New Studies Show Pundits Are Wrong About Russian Social-Media Involvement in US Politics

[Celerity]

82. background on it, a large Democratic donor funded the company, but apparently knew nothing that they

were doing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/us/politics/doug-jones-social-media.html

A social media expert involved in the project, Jonathon Morgan, said in a statement that it was designed to “better understand and report on the tactics and effects of social media disinformation,” not to influence the election. But the internal report portrayed it differently — as an aggressive effort to divide conservatives, suppress Republican turnout and drive Democrats to the polls.

The effort, financed by Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, is unlikely to have had a significant effect on the outcome, given its modest budget. It cost $100,000, out of $51 million spent on the entire race, including the primaries.

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Reid Hoffman

Politics

Since 2011 Hoffman is a member of the Bilderberg Group, which gathers 120-150 North American and European "political leaders and experts from industry, finance, academia and the media"[73] for an annual invitation-only closed-door conference. Since then he has attended every year with the exception of 2013.[74][75] Hoffman is also listed as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, to which he was elected in 2015.[76][77]

In April 2013, a pro-immigration lobbying group called FWD.us was launched, with Reid Hoffman listed as one of the founders.[78] In 2014, Hoffman donated $150,000 to the Mayday PAC.[79] Also in 2014, Hoffman contributed $500,000 toward David Chiu's State Assembly campaign by funding an independent expenditure committee devoted to negative campaigning against his opponent: San Franciscans to Hold Campos Accountable — Vote No for Campos for State Assembly 2014.[80]

In 2016, Hoffman contributed $220,000 in support of Democratic candidate for Vermont governor Matt Dunne, according to a mass-media disclosure filed at the Vermont Secretary of State's Office.[81]

In 2016, Hoffman created Trumped Up Cards, a card game modeled after Cards Against Humanity intended to poke fun at US presidential candidate Donald Trump.[82] In December 2018, the New York Times broke a story alleging that Hoffman had "put $100,000 into an experiment that adopted Russia-inspired political disinformation tactics on Facebook" during the 2017 special Senate race in Alabama, which allegedly targeted Roy Moore voters. Hoffman did not immediately respond.[83] He apologized later that month, also stating he was unaware what the non-profit—Washington, D.C., based American Engagement Technologies, or AET—had been doing.

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He did post this, denying he knew anything that AET was doing

Truth and Politics

A series of articles in the New York Times describes an alleged operation to spread misinformation during the 2017 Alabama Senate race. Because I’m referenced in these articles, I want to address them.

The most disturbing aspect of this coverage is its description of how fake Twitter accounts with Russian-sounding names were created to follow Roy Moore, in what the Times suggested was either an experiment or a deliberate “false flag” attempt to discredit Moore.

I want to make it clear from the outset that I had never even heard of this project before reading about it in the Times’ coverage. The Times articles imply that I had knowledge of it and that I endorsed its tactics.

Let me be absolutely clear: I do not. I categorically disavow the use of misinformation to sway an election. In fact, I have deliberately funded multiple organizations trying to re-establish civic, truth-focused discourse in the US. I would not have knowingly funded a project planning to use such tactics, and would have refused to invest in any organization that I knew might conduct such a project.

Nevertheless, I do have an apology to make and have learned a lesson here.

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