How Facebook's Secret Unit Created Digital Propaganda Troll Armies To Influence Elections

Tyler Durden's picture

Authored by Shelley Kasli via GGI News,

Just days after GreatGameIndia exposed how American and Japanese companies could be hacking Indian elections, a recent Bloomberg report has revealed how a secret unit of Facebook has helped create troll armies for governments around the world including India for digital propaganda to influence elections. Under fire for Facebook Inc.’s role as a platform for political propaganda, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has punched back, saying his mission is above partisanship.

But Facebook, it turns out, is no bystander in global politics. What he hasn’t said is that his company actively works with political parties and leaders including those who use the platform to stifle opposition—sometimes with the aid of “troll armies” that spread misinformation and extremist ideologies.

The initiative is run by a little-known Facebook global government and politics team led from Washington by Katie Harbath, a former Republican digital strategist who worked on former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign as well as 2014 Indian elections.

Since Facebook hired Harbath to run their secret global goverment and politics unit three years later, her team has traveled the globe (including India helping political clients use the company’s powerful digital tools to create troll armies for digital propaganda.

In India (many other countries as well) the unit’s employees have become de facto campaign workers. And once a candidate is elected, the company in some instances goes on to train government employees or provide technical assistance for live streams at official state events.

In the U.S., the unit embedded employees in Trump’s campaign. In India, the company helped develop the online presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who now has more Facebook followers than any other world leader.

At meetings with political campaigns, members of Harbath’s team sit alongside Facebook advertising sales staff who help monetize the often viral attention stirred up by elections and politics. They train politicians and leaders how to set up a campaign page and get it authenticated with a blue verification check mark, how to best use video to engage viewers and how to target ads to critical voting blocs. Once those candidates are elected, their relationship with Facebook can help extend the company’s reach into government in meaningful ways, such as being well positioned to push against regulations.

That problem is exacerbated when Facebook’s engine of democracy is deployed in an undemocratic fashion. A November report by Freedom House, a U.S.-based nonprofit that advocates for political and human rights, found that a growing number of countries are “manipulating social media to undermine democracy.” One aspect of that involves “patriotic trolling,” or the use of government-backed harassment and propaganda meant to control the narrative, silence dissidents and consolidate power.

In 2007, Facebook opened its first office in Washington. The presidential election the following year saw the rise of the world’s first “Facebook President” in Barack Obama, who with the platform’s help was able to reach millions of voters in the weeks before the election. The number of Facebook users surged around the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East around 2010 and 2011, demonstrating the broad power of the platform to influence democracy.

By the time Facebook named Harbath, the former Giuliani aide, to lead its global politics and government unit, elections were becoming major social-media attractions. Facebook began getting involved in electoral hotspots around the world.

Facebook has embedded itself in some of the globe’s most controversial political movements while resisting transparency. Since 2011, it has asked the U.S. Federal Election Commission for blanket exemptions from political advertising disclosure rules that could have helped it avoid the current crisis over Russian ad spending ahead of the 2016 election.

The company’s relationship with governments remains complicated. Facebook has come under fire in the European Union, including for the spread of Islamic extremism on its network. The company just issued its annual transparency report explaining that it will only provide user data to governments if that request is legally sufficient, and will push back in court if it’s not.

Facebook Troll Armies In India

India is arguably Facebook’s most important market recently edging out the U.S. as the company’s biggest. The number of users here is growing twice as fast as in the U.S. And that doesn’t even count the 200 million people who use the company’s WhatsApp messaging service in India, more than anywhere else on the globe.

By the time of India’s 2014 elections, Facebook had for months been working with several campaigns. Modi relied heavily on Facebook and WhatsApp to recruit volunteers who in turn spread his message on social media. Since his election, Modi’s Facebook followers have risen to 43 million, almost twice Trump’s count.

Within weeks of Modi’s election, Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg both visited India as it was rolling out a critical free internet service that was later curbed due to massive protests. Harbath and her team have also traveled here, offering a series of workshops and sessions that have trained more than 6,000 government officials.

As Modi’s social media reach grew, his followers increasingly turned to Facebook and WhatsApp to target harassment campaigns against his political rivals. India has become a hotbed for fake news, with one hoax story this year that circulated on WhatsApp leading to mob beatings resulting in several deaths. The nation has also become an increasingly dangerous place for opposition parties and reporters.

However its not just Modi or the Bharatiya Janata Party who has utilize Facebook’s services. The company says it offers the same tools and services to all candidates and governments regardless of political affiliation, and even to civil society groups that may have a lesser voice.

What is interesting is that Mark Zukerberg himself wants to be the President of US and has already employed in succession David Plouffe (campaign adviser to Barack Obama in 2008) and then Ken Mehlman (George Bush Jr.’s campaign adviser in 2004). He is currently employing Amy Dudley (Senator Tim Kaine’s former advisor), Ben LaBolt (Barack Obama’s former press adviser) and Joel Benenson (Hillary Clinton’s former campaign adviser in 2016).

How India’s Fake News Ecosystem Work

Most of us don’t give much thought to what we post on social media, and a lot of what we see on social media is pretty innocuous. However, it only seems that way at first glance. The truth is that what we post online has a frightening potential. According to recent research from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington, the things we post on social media could be utilized by software to predict future events – maybe even the next Prime Minister of India.

In a paper that’s just been published on Arxiv, the team of researchers found that social media can be used to “detect and predict offline events”. Twitter analysis can accurately predict civil unrest, for instance, because people use certain hashtags to discuss issues online before their anger bubbles over into the real world.

The most famous example of this came during the Arab Spring, when clear signs of the impending protests and unrest were found on social networks days before people took to the streets.

The reverse of this is also true. Meaning that anger can also be manufactured on social media & once it reaches an optimum level be targeted on to real life events on the streets as we have been witnessing since atleast a couple of years in India with cases of mob lynchings and such.

In India a massive fake news industry has sprung up exercising influence over traditional discourse of politics and has a potential in becoming a security challenge like the Arab Spring if not kept in check. As the debate over mob lynching in India is raging it should be understood that such incidents would not have had such a rapid and massive effect if the youth had not had access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media that allowed the fake news industry to organise and share made-up videos and information. The mob lynching since the past years are a direct result of the fake news industry spilling over from social media to the real world.

This takes a totally new dimension now that it has been revealed that Facebook & WhatsApp itself colluded with the establishment in creating such “troll arimes” for digital propaganda, resulting directly into violence on Indian soil. This is a clear textbook case of terrorism. Terrorism is defined as ‘the systematic use of terror or violence by any individual or group to achieve political goals’. In this case this terrorism is perpetrated by a foreign company Facebook on Indian soil using digital information warfare. What more are we waiting for to respond to such an act?

Fake News was used very effectively during US Presidential elections. It was part of the official campaign itself run in collaboration with tech companies and it is also being alleged that even the Russians also ran their own network. The same method was used to shape the Brexit debate as well. As we write this the fake news industry is spreading its tentacles in India as well. Many of India’s leading sportsmen, celebrities, economists, politicians have already fallen victim to this by disseminating such fake content. This is a dangerous trend and should be kept in check by our intelligence agencies to avert future disaster.

The way it works in short is like this. Numerous websites and portals of varying degree of legitimacy and funding are floated. Specific news contents are generated for different groups based on their region, ideology, age, religion etc. which is mixed with a heavy dose of soft porn to slowly blend in with their objective. These fake contents are than peddled in social media and specific groups targeted via analytics tools developed by tech companies. As a lot of such fake content is generated slowly it starts getting a momentum of itself and somewhere down the line it is picked up by any unsuspected person of influence – celebrities, politicians and even journalists themselves. What happens after this point is sheer madness.

Whether by choice or by ignorance even the mainstream media starts peddling this nonsense, dedicating their entire primetime news shows in analyzing the fake news, who said what and why and blah blah… instead of identifying where the fake content was generated in the first place and getting it shut. Due to the nature and sensationalism of the generated content and also because its echoed by persons of influence with time this fake worldview has the potential to spill over in the real world with physical casualties, as we have seen in so many lynching cases. If not kept in check it could capture and take over the entire national discourse. We will reach a point where it will be very difficult to keep track of what is fact or fiction and the entire society would be radicalized into different opposing camps all based on lies.

Facebook & Indian Elections

What is more is that the Election Commission of India itself has partnered with Facebook for voter registration during election process. Dr.Nasim Zaidi, Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India, said “I am pleased to announce that the Election Commission of India is going to launch a ‘Special Drive to enrol left out electors, with a particular focus on first time electors. This is a step towards fulfilment of the motto of ECI that ‘NO VOTER TO BE LEFT BEHIND’. As part of this campaign, Facebook will run a voter registration reminder in multiple Indian languages to all the Facebook users in India. I urge all eligible citizens to enrol and VOTE i.e. Recognize your Right and Perform your Duty. I am sure Facebook will strengthen Election Commission of India’s enrolment campaign and encourage future voters to participate in the Electoral Process and become responsible Citizens of India.”

All 17 American Intelligence agencies have raised serious concern about the impact of this fake news industry on their election process and their society. According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center a majority of Americans (a whopping 88%) believe that completely made-up news has left Americans confused about even the basic facts. And we in India are heading towards a worst scenario than this. Why? Because unlike India, the US Government and Intelligence community has publicly addressed this issue and are working towards resolving this menace. Will Indian govt address such meddling by Facebook in India’s internal affairs?

Committees after committees are being setup, senate hearings are being convened to reach to the bottom of this and new Units are being created to effectively counter this threat to their society. While Facebook is being investigated for meddling in US Presidential elections not much focus has been given to how Facebook’s secret unit has influenced elections in India. In light of these revelations Facebook’s interference in India’s elections should be thoroughly investigated. Ofcourse in order to do so first the Govt should have to acknowledge the existence of this fake news industry in order to take action against it.

Along with Facebook, American Microchip Inc and Japanese Renesas contracted by Election Commission for fusing secret EVM code should also be investigated for interfering in India’s elections and all those who colluded with them. It will be a grave mistake to take this threat of foreign companies interfering in India’s elections lightly.

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Yes We Can. But Lets Not.'s picture

A corporation secretly endeavoring to throw elections?  Prison-worthy.

Then President Barack Obama secretly endeavoring to throw 2016 election?......

 

Bollixed's picture

They should change their name to TrollBook.

wildbad's picture

is suckerberg a Russian name?

sodbuster's picture

Suckaturd is a POS. An absolute piece of human garbage.

BennyBoy's picture

 

Facebook's Secret Unit Creates Digital Propaganda Troll Armies To Click On Likes.

Don't forget to like my comment!

Thanks!

 

 

Creative_Destruct's picture

"...a secret unit of Facebook has helped create troll armies for governments around the world including India for digital propaganda to influence elections."

NAAAAAAH can't be. Violates the Deeeeeep State narrative. The Gremlins from the Kremlin are the ONLY trollers and the establishment is the final judge and arbiter of true vs fake.

“War is peace. 
Freedom is slavery. 
Ignorance is strength.” 
 George Orwell1984

Parrotile's picture

"It's OK when WE do it, but NOT when others do it to US".

Thye cornerstone of US Policy dating back to Nixon and beyond - maybe to the very earliest days of the "USA".

radio man's picture

Eyes on Tampa, for all hell is about to break loose. Paul Anderson, 44 was shot dead by two bikers at a traffic light. Anderson was President of Central Florida's chapter of the outlaws motorcycle gang. Three in custody from a rival gang. Got popcorn?

radio man's picture

Yo Honey, why do you hurt me so?

serotonindumptruck's picture

No disrespect intended.

My extremely limited interactions with The Outlaws taught me that it's better to stay on their good side.

Creative_Destruct's picture

“I would hope and pray that there’s not (retaliation), but I believe there will be,” Nocco said. We all believe there will be.”

With these guys, count on it...

radio man's picture

It's a given, for the Outlaw's reputation is their stock and trade. Bikers and the Feds are rolling into Florida in real time.

williambanzai7's picture

Here is the lowdown, lowbrows: FakeNews is whoever posts without paying Facebook. Those who post misinformation and propaganda and pay Facebook are not called FakeNews, they are called clients.

ChimiBonga's picture

Hackers now just 10¢/dozen.

serotonindumptruck's picture

So if ZH has its own Facebook troll army, then I think they lost.

navy62802's picture

Wait a minute. Hillary Clinton told me the Russians were doing that.

brewing_it's picture

"17 intelligence agencies"? thats been debunked too. gawd.

navy62802's picture

Basically the people who paid to have the fucking thing written are the ones who endorsed it. Then their endorsement of this crap was put on a banner for Hillary Clinton to wave at every political rally and every debate she went to.

Thing is ... it was all bullshit. It was just a Clinton/Soros stunt to hijack the largest and most significant democratic elections on the planet.

GRDguy's picture

Vote against ALL incumbents everywhere, every primary and election.

No need to change laws.  Just make politics NOT a way to get rich.

Serving ONE term then becomes community service.

Then financial sociopaths will just have to find another way to lie and steal from people.

pigpen's picture

Pigpen has secret army to destroy goobook monopolies. Brave browser.

Every citizen needs to download brave immediately. Block ads, malware and tracking by DEFAULT on any device and operating system.

Best stocking stuffer for the holidays.

Destroy the digital advertising monopolies and revalue your attention. Time for users to get paid for their own data.

Cheers,

Pigpen

Rick Cerone's picture

Facebook still used by women over 40 to post selfies of themselves?

And they think Bitcoin is overrated?

Ms No's picture

OT:  Clark County Coroner came out with Paddock's cause of death, gunshot to the head via the mouth.  They also mentioned that allegedly 21 of the 50 some-odd homicide victims in the crowd died by being shot in the head, but only one died of leg wounds.  Riiiiiiight....  The head is a small target.  It just gets worse and worse.  They are busted.  I saw on FOX news a while back where they were desperately trying to appeal to people that none of the video from thousands of cameras was worth anything and that people should not be interested in it.  They said you would see nothing but things like Paddock going to the bathroom or gambling.  They want us to know that the only important info will be provided by the official investigation.  Obviously the chatter has alerted them to the fact that people don't believe their BS.

 

Parrotile's picture

Simple control of the narrative, along the very well-trodden route "only information from "Trained Observers" should be recognised as 'credible' ". Funny how these exalted "Trained Observers" tend to ALWAYS be Government employees - and the implied narrative here is that "only the Government is trustworthy - everything else is a 'Conspiracy' ".

We've seen this "common observers are stupid" mindset brought to the fore in many cases of observed events - e.g the "Phoenix Lights" - brushed off by the Establishment as "training flares" - https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/events/2017/02/17/phoenix-....

Wonder how much "truth" there is in all that exalted "US Defensive capability" - try to start WW3 with Russia alone, and we'll soo find out, won't we.

Kagemusho's picture

When I was a kid, the Memorex company that sold magnetic recording tape used to have a catchy commercial phrase; "Is it live, or is it Memorex?" That question can now be asked of commenters on different fora that eerily parrot the same memes and phrases.

Recall that Angela Merkel took Zuckerfuck aside and asked hm to throttle negative comments about her policies on social media? He said he would.

Why not? Zuckerberg is Bilderberg. He's one of the global elite, if a nouveau riche, lower tier one.That he'd do the same in other countries should surprise no one.

It's also been going on here in the US for quite a while, with military psyops types showing up on forums using a software that creates multiple users to transmit propaganda on comment sections.

Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-soci...

So, when confronted with what looks like this being used in comments on fora, you have every right to ask the suspicious username  "Are you live, or Memorex?