Revealed: rightwing firm posed as leftist group on Facebook to divide Democrats
Fri 11 Jun 2021
Revealed: rightwing firm posed as leftist group on Facebook to divide Democrats
FEC investigation failed to uncover link to Rally Forge, a firm with close ties to Turning Point USA
A digital marketing firm closely linked to the pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA was responsible for a series of deceptive Facebook ads promoting Green party candidates during the 2018 US midterm elections, the Guardian can reveal.
In an apparent attempt to split the Democratic vote in a number of close races, the ads purported to come from an organization called America Progress Now (APN) and used socialist memes and rhetoric to urge leftwing voters to support Green party candidates.
SNIP
The revelation that the ads were linked to a rightwing organization raises questions about the Federal Election Commission’s enforcement of campaign finance laws.
APN and its ads appeared to violate federal laws that require independent expenditures to be filed with the FEC and include proper disclosures on advertisements, as ProPublica and Vice News first reported in 2018.
The non-partisan campaign finance watchdog group Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint against APN and subsequently sued the agency in an attempt to force it to investigate the group.
But in July 2020, the FEC voted to dismiss allegations that America Progress Now had violated federal law, after an individual, Evan Muhlstein, took responsibility for the ads and attributed the lack of proper disclosures and filings to his “inexperience”.
MORE..
--------------
FaceBook, again.
Mark Zuckerburg needs to be hauled before a court.
Would like to see what his profits were for the election years since 2016.
= new reply since forum marked as read
