Facebook’s stock went up after news of a record-breaking $5 billion FTC fine for various privacy violations broke today.
That, as the New York Times’ Mike Isaac points out, is the real story here: the United States government spent months coming up with a punishment for Facebook’s long list of privacy-related bad behavior, and the best it could do was so weak that Facebook’s stock price went up.
Facebook was one of the most important tools that Russia used to interfere in the US presidential elections. Do you really think that the regime profiting from said interference is going to punish their golden ticket?
> Facebook was one of the most important tools that Russia used to interfere in the US presidential elections.
This is so far from the truth that a federal judge recently ordered the DOJ to stop claiming IRA had anything at all to do with the Kremlin. Let it go, Thom. Trump won fair and square.
https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2019/07/08/judge-warns-prosecutors-about-public-statements-in-case-against-russian-firm/
Sorry, the most detailed investigation into the whole ordeal makes it very clear Russia used Facebook – extensively.
https://www.ccn.com/mueller-report-facebook-russian-spies/
That report is what the judge was talking about. The entire thing is effectively garbage now.
tidux,
Here’s more details about what has actually happened:
Contrary to what you’re trying to portray it as, the judge is not making a ruling about the facts of the case. The judge is merely upholding procedural rules about what can or cannot be said in public comments at the moment that could prejudice a jury.
Try again.
Forgot the link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-09/judge-tells-u-s-to-tone-it-down-in-russian-meddling-prosecution
Tidux, I thought you were smarter than this. I had no idea you supported such a joke of a President. The following is not mine, but it lays everything out succinctly:
President Trump’s response to Russia’s multi-pronged cyber attacks, from their malware botnets to their attacks targeting the U.S. energy grid and election systems, has been milquetoast.
The United States Intelligence agencies confirmed that a foreign nation interfered with the 2016 American election process.[1] We know two dozen state’s election systems came under attack.[2] The Intelligence Agencies heads unanimously agree that the Russians are still sowing political division.[3] The cyber security head of the Department of Homeland Security has stated that the Russians had successfully penetrated voter registration rolls in several states before the 2016 election.[4] President Trump’s administration has retaliated to these attacks on America’s institutions and infrastructure by penalizing Russians, unfortunately President Trump did not mention the sanctions nor the election meddling during his statement on the nerve agent attack in Britain.[5] President Trump has repeatedly called the Russian election interference a hoax.[6]
President Trump’s actions with regards to Russian interference has been concerning to say the least.
U.S. officials, including former National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster, have claimed that this administration has not done enough to dissuade Russian meddling.[7] For example President Trump put the brakes on new economic sanctions on Russia, a day after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley laid out a preliminary plan to impose new sanctions. This decision by President Trump came after the Kremlin denounced the new sanctions plan as international economic raiding.[8] Furthermore, NSA Director Admiral Rodgers testified to Congress that Trump had given no order to counter Russian election meddling.[9] While former National Security Advisor General H.R. McMaster warned of Russian election meddling and publicly denounced their continued attacks, he was removed by President Trump and John Bolton took his place. National Security Advisor Bolton pushed to eliminate a top Cyber-Security position in the White House as he attempted to reorganize the National Security Council.[10]
Second part to follow
Russia’s multi-pronged cyber attacks:
Russian cyber interference goes far beyond hacking election systems. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have accused the Russian government of a multi-stage intrusion campaign targeting the U.S. energy grid. These attacks included critical infrastructure in energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water facilities, and aviation facilities. Here is the report by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team where analytic efforts undertaken by DHS and the FBI have found a multistage intrusion campaign perpetuated by the Russian state.[11] This isn’t fake news, the United States is under cyber attack from Russia.
This joint Technical Alert (TA) is the result of analytic efforts between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This alert provides information on Russian government actions targeting U.S. Government entities as well as organizations in the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation, and critical manufacturing sectors. It also contains indicators of compromise (IOCs) and technical details on the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by Russian government cyber actors on compromised victim networks. DHS and FBI produced this alert to educate network defenders to enhance their ability to identify and reduce exposure to malicious activity.
Furthermore, the FBI has attempted to thwart a sophisticated malware system that is linked to Russia’s military intelligence agency, the Russian malware has infected hundreds of thousands of routers.[12] The Justice Department has announced actions to disrupt the advanced botnet malware system. It is recommended to restart your router as it may be infected.[13]
What has President Trump done?
President Trump suggested a joint cyber security unit with Russia to stop election hacking, he got the idea after meeting Putin at the G20 summit. He later backtracked on this ridiculous suggestion after facing harsh criticism.[14] In 2018 Vladimir Putin reiterated the idea of a joint cyber security unit at the Helsinki joint press conference. During the same conference President Trump publicly defended Russia explicitly denying their role in election interference.[15]
Sources to follow below
It looks like I’m being rate-limited so here’s the source:
https://np.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/bokr2t/gov_desantis_russians_hacked_voting_databases_in/enhd6ev/
“ their malware botnets to their attacks targeting the U.S. energy grid and election system”
You started with a lie.
If you’re referred to Washington Post article, it was fake.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/report-vermont-power-grid-infiltrated-by-russian-hackers/
That was projection actually, because it was US who attacked russian power grid since 2012.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/us/politics/trump-cyber-russia-grid.html
I didn’t read the rest of your post, as I expect it is a bunch of lies as well.
If you claim that 1000 people who witnessed some memes can break your oligarch state, ops I mean democracy, I have bad news for you 🙂
Also Russia doesn’t have anything with Brexit.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/facebook-nick-clegg-russia-interference-brexit-eu-referendum-a8971656.html
As I said, it wasn’t my post originally, and I linked the source further down. But to counter your first point, no it wasn’t a “lie” and it wasn’t sourced from the Post or any other news agency; it was sourced directly from the US government:
https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA18-074A
I love how you claim “fake news”, the rallying cry of all Trump trolls, yet you admit you didn’t even read the post at all. Hypocrisy is indeed the number one sport among MAGAts.
You did get one thing right though: This country is headed towards becoming an oligarchy, and it’s doing so with Trump and Putin holding hands at the helm.
Normally US presidential candidates spend 2 billion dollars on advertisements. It seems the russians spend “$1.25 million per month on ad campaigns”. The russians did not have enough money to hire hackers that can cover their trail. Maybe they should be talking to the indian scammers who are very successful at taking over computers which would be handy if you want to covertly buy facebook ads.
Why would they want cover their tracks? This makes them look much stronger and more powerful, which also one of Putin’s primary goals for everything he does.
@thom
Not a Trumpie, but:
1) The US president (as well as the whole administration) is not a regime
2) Trump is doing several things that have gone against Russia’s interests, such as backing the Kurds in Syria, liftiythe weapons export ban in Cyprus and opposing the sale of S-400 missiles to Turkey
PS: Thom, if you don’t like Trump, please tell any liberal friends you have over at the US to stop their war on “privileged white males” and be less two-faced in matters of illegal immigration: It’s either legal or it’s illegal, the Dem’s behaviour of guarding the border (or so they tell their voters) while granting sanctuary to anyone who sneaks in is schizophrenic and alienated lots of law-abiding citizens.
kurkosdr,
Then why do your talking points come straight from Trump-world?
There’s no sanctuary. There’s no amnesty. You repeating this talking point shows you are nothing more than a shill.
The question you must ask yourself is why are you so intent on punishing the children of the adults who cross the border illegally? How is it the children’s fault such that you have to lock them up in cages? Saying that children shouldn’t be treated like criminals is not granting them sanctuary, and is not schizophrenic. Only twisted minds can believe in something so ridiculous as sin that passes down generations, which is ultimately what your position is.
The girl-in-cage shot was a staged photo to rally liberals with more emotion than sense, much like that photo of AOC crying over the fence of an empty parking lot. Families just get deported together back to their home countries and that’s it.
I consider myself a non-conservative, but liberals’ blatant disregard for the law (sanctuary cities are a thing, and not just in the US) has pushed many people like me in the centre towards the conservative side. Sorry.
@kurkosdr: much in agreement. Life long Democrat who ran from the progressive plague. Trump won because he not only got the Republican vote but because so many Democrats couldn’t stomach voting for a (proven) war criminal who bordered on acts of treason.
Russia had nothing to do with it. It’s stunning how many “smart” people lack the intelligence to separate fact from fiction.
Facebook is a piece of crap. How the Progressives push Russia with Facebook when the platform, like much of the industry, is so blatantly slanted Progressive is mind numbing!
Agreed the $5B was a pat on the back. Facebook should have been ordered to compensate all users in the jurisdiction. $100 each would be approx $21B. That would get their attention and the people wronged would get something back, admittedly including the fake Russian accounts.
Yeah, it’s a joke, considering that what Cambridge Analytica (still active under a different name) can do the same with any other country’s election on any social media platform that is just as loose with their oversight and availability of data for sale.
They should’ve been at the minimum fined for 2 years of revenue.
LOL, Thom is still repeating propaganda bullshit. Wake up.
Entire thing was fabricated to justify the loss. That’s all. It is so convenient to blame external evil forces than accept the fact that dems failed.
Ah yes, the “Sideshow Bob” defense:
“Attempted murder, really now, what is that? Can you win the Nobel prize for attempted chemistry?!?!?””