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Just because a quantity is hard to measure doesn’t mean it’s zero. Zuck admitted that hundreds of millions of people saw ads purchased by Russian operatives. To
by mlazos 9y ago
Just because a quantity is hard to measure doesn’t mean it’s zero. Zuck admitted that hundreds of millions of people saw ads purchased by Russian operatives. To say that has zero effect on all of them just because we can’t precisely measure the effect is wrong. To change the outcome of the election you don’t need millions, just a few hundred thousand. I’m not saying it changed the outcome, I’m saying it’s at least plausible with these numbers.
- freejulian 9y agoWho purchased these ads? The Russian government? A Russian company? A Russian individual? I'm asking for hard evidence, that's all. Please show me some.
- mlazos 9y agoFor the above conclusion (ie that it's plausible the election was affected) It doesn't matter exactly who did, especially when you can tell their motives by simply looking at some of the ads. I did a cursory glance at a google search for Russian ads and came up with these examples. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-socialmedia/u-s-lawmakers-release-sample-of-russian-bought-facebook-ads-idUSKBN1D15GU https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-socialme... https://gizmodo.com/here-are-14-russian-ads-that-ran-on-facebook-during-the-1820052443 https://gizmodo.com/here-are-14-russian-ads-that-ran-on-face... and all of the ads are clearly aimed at sowing discord on wedge issues. To say you need to know exactly who did this in order to make the conclusion that they were at the very least trying to propagate disinformation is ridiculously absolutist.