I have been holding off for a calm news day to examine exactly what the fifth volume of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s bipartisan report on Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election said, and why it is important. The report came out on August 18 and, in the storm of other news, has gotten less attention than it should have.
The real mind-boggling, surreal fact here is that those Republican Senators on the Intelligence Committee knew all this back on February 5, and they still voted to acquit Trump.
The tie between the fifth and second volumes of the report, is the way in which the internal Republican polling (potential voter) data given by Paul Manafort to Russian military intelligence office Konstantin Kilimnik would be used by the Russians to micro-target their pro-Trump social media campaign. My brother, who has been running social media as a business for a very long time, wrote a post elsewhere explaining how it works, which I reproduce here with permission:
IT'S COLLUSION
The Senate Intelligence Report states that the Trump Campaign shared polling data with Russian Intelligence Officers. Via Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort who is also described as a grave counter intelligence threat. Some Republicans read this and say there was no collusion. Democrats are saying this is collusion. Some say, it depends on what they did with the information, was it of value.? As a veteran social media expert, allow me to explain why this information was of extraordinary value and magnified by many times the power and impact of Russian disinformation interference in the election with the objective to elect Trump. So valuable that it easily could have made and likely did make the difference in getting Trump elected.
1) Micro-targeted dark ad posts is the killer app of politics
A key success factor in the Russian interference was using Facebook to micro-target voters with dark ad posts, spreading and amplifying the disinformation. The only people that see dark ad posts are those they are targeted to, thus enabling a campaign to say different things (lies) to different people without being caught in the public eye. For example advertising to specific Black people in rust belt states that Clinton was anti-Black people as evidenced by her decades prior predators comment. Then advertising to specific white people in those same states that Clinton was easy on crime, as evidenced by her liberal crime policies that would let dangerous Black criminals off easy. As people repeatedly get targeted with variations of such posts they start to believe them. They get directed to Facebook pages and web sites full of false information to make them think it more. These people in turn start spreading the word to other people. At the core it's not that different from disinformation robo calls, and other deceitful political tactics - Except 1,000s of times more powerful due to social media's unparalleled ability to target, do so in the dark, and have viral-tribal effects.
2) Success is a function of narrow targeting
Such dark post advertising is only this effective if it's micro-targeted to very specific sets of people, to ensure the disinformation is chosen to hit the nerves of those very narrow profiles. Facebook has advertising tools that enable campaigns and brands to do just that. Micro-target on a very narrow basis that can be tuned continuously, measuring the results in terms of engagement, shares, comments, click throughs to destinations, and even what happens at those destinations.
3) You have to know who you want to target
For all this to work, you have to know who you want to target. Once you have that information it's easy. Simplest approach is to just type in the various criteria, including, age, gender, race, political views, interests, and a host of other criteria. Then run your dark ad posts, see the results and tune. More sophisticated is to load your database into Facebook and say who you want to target. Facebook's algorithms take that list, match it to their user database and target your ads to the exact people in your list. For privacy reasons they do this without letting you know exactly which people's Facebook IDs match your list . But the net is your dark ad posts are going directly to the people in your list. Due to the election swing impact of the Russian disinformation campaign in 2016, and a lot of public pressure, Facebook has since constrained some aspects of the this micro-targeting. But in 2016 the full power was available, and it only makes sense that Russian Intelligence agents made full use of it for their and Trump's benefit.
4) The Trump Campaign gave Russian Intelligence the polling data that enabled them to know who to target. This empowered Russian Intelligence to use that information in conjunction Facebook features to deploy their disinformation, and swing the election.
And that, in the social media age is how we spell COLLUSION!
(Our founders called this consorting with a foreign power to secure office, which they considered a big time Constitutional no-no)
Sometimes it takes a historian to do what journalists often fail to do — draw from the past to illuminate the present, and draw from a lot of different sources to pull together a more complete picture. Journalists are driven to move on to the next story and to dig out a new, previously unreported piece of that picture. I am thankful we have journalists and historians who are good at both.
So Trump campaign colluded with Russian government, according to our own senate’s investigation. Those Senators who know this and don’t act are Russian assets in my opinion
I have a feeling that dirt on this administration's mob-like dealings will be pouring out for years after they've gotten the boot. My sincere hope is that the players in these dealings face the full consequences of their actions.
Heather Cox Richardson - I begin to fear that your linking all this together and putting proper names where blame belongs may not bode well. Please watch yourself and be careful. Your work is greatly appreciated, and most importantly, IT IS NEEDED. Thank you.
So many of your letters are keepers for how they connect the threads into an illustrative tapestry, but this one goes into my top five. Trumps daily disinformation and outrage machine tries to thwart the truth from standing up. Thank you for what you do to make sure it gets out there.
I appreciate this work for the history books-- I remember Rachel Maddow night after night with this Russian/Ukranian names painting the picture. However this report matters not a whit with regard to today. The "base" - meaning the tRump supporters whose signs I saw all over rural Maine this weekend, could care less, and most all the Senators who have supported him will never pay the price. I am wishing and hoping we Dems can take the 5 seats back we need to begin to undo the damage that's been done to our democracy in 4 yrs time...sigh
Wow! Just all that comes to mind. I really had no idea! My daughter’s boyfriend in NYC, his family is just cops, firemen, more cops. He said everyone in NYC knows how crooked dumpty is. But this was so much more than I imagined! Thank you for this run down! Just, WOW!
Hi folks--Heather, I've been watching and reading the news stories about Manafort off and on but finally feel that all the dots are connected by today's Letter. Thank you.
And I have a recommendation for everyone rightfully concerned about the sanctity of their votes. Insist on a paper ballot by every. means possible and take a picture of it after you vote to prove what you did. (I really wish someone would put together a website to collect this data.)
Kamala Harris, when asked what tipped the scales into protest over the murder of George Floyd said: "Smart phones."
Wouldn't we all love to see the unredacted section related to the hacking of election systems? Doubt we ever will. Volume 5 graphically illustrates what's happened to America. In any pre-Trump era, the nation would be outraged at the betrayal (dare I say treason?). Now, during a pandemic and economic calamity and Trump distractions, it's just noise.
Spectacular example of what we’ve come to expect (with fear and trembling) from HCR. I am most fearful, however, of what was only implied in her noting what was entirely redacted: voting machine manipulation. Social media may possibly change a vote; hacking the counter on a machine most reliably will. A dozen You-Tube demonstrations reveal this as child’s play. No wonder they have redacted it. 🤬
For some unknown reason, I slept through the night last night, a rare occurrence since the Russians interferes successfully in the 2016 election. Today’s Letter - always my first read - has my heart pounding. How can any Republican member of the Senate, or the staff who read the one million pieces of evidence in the fifth volume not speak out? Or still live with themselves? It baffles me.
It's a willful choice they make to remain ignorant... this is what concerns me. A vibrant democracy depends on an educated electorate. We've slid along for a few centuries and the men in power have most often found their way to acceptable norms. We have now seen the underbelly of a society where ignorance is not bliss.
This is a masterful report and should be the lead story on every news outlet in America today. Our democracy has become one nation under lies, with liberty and justice for the bullied and bribed. We knew the president was a snake but treason trumps loyalty vows and NDAs.
The real mind-boggling, surreal fact here is that those Republican Senators on the Intelligence Committee knew all this back on February 5, and they still voted to acquit Trump.
The tie between the fifth and second volumes of the report, is the way in which the internal Republican polling (potential voter) data given by Paul Manafort to Russian military intelligence office Konstantin Kilimnik would be used by the Russians to micro-target their pro-Trump social media campaign. My brother, who has been running social media as a business for a very long time, wrote a post elsewhere explaining how it works, which I reproduce here with permission:
IT'S COLLUSION
The Senate Intelligence Report states that the Trump Campaign shared polling data with Russian Intelligence Officers. Via Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort who is also described as a grave counter intelligence threat. Some Republicans read this and say there was no collusion. Democrats are saying this is collusion. Some say, it depends on what they did with the information, was it of value.? As a veteran social media expert, allow me to explain why this information was of extraordinary value and magnified by many times the power and impact of Russian disinformation interference in the election with the objective to elect Trump. So valuable that it easily could have made and likely did make the difference in getting Trump elected.
1) Micro-targeted dark ad posts is the killer app of politics
A key success factor in the Russian interference was using Facebook to micro-target voters with dark ad posts, spreading and amplifying the disinformation. The only people that see dark ad posts are those they are targeted to, thus enabling a campaign to say different things (lies) to different people without being caught in the public eye. For example advertising to specific Black people in rust belt states that Clinton was anti-Black people as evidenced by her decades prior predators comment. Then advertising to specific white people in those same states that Clinton was easy on crime, as evidenced by her liberal crime policies that would let dangerous Black criminals off easy. As people repeatedly get targeted with variations of such posts they start to believe them. They get directed to Facebook pages and web sites full of false information to make them think it more. These people in turn start spreading the word to other people. At the core it's not that different from disinformation robo calls, and other deceitful political tactics - Except 1,000s of times more powerful due to social media's unparalleled ability to target, do so in the dark, and have viral-tribal effects.
2) Success is a function of narrow targeting
Such dark post advertising is only this effective if it's micro-targeted to very specific sets of people, to ensure the disinformation is chosen to hit the nerves of those very narrow profiles. Facebook has advertising tools that enable campaigns and brands to do just that. Micro-target on a very narrow basis that can be tuned continuously, measuring the results in terms of engagement, shares, comments, click throughs to destinations, and even what happens at those destinations.
3) You have to know who you want to target
For all this to work, you have to know who you want to target. Once you have that information it's easy. Simplest approach is to just type in the various criteria, including, age, gender, race, political views, interests, and a host of other criteria. Then run your dark ad posts, see the results and tune. More sophisticated is to load your database into Facebook and say who you want to target. Facebook's algorithms take that list, match it to their user database and target your ads to the exact people in your list. For privacy reasons they do this without letting you know exactly which people's Facebook IDs match your list . But the net is your dark ad posts are going directly to the people in your list. Due to the election swing impact of the Russian disinformation campaign in 2016, and a lot of public pressure, Facebook has since constrained some aspects of the this micro-targeting. But in 2016 the full power was available, and it only makes sense that Russian Intelligence agents made full use of it for their and Trump's benefit.
4) The Trump Campaign gave Russian Intelligence the polling data that enabled them to know who to target. This empowered Russian Intelligence to use that information in conjunction Facebook features to deploy their disinformation, and swing the election.
And that, in the social media age is how we spell COLLUSION!
(Our founders called this consorting with a foreign power to secure office, which they considered a big time Constitutional no-no)
Sometimes it takes a historian to do what journalists often fail to do — draw from the past to illuminate the present, and draw from a lot of different sources to pull together a more complete picture. Journalists are driven to move on to the next story and to dig out a new, previously unreported piece of that picture. I am thankful we have journalists and historians who are good at both.
So Trump campaign colluded with Russian government, according to our own senate’s investigation. Those Senators who know this and don’t act are Russian assets in my opinion
I have a feeling that dirt on this administration's mob-like dealings will be pouring out for years after they've gotten the boot. My sincere hope is that the players in these dealings face the full consequences of their actions.
Heather Cox Richardson - I begin to fear that your linking all this together and putting proper names where blame belongs may not bode well. Please watch yourself and be careful. Your work is greatly appreciated, and most importantly, IT IS NEEDED. Thank you.
So many of your letters are keepers for how they connect the threads into an illustrative tapestry, but this one goes into my top five. Trumps daily disinformation and outrage machine tries to thwart the truth from standing up. Thank you for what you do to make sure it gets out there.
I appreciate this work for the history books-- I remember Rachel Maddow night after night with this Russian/Ukranian names painting the picture. However this report matters not a whit with regard to today. The "base" - meaning the tRump supporters whose signs I saw all over rural Maine this weekend, could care less, and most all the Senators who have supported him will never pay the price. I am wishing and hoping we Dems can take the 5 seats back we need to begin to undo the damage that's been done to our democracy in 4 yrs time...sigh
Wow! Just all that comes to mind. I really had no idea! My daughter’s boyfriend in NYC, his family is just cops, firemen, more cops. He said everyone in NYC knows how crooked dumpty is. But this was so much more than I imagined! Thank you for this run down! Just, WOW!
Hi folks--Heather, I've been watching and reading the news stories about Manafort off and on but finally feel that all the dots are connected by today's Letter. Thank you.
And I have a recommendation for everyone rightfully concerned about the sanctity of their votes. Insist on a paper ballot by every. means possible and take a picture of it after you vote to prove what you did. (I really wish someone would put together a website to collect this data.)
Kamala Harris, when asked what tipped the scales into protest over the murder of George Floyd said: "Smart phones."
We could no longer deny what we saw.
And I would like to recommend a research article I found on the BBC website about the efficacy of non-violent protest. It was a hope-filled eye-opener to me: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world#:~:text=Overall%2C%20nonviolent%20campaigns%20were%20twice,26%25%20for%20the%20violent%20protests
Wouldn't we all love to see the unredacted section related to the hacking of election systems? Doubt we ever will. Volume 5 graphically illustrates what's happened to America. In any pre-Trump era, the nation would be outraged at the betrayal (dare I say treason?). Now, during a pandemic and economic calamity and Trump distractions, it's just noise.
Spectacular example of what we’ve come to expect (with fear and trembling) from HCR. I am most fearful, however, of what was only implied in her noting what was entirely redacted: voting machine manipulation. Social media may possibly change a vote; hacking the counter on a machine most reliably will. A dozen You-Tube demonstrations reveal this as child’s play. No wonder they have redacted it. 🤬
For some unknown reason, I slept through the night last night, a rare occurrence since the Russians interferes successfully in the 2016 election. Today’s Letter - always my first read - has my heart pounding. How can any Republican member of the Senate, or the staff who read the one million pieces of evidence in the fifth volume not speak out? Or still live with themselves? It baffles me.
It's a willful choice they make to remain ignorant... this is what concerns me. A vibrant democracy depends on an educated electorate. We've slid along for a few centuries and the men in power have most often found their way to acceptable norms. We have now seen the underbelly of a society where ignorance is not bliss.
I think someone should make these reports into a graphic novel.
This is a masterful report and should be the lead story on every news outlet in America today. Our democracy has become one nation under lies, with liberty and justice for the bullied and bribed. We knew the president was a snake but treason trumps loyalty vows and NDAs.