Axios' David Nather:

artappraiser — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 09:31:57 +0000

In reply to Facebook says it has uncovered a coordinated disinformation operation ahead of the 2018 midterm elections

The content appeared to be aimed at left-leaning voters. When asked, Facebook told reporters “We’re not characterizing the broad nature of the content at this point."

The Pages with the biggest followings: “Aztlan Warriors,” “Black Elevation,” “Mindful Being,” and “Resisters.”

Thought bubble from Axios' Joe Uchill: The posts appear to be the early stages of a social media campaign. "Right now, the released content is just building rapport with an audience. Based on the groups, it's a broad cross section of left subgroups — an African-American group, a Latino group, a women's group and people likely to be interested in pages about 'mindfulness.'"

What we don't know:

Who's behind them. Facebook says it can't connect them to any specific group, like the Russian-based Internet Research Agency that abused social media platforms in the 2016 election. (Lawmakers were less shy about making the Russia connection.)

What their goals were. Facebook stuck to describing what the Pages and accounts did, not trying to determine what their motivations were.

Axios' Shannon Vavra also did a "Go Deeper" post on the story with a lot of pictures and memes from the pages, they are definitely lefty memes, but overall a little on the hokey side, sometimes almost parody like or high-schoolish; she uses this collage of them to start the post

"It seems like they're

artappraiser — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 00:40:12 +0000

In reply to Facebook says it has uncovered a coordinated disinformation operation ahead of the 2018 midterm elections

"It seems like they're getting more competent, that they're learning how to cover their tracks more efficiently" - @NatashaBertrand on Facebook revealing new attacks on 2018 midterms pic.twitter.com/C756VFBXtw
— TheBeat w/Ari Melber (@TheBeatWithAri) July 31, 2018

dagblog - Comments for "Facebook says it has uncovered a coordinated disinformation operation ahead of the 2018 midterm elections"

Axios' David Nather:

"It seems like they're