?

https://www.wired.com/story/russia-i...senate-report/

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/a...ussia-election

I suppose it’s the lefts interperation of the impact of the meddling. I would have thought it would have dramatically increased minority turnout at election time. Not suppressed it.

[Joe in PNG]

Do people seriously think that people read a single clickbait ad, and thus utterly change their entire political perspective?

Yes, people are stupid and easily fooled. But most tend to be stupid with pretty solid confirmation bias towards what they already believe.

[peterb]

No, most people won’t change their minds because of a single ad. But it probably doesn’t take much to turn a “I guess I ought to vote” voter into a “To hell with it, it doesn’t matter what I do” non-voter.

There’s some evidence that there was deliberate misinformation designed to suppress turnout — incorrect information about when and where and how to vote. I find that more disturbing than trying to change opinions about a candidate.

[Joe in PNG]

No, most people won’t change their minds because of a single ad. But it probably doesn’t take much to turn a “I guess I ought to vote” voter into a “To hell with it, it doesn’t matter what I do” non-voter.

There’s some evidence that there was deliberate misinformation designed to suppress turnout — incorrect information about when and where and how to vote. I find that more disturbing than trying to change opinions about a candidate.

I'm not disputing the fact that there's some really, really stupid people in this world. If a person is ignorant enough to not know how to contact his supervisor of elections to get proper voting time and place, it's probably best if they didn't vote at all (natural selection at work). Having previously been the person at the polls issuing provisional ballots, I can state that stupidity is non-partisan, and the derpoids from both parties tend to cancel each other out.

And in regards to

"...turn(ing) a “I guess I ought to vote” voter into a “To hell with it, it doesn’t matter what I do” non-voter"

The candidates are quite proficient at doing that without the need of Russian collusion or clickbait ads. Most negative tv ads do the same thing well enough to convince most people that both candidates are scum-sucking horse thieves who would sell their own mothers into prostitution, and should be tarred and feathered instead of being elected into high office.