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LinkedIn cofounder reportedly funded Russian-style influence campaign in Alabama race
Biz Journals ^

Posted on 12/23/2018 6:48:38 AM PST by TigerClaws

Billionaire LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman put $100,000 into an experiment that adopted Russia-inspired political disinformation tactics on Facebook during last year's special Senate race in Alabama, The New York Times reports.

Hoffman did not immediately comment on the report. One of his partners told the Times that Hoffman does not “micromanage” the political projects he funds, and may not have been aware of the project’s tactics.

During the 2017 special Senate race in Alabama, the project’s organizers created a fake Facebook page designed to attract conservative Republican voters. Once they had built an audience, the page criticized Republican candidate Roy Moore and urged its followers to vote for a write-in candidate, according to an internal report on the campaign obtained by the Times.

“We orchestrated an elaborate ‘false flag’ operation that planted the idea that the Moore campaign was amplified on social media by a Russian botnet,” the report said.

One of the project’s participants, New Knowledge CEO Jonathon Morgan, called it a “small experiment” that wasn’t intended to affect the outcome of the election. Democratic candidate Doug Jones beat out Moore by fewer than 22,000 votes, in a race where campaigns spent $51 million and garnered 1.3 million votes.

“The research project was intended to help us understand how these kind of campaigns operated,” Morgan told the Times. “We thought it was useful to work in the context of a real election but design it to have almost no impact.”

Hoffman emerged as a sharp critic of President Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, and pledged to spend millions of dollars to help Democratic candidates improve their digital tactics in future elections.

Last summer, Hoffman teamed up with billionaire Zynga cofounder Mark Pincus to launch Win the Future, with the goal of steering the Democratic Party toward policies that are “pro-social, pro-planet and pro-business.”


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; Russia; US: Alabama
KEYWORDS: 2017; alabama; democraticparty; douchejones; dougjones; facebook; fascistbook; linkedin; markpincus; markzuckerberg; microsoft; reidhoffman; roymoore; russia; winthefuture; wtf; zuckerberg; zynga
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What did Doug Jones know and when did he know it?
1 posted on 12/23/2018 6:48:38 AM PST by TigerClaws
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To: TigerClaws

Russians and Democrats have always been linked at the hip. The DS destroyed Joe McCarthy sixty years ago for stating the truth about that linkage. Putin knows who’s on his payroll and they have a lot of D’s by their names!


2 posted on 12/23/2018 6:53:50 AM PST by dowcaet
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To: TigerClaws
There are a lot of questions to be asked about the operations and purpose of "Linked In".

It is a good site to stay away from.

3 posted on 12/23/2018 7:01:18 AM PST by Baynative ("A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams." - John Barrymore)
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To: TigerClaws

4 posted on 12/23/2018 7:04:01 AM PST by kiryandil (Never pick a fight with an angry beehive)
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To: TigerClaws

This would seem to be an arrestable offense. But this dem has a lot of money so he’s immune from any prosecution.


5 posted on 12/23/2018 7:05:34 AM PST by onedoug
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To: TigerClaws

I guess there will be a special prosecutor to investigate the Alabama special senate election amid Republican calls for Doug Jones to step down. (Yeah right)

Basically all the things that Democrats accuse Trump of with very little public evidence, have been stipulated to by those aiding Doug Jones’ candidacy. Can we just move to the part were the senate unseats the junior senator from Alabama?


6 posted on 12/23/2018 7:09:27 AM PST by Tallguy
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To: TigerClaws

People were bussed into AL to vote for Jones, including muslins as they too claimed that Moore would not have been defeated without them.


7 posted on 12/23/2018 7:17:42 AM PST by Slyfox (Not my circus, not my monkeys)
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To: TigerClaws

I still have yet to see proof of Russian anything in the 2016 election.


8 posted on 12/23/2018 7:22:37 AM PST by Darksheare (Those who support liberal "Republicans" summarily support every action by same.)
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To: TigerClaws
he project’s organizers created a fake Facebook page designed to attract conservative Republican voters. Once they had built an audience, the page criticized Republican candidate Roy Moore and urged its followers to vote for a write-in candidate, according to an internal report on the campaign obtained by the Times.

So tech giant *Linked-In* surreptitiously creates a PROJECT on tech giant *Facebook* to interfere with or scuttle an election? That's clearly illegal and a violation of our campaign finance laws. Plain and simple.

Who do we arrest?

9 posted on 12/23/2018 7:23:51 AM PST by AAABEST (NY/DC/LA media/political industrial complex DELENDA EST)
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To: AAABEST

Geez why is every social platform run by leftist a-holes?


10 posted on 12/23/2018 7:30:48 AM PST by gibsonguy
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To: TigerClaws
(a) Progressive Democrats reminding milquetoast blue dawg Jones he will be a one-termer.

(b) Hilarious fail attempting proof-of-concept, quite possibly bringing a dweebie tech billionaire under oath before Congress ie who else did Reid Hoffman direct Jonathon Morgan to attack??

(c) Even more hilarious headline fail as Jones tries to get out from under this:

And for all the Freepers hating on FoxNews lately, please note they absolutely nailed this headline. This is a textbook-perfect head - it points directly to the actus reus and the candidate who sustained the damage, not the hand-flapping boo-hoo Jones:
11 posted on 12/23/2018 7:38:51 AM PST by StAnDeliver ("Mueller personally delivered US uranium to Russia.")
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To: TigerClaws

Isn’t paying people to donate to campaigns illegal?


12 posted on 12/23/2018 7:42:27 AM PST by Bogey78O (So far so good.)
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To: TigerClaws

btt


13 posted on 12/23/2018 7:46:59 AM PST by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
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To: gibsonguy

I haven’t used LinkedIn in many years.


14 posted on 12/23/2018 7:59:27 AM PST by wally_bert (We're low on dimes in fun city.)
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To: TigerClaws

time to terminate LINKEDIN


15 posted on 12/23/2018 8:00:05 AM PST by ptsal
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To: TigerClaws; All

HOW TO DELETE YOUR LinkedIn ACCOUNT.

https://www.wikihow.com/Delete-a-LinkedIn-Account


16 posted on 12/23/2018 8:01:58 AM PST by ptsal
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To: TigerClaws

Social Media bump for later.....


17 posted on 12/23/2018 8:10:37 AM PST by indthkr
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To: TigerClaws

Russian Style?? Gimme a break...


18 posted on 12/23/2018 8:23:44 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: TigerClaws
LinkedIn cofounder reportedly funded Russian-style influence campaign in Alabama race

THIS is a case where there should be STRONG examples set for interfering and colluding with election fraud!

19 posted on 12/23/2018 8:24:04 AM PST by The Sons of Liberty ('DEPLORABLE' Charter Member of The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy - and DAMN Proud of it!.)
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To: TigerClaws

The question is whether this constitutes an unreported campaign contribution and violation of Campaign Finance law.

If you watch TV or Radio commercials they need to state who paid for the commercial and we do not have any affiliation etc. Did not happen here. (Like it the Hillary-DNC-GPS fusion Fraud dossier did not have a little stamp somewhere that stated “Paid for by the Committe to elect Hillary Clinton”.)


20 posted on 12/23/2018 8:25:15 AM PST by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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