30 Batsh*t Crazy, Mostly Racist Facebook Memes the Russians Used to Corrupt Your Mind

[DonViejo]

Facebook finally admitted that the Russians tried to weaponize the social network to sway the election. Here are some of the arms in that propaganda arsenal.

KEVIN POULSEN
09.09.17 12:00 AM ET

Earlier this week, Facebook’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, revealed that Russia had “likely” used 470 deceptive accounts to buy about $100,000 worth of political advertising before and after the 2016 presidential election. It was Facebook’s first public acknowledgment of the role it unwittingly played in the Kremlin’s “active measures” campaign to help elect Donald Trump. Based on the numbers, a Facebook marketing expert consulted by The Daily Beast says the Facebook run might have reached 70 million people.

The admission was a sharp turnaround for Facebook. As recently as July, the company was denying that it had evidence of Russian ad-buys, even though four months earlier the Russian news outlet RBC specifically identified one of the Facebook communities secretly run from Russia and promoted with paid Facebook ads.

That community, called SecuredBorders, positioned itself as the work of conservative Americans concerned about U.S. border security. In truth, according to RBC, it was operated by a notorious St. Petersburg troll factory called Internet Research Agency, which is financed by “a close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence,” according to a public report by U.S. intelligence agencies (PDF).
Facebook finally closed down the page last month in its belated purge of Russian propaganda. By then SecuredBorders had 133,000 followers.

-snip-

So far, Facebook is refusing to release any of the posts and ads from Russia’s campaign, opting instead for this terse description: “The ads and accounts appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum—touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights.”

That sanitary language doesn’t do justice to the actual content. The Daily Beast scoured search engine caches and found remains from the now-shuttered SecuredBorders page, just one of Russia’s propaganda communities, including dozens of their posts and graphics. Here’s a collection of the Russian Facebook memes we recovered.


Full article + the images:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/30-batsht-crazy-mostly-racist-facebook-memes-the-russians-used-to-corrupt-your-mind

[Baitball Blogger]

1. We need to get those malicious memes on FoxNews so their viewers can realize

they were used.

[dembotoz]

2. Shit they are probably still using them

[ck4829]

3. It all looks like the picture book version of a spree shooter's self-described manifesto

No wonder the "alt-right" ate this stuff up.

[tanyev]

4. If that stuff works on someone, then they've got a pretty weak mind to start with.

I guess the goal was to target people who already leaned that way and get them angry enough to make sure they voted. If our education system and media were what they should be, crap like this wouldn't be very effective.

[Girard442]

5. Yeah, it's all crap, but...

...there was crap throughout the culture long before there was Facebook or email or the Internet. Granted, this particular crap was distributed in large quantities and efficiently targeted and that's different, but what really made the difference this time was people's underlying hatred. It gave them an appetite for the crap, no matter how ridiculous it was.

[njhoneybadger]

6. I can't believe People from DU still use facebook

[Blue_Adept]

7. Because it's the only way to regularly keep in touch with a lot of people?

I've got friends from all over the world and it's the best way that we get to communicate as a group more often than not.

Please do inform me of a better choice. I'd love to hear it.

[Hugin]

9. email?

Works great.

I've been doing it for over 20 years.

[Blue_Adept]

10. Yeah, email works really great for full on social interaction

I love email chains talking with 400 people about various movies, TV shows, family events, and so forth.

Social interaction has plainly changed and the majority of it is for the better. There's no way I would have the closeness and friendships with as many people as I do that are all over the world through just email. And I've been doing email since the early 1980's on old 110bps modems.

The genie is out of the bottle. It's changed how things are done. It's like demanding we go back to horse and buggy. The majority of people won't do it. And by the time we try to force anything everything will have moved on to the next thing anyway.

If I was doing just email to keep in touch with people I wouldn't hear from most anyone. Hell, my teenage kids don't even use email. It's all texting or social chat apps to keep up with people, especially since they're in regional schools with friends scattered across a dozen towns.

[m-lekktor]

11. I guess we aren't as cool as you. nt

[tritsofme]

13. They have over a billion members. I can't believe you can't believe people use it.

[Hugin]

8. Unwittingly?

I call BULLSHIT on this, "first public acknowledgment of the role it unwittingly played in the Kremlin’s “active measures”.


Assbook was all-in on it... They cashed the checks.

[mopinko]

12. it's a start. i want to see them all. i want fb to expose the whole enchilada.

[Achilleaze]

14. republicans are colluding with some sick-minded russian trolls

republicans should be ashamed of their treasonous efforts to divide Americans.

[shanny]

15. Just out of curiosity

How many of these fake accounts pushed sexist memes designed to turn Hillary supporters against so-called BernieBros?

Asking for a friend.