+ Revealed: rightwing firm posed as leftist group on Facebook to divide Democrats

FEC investigation failed to uncover link to Rally Forge, a firm with close ties to Turning Point USA

Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco
@juliacarriew
Fri 11 Jun 2021 06.00 EDT


A digital marketing firm closely linked to the pro-Trump youth group Turning Point USA was responsible for a series of deceptive Facebook ads promoting Green party candidates during the 2018 US midterm elections, the Guardian can reveal.

In an apparent attempt to split the Democratic vote in a number of close races, the ads purported to come from an organization called America Progress Now (APN) and used socialist memes and rhetoric to urge leftwing voters to support Green party candidates.


Facebook was aware of the true identity of the advertiser – the conservative marketing firm Rally Forge – and the deceptive nature of the ads, documents seen by the Guardian show, but the company determined that they did not violate its policies.

Rally Forge would go on to set up a pro-Trump domestic “troll farm” for Turning Point Action, a “sister” organization of Turning Point USA, in 2020, earning a permanent ban from Facebook.

“There were no policies at Facebook against pretending to be a group that did not exist, an abuse vector that has also been used by the governments of Honduras and Azerbaijan,” said Sophie Zhang, a former Facebook employee and whistleblower who played a small role in the investigation of the Green party ads.

She added: “The fact that Rally Forge later went on to conduct coordinated inauthentic behavior with troll farms reminiscent of Russia should be taken as an indication that Facebook’s leniency led to more risk-taking behavior.”


Devon Kearns, a spokesperson for Facebook, said: “We removed Rally Forge from our platforms for violating our policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior. Since the 2018 midterms, we have strengthened our policies related to election interference and political ad transparency. We continue working to make political advertising more transparent on our platform and we welcome updated regulations and help from policymakers as we evolve our policies in this space.”


The revelation that the ads were linked to a rightwing organization raises questions about the Federal Election Commission’s enforcement of campaign finance laws. APN and its ads appeared to violate federal laws that require independent expenditures to be filed with the FEC and include proper disclosures on advertisements, as ProPublica and Vice News first reported in 2018.

The non-partisan campaign finance watchdog group Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint against APN and subsequently sued the agency in an attempt to force it to investigate the group. But in July 2020, the FEC voted to dismiss allegations that America Progress Now had violated federal law, after an individual, Evan Muhlstein, took responsibility for the ads and attributed the lack of proper disclosures and filings to his “inexperience”.


It is illegal to knowingly make false or fraudulent statements to federal agencies, and the FEC appears to have taken Muhlstein at his word that the ads were a sincere but novice attempt to support Green party candidates.


The former FEC commissioner Ann Ravel, who reviewed the case at the request of the Guardian, said that were she still on the FEC, she would now refer this “stunning” case to the justice department for investigation.

“It seems as if it’s a clear fraud,” Ravel said, noting that the FEC general counsel’s office appeared to have been “misled” by Muhlstein. “The requirement for the justice department to take on an electoral matter is that it be serious and willful, and clearly in this case it was willful, in my opinion.”


(more)


https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/11/facebook-ads-turning-point-usa-rally-forge?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&__twitter_impression=true

Oh, man...

Some woman earlier today called me "handsome". O_o

Ha.

I've been called "adorable". Haha...

"Sexy."..."Smart."...

"Very Good Dancer"..."Tall."..."Very Good Bass Player."...

"Beautiful." o_O





"Bitch."..."Asshole."..."Faggit."..... XD

+ Palmer Report

Lock him up!

Bocha Blue | 11:59 pm EDT June 11, 2021
Palmer Report » Community

We should not have been surprised. I say this regarding the bombshell news that the former guy weaponized the Department of Justice to spy on his enemies by seizing metadata from Apple and slapping a gag order on Apple. We already know of at least two prominent Democrats who were spied on. There will likely be more where that came from.

We shouldn’t have been surprised. But we were. I don’t know about you, my friends, but my jaw dropped. In retrospect, though, it makes sense. The former guy is, I believe, a sociopath. I cannot be sure. I am not a psychologist and have not diagnosed him.



But he meets all the criteria. And sociopathy is a personality disorder. There is no cure. Sociopaths cannot feel empathy. They cannot care about anyone beyond themselves. They use people. They turn on any perceived enemies in a heartbeat. They are without any conscience. They know what they are doing is wrong, and they do not care.

So, yes. The former guy did this. And I would not be surprised if there are even more horrible things he did that we don’t even know about.


(more)



https://www.palmerreport.com/community/lock-him-up-3/39486/

https://youtu.be/sR3f95BGIiA

https://youtu.be/f8KOD2pHPvQ

I beyond *DETEST* A Fucking Loudass Table; full of Laughing, Disruptive, Inconsiderate, Coughing/Sneezing, Obnoxious Loudasses, right next to me at a restaurant.

😑😑😑😑😑


😖😖😖😖😖



(so I actually finally determined not to go to restaurants anymore as of maybe 2 years ago. I certainly have grown to hate certain things more and more as every year has passed, aye. Even the Public Libraries are no longer Respected As Sacredly Silent Intellectual Places anymore these days, I have noticed)



P.S. I actually quickly shut a table up with 7-8 big, loudass, inconsiderate, joking bitches once ha. But back then I actually had a bad temper too. Embarrassing.....

I really fucking hate when someone nearby Swallows Their Beverage Fucking Loud.



😑😑😑😑😑