
LinkedIn Co-Founder Apologizes for Deception in Alabama Senate Race - rm2889
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/us/reid-hoffman-alabama-election-disinformation.html
======
rdtsc
> They also used thousands of Twitter accounts to make it appear as if
> automated Russian bot accounts were following and supporting Mr. Moore,
> according to an internal report on the project. The apparent Russian support
> for Mr. Moore drew broad news media coverage.

also from
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/22/faceboo...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/22/facebook-
suspends-five-accounts-including-social-media-researcher-misleading-tactics-
alabama-election/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4eb218b514da)

> Morgan’s efforts have stirred controversy because of his role at New
> Knowledge, which has helped Senate lawmakers uncover the means in which
> Russian agents weaponized Facebook, Twitter a

So person in charge of detecting "the Russians" couldn't find enough Russians
and so he made his own Russians and possibly altered the results of US
elections.

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austincheney
> But at least a few Democrats thought their party could not shun such tactics
> entirely if others were going to continue to use them.

And so the deception arms race has begun. Social media messaging is a toxic
influence when centrally managed, inherently anonymous, or publicly
accessible.

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mindgam3
Ironically, the company mentioned in the article for spreading disinformation
has the following mission statement: “New Knowledge protects your brand from
social media disinformation by identifying fake accounts, fake news, and
propaganda campaigns.”

Why choose white hat or black hat when you can profit from both sides.
Ingenious!

—-

“The money went to a small group of social media experts that included
Jonathon Morgan, the chief executive of New Knowledge, a cybersecurity firm.

They created a Facebook page intended to look like the work of conservative
Alabamians, and used it to try to split Republicans and promote a conservative
write-in candidate to take votes from Mr. Moore.

They also used thousands of Twitter accounts to make it appear as if automated
Russian bot accounts were following and supporting Mr. Moore, according to an
internal report on the project. The apparent Russian support for Mr. Moore
drew broad news media coverage.”

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brain5ide
However misinformation for engagement didn't bother him on LinkedIn.

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starik36
So he apologizes now that he's been caught? Classy and totally believable.

~~~
lainga
And what is anyone in Hoffman's social circles going to say? "Aw, damnit, Roy
Moore could have won if it wasn't for you"?

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rhegart
Every part of culture, every discussion, everything is a life and death
political fight to half the country, whether on the left or the right. In
their eyes, if you’re not fighting against the other side you are complicit
and the ends justify the means to power.

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sidcool
Is apology in this case admission of guilt? And if so, can there be judicial
intervention?

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juicethecat
This actually something that needs to get a special investigator too. Really
really disastrous.

~~~
Redoubts
Why a "Special" Investigator? This isn't law enforcement investigating itself.

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code4tee
Basically, he’s too rich to know where he’s spending his money.

A good problem to have, but clearly he recognized this was a big screwup and
he fessed up. Not more one can ask for.

~~~
fake-name
> Basically, he’s too rich to know where he’s spending his money.

If you have that problem, _you have too much money_.

I've periodically considered a limit on the money people can have. I think if
we limited people to a maximum wealth, after which taxes were 90+%, it'd go a
fair way to fixing a lot of the issues with the world. Something like 10
million dollars seems reasonable.

(Note: this ignores all the ways people would weasel around any real-world
legislation. Please don't argue about that, it's a thought experiment.)

~~~
icelancer
Can corporations have unlimited money? 10 million barely makes payroll for
some medium-large businesses.

And a thought experiment isn't not subject to discussion... otherwise why post
it?

~~~
fake-name
I'm open to discussion, just not "this is stupid because people would hire tax
lawyers which would ruin it". I _know_ that, but it's a fanciful idea.

Anyways, a limit on personal wealth would need to be accompanied by a limit on
corporate wealth (or corporate size, or some other lever).

Really, the thing that it all would require to make work would be the ability
to make things illegal on the basis of _intent_ (e.g. intent to circumvent),
which gets sufficiently close to thought-crime that makes me uncomfortable
(and realistically makes the idea nothing but a pipe-dream). However, without
some mechanism for preemptively dealing with rule-lawyering and such, I can't
see any way to actively improve society with such a measure.

It'd be nice if there was a sort of duck-typing for laws. If it quacks like a
tax haven, and walks like a tax haven, the technical definition of it is
irrelevant, and it should be treated as a tax haven/whatever mechanism for tax
avoidance. Unfortunately, that sort of rule-of-law requires a significant
value-judgement by the judiciary that is untenable given the current legal
structure, at least in the US.

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tossaccount123
Interesting how so many leftists who hate the koch brothers and their big
money spending are fine with billionaire tech elites throwing their money
around

But I suppose that's not surprising considering the top 10 richest districts
and 73 of the top 100 voted democrat

[https://finance.yahoo.com/news/midterms-one-party-
controls-w...](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/midterms-one-party-controls-
wealthiest-184200649.html)

Citizens United needs to be overturned ASAP

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alphabettsy
Huh? Overturning Citizens United is a key goal of “leftists”, so much so that
Bernie Sanders talked about it continuously during his campaign.

The entire GOP continues to vilify Soros though and seem perfectly content
with Citizens United.

