dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 12:27:14 GMT -6
Background: Executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter will testify today before the Senate Judiciary's Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism about the Russian disinformation campaign and social media's role in Russia's attack on our electoral process.
Subcommittee members:
Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, Chairman Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, Ranking Member
Senator John Cornyn, R-TX Senator Ted Cruz, R-TX Senator Ben Sasse, R-NE Senator John Kennedy, R-LA
Senator Dick Durbin, D-IL Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-MN Senator Chris Coons, D-DE
Watch Senators Graham, Whitehouse, Sasse, Durbin and Klobuchar for particularly comprehensive and strategic questioning style.
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athn64
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Post by athn64 on Oct 31, 2017 12:33:53 GMT -6
Excellent. The spread of misinformation via social media is atrocious.
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 12:36:04 GMT -6
I'm also going to try to liveblog tomorrow's hearing at which the same executives will testify before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). Members are as follows:
Rep Devin Nunes, R-CA, Chairman Rep Adam Schiff, D-CA, Ranking Member
Rep Mike Conaway, R-TX Rep Peter King, R-NY Rep Frank Lobiondo, R-NJ Rep Rick Crawford, R-AR Rep Trey Gowdy, R-SC Rep Tom Rooney, R-FL Rep Will Hurd, R-TX Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-FL Rep Mike Turner, R-OH Rep Brad Wenstrup, R-OH Rep Chris Stewart, R-UT Rep Elise Stefanik, R-NY
Rep Him Himes, D-CT Rep Terri Sewell, D-AL Rep Andre Carson, D-IN Rep Jackie Speier, D-CA Rep Mike Quigley, D-IL Rep Eric Swalwell, D-CA Rep Joaquin Castro, D-TX Rep Danny Heck, D-WA
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 12:40:24 GMT -6
Senator Whitehouse brought his giant chart!!
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 12:42:23 GMT -6
Whitehouse: The Trump administration have really bad memories when it comes to meetings with Russians
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 12:43:24 GMT -6
The Minority members of the subcommittee sent an inquiry about the validity of Skippy's security clearance to the White House in June; They have yet to receive any response
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 12:46:10 GMT -6
OHHH GOODIE! Chairman Graham authorized the full committee to participate in this hearing so we get Feinstein and Franken too!
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 12:51:57 GMT -6
Colin Stretch, VP and General Counsel for Facebook. Also looks exactly like Andersen Cooper.
"Being at the forefront of technology also means being at the forefront of complicated questions of legality and policy."
"Keeping people safe on Facebook is critical to our mission, and there is no place on Facebook for terrorism or hate."
"While there are challenges to fighting terrorism, we believe that Facebook can be part of the solution."
"We take what happened on Facebook [in 2016] very seriously. The foreign [meddling] we saw was reprehensible."
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athn64
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Post by athn64 on Oct 31, 2017 12:52:20 GMT -6
Whitehouse: The Trump administration have really bad memories when it comes to meetings with Russians How can this be? Trump has the best brain and never forgets anything. He's practically an elephant!
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 12:54:02 GMT -6
Facebook steps to correct the problems: hiring more ad reviewers beefing up security efforts launching new tools to improve ad transparency seeking more information about political ad buys using AI to detect offensive content
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 12:56:12 GMT -6
Sean Edgett, Acting General Counsel, Twitter:
"We are committed to providing a service that fosters and encourages open democratic debate."
We observed and acted on instances of automated activity (bots). We tried to block and remove malicious activity, and created dedicated teams to evaluate the quality of information on the platform.
Twitter remains a "safe, open, transparent, positive platform."
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 12:57:29 GMT -6
automated accounts represented only one tenth of one percent of all Twitter activity (that can't possibly be accurate). One third of those can be linked back to Russia.
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athn64
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Post by athn64 on Oct 31, 2017 12:58:04 GMT -6
Facebook steps to correct the problems: hiring more ad reviewers beefing up security efforts launching new tools to improve ad transparency seeking more information about political ad buys using AI to detect offensive content Are they going to address how their system treats white mean as a protected class and unfairly targets POC?
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athn64
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Post by athn64 on Oct 31, 2017 12:59:10 GMT -6
automated accounts represented only one tenth of one percent of all Twitter activity (that can't possibly be accurate). One third of those can be linked back to Russia. And they apparently all follow Trump. Yeah, those numbers of bull. There's way more spam bots on Twitter than that.
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Post by crimsonandclover on Oct 31, 2017 12:59:56 GMT -6
*snip* Watch Senators Graham, Whitehouse, Sasse, Durbin and Klobuchar for particularly comprehensive and strategic questioning style. Dur-bin Dur-bin Dur-bin! Oh sorry, is it inappropriate to treat this like a sporting event? Whatev. I've been on team Durbin since 2003.
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 13:03:23 GMT -6
Richard Salgado, Law Enforcement and Information Security Director, Google:
Google has plans in place to reduce efforts to amplify disinformation. For example, YouTube has protections in place to prevent view counts being inflated.
We reviewed all ads from June 15 to Election Day 2016 that were even loosely political or that had any connection to Russia. We found two accounts that were connected to Russian entities, and those two accounts spent ~$5,000 on the election. We also found some videos on YouTube, but only 3% of those had more than 500 views.
"We understand that any misuse of our platforms for this purpose can be very serious."
"Links to these videos were frequently posted to other social media platforms."
"Google's products don't lend themselves to the kind of viral dissemination that these actors seem to prefer."
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2017 13:04:21 GMT -6
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 13:04:22 GMT -6
Google will release a transparency report before the 2018 election.
They use a mixture of technology and human review "to enforce our guidelines, and continue to invest in this approach."
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 13:06:40 GMT -6
Senator Graham starts the questioning by asking what other nation state actors we should be worried about, other than Russia.
Facebook: It's a global threat. We worry about everyone. Up until very recently, concerns about malicious activity by nation states were primarily focused on the hacking of accounts or surveillance. Nobody anticipated the disinformation campaign or bot activity.
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 13:07:55 GMT -6
Facebook: In the wake of the 2016 Election, we saw a huge surge in activity fomenting debate about the validity of the election. We quickly shut down those accounts.
Twitter and Google concur
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jkjacq
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Post by jkjacq on Oct 31, 2017 13:08:45 GMT -6
People need to leave me alone so I can watch this. they interrupted the end of SHS.
Also he DOES look like Anderson Cooper
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 13:09:23 GMT -6
The questionable accounts were active beginning in 2015 and through the primaries. Activity during the primaries wasn't necessarily supporting or opposing any particular candidate, but were designed to sow discord. Most of the material coming out of the troll farms was focused on issues, not specific candidates.
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 13:10:15 GMT -6
Amy Klobuchar is having quite an animated whispering sesh with one of her aides, and I think Chris Coons might be asleep
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jkjacq
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Post by jkjacq on Oct 31, 2017 13:10:55 GMT -6
All 3 agree Russia meddled.
Whitehouse asks if they are past saying its not their problem and are they going to address it. DAMn
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 13:11:33 GMT -6
Whitehouse questions: So nobody disagrees that Russia fucked with our election, and used your platforms to do it?
Nobody disagrees.
Twitter recognizes that users are losing trust in the platform bc of how it has been misused, and this deeply concerns them
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2017 13:11:55 GMT -6
All 3 agree Russia meddled. Whitehouse asks if they are past saying its not their problem and are they going to address it. DAMn He’s killing it.
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jkjacq
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Post by jkjacq on Oct 31, 2017 13:12:27 GMT -6
Sen WH Give me key benchmarks How are you going to deal with this and what does success look like to you? How do you say 'we've got Americas back'
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2017 13:12:55 GMT -6
As a project manager, Senator Whitehouse is like my worst client nightmare right now.
Meaning, he’s asking all the right questions. 🤣
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 13:14:16 GMT -6
Facebook is responding directly to the Klobuchar-Warner Honest Ads Act. These yuppies don't want to be regulated.
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dc2london
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Post by dc2london on Oct 31, 2017 13:16:33 GMT -6
Whitehouse would like to know how the SM companies deal with legitimate American humans spreading falsehoods and fake news.
Twitter purports that improving ad transparency will help Americans better understand who is advertising to them and why (twitter is going to suddenly create cognitive dissonance where none exists?)
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