Facebook – Johnson's Russia List

JRL NEWSWATCH: “Facebook Shuts Hundreds of Russia-Linked Pages, Accounts” – AP

January 21, 2019 JRL Russia List JRL NewsBlog, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

Montage of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook Logos, adapted from image at nps.gov

“Facebook … removed hundreds of Russia-linked pages, groups and accounts that it says were part of two big disinformation operations …. after finding two networks ‘that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior’ on … Facebook and Instagram …. Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said … that one network operated … in Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltics, Central Asia […]

NEWSLINK: “Russian Effort to Influence 2016 Election Targeted African-Americans” – New York Times/ Scott Shane, Sheera Frenkel

December 17, 2018 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

“The Russian influence campaign on social media in the 2016 election made an extraordinary effort to target African-Americans, used an array of tactics to try to suppress turnout among Democratic voters and unleashed a blizzard of activity on Instagram that rivaled or exceeded its posts on Facebook, according to a report produced for the Senate Intelligence Committee. …”

JRL NEWSWATCH: “Fred Weir: ‘This is amazing, astounding, really …’ [Re:] New York Times: “Kremlin Sources Go Quiet, Leaving C.I.A. in the Dark About Putin’s Plans for Midterms'” – Fred Weir/Facebook/New York Times

August 27, 2018 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

(Fred Weir – facebook – August 25, 2018 – facebook.com/fred.weir/posts/10216143412434220) [live embedded feed of facebook post should load below; click here for direct link: facebook.com/fred.weir/posts/10216143412434220; text and link also recopied further below as back-up] “This is amazing, astounding, really. All these stories, including this one, splashed over front pages, are purporting to tell us something about the most sensitive […]

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Leave a comment CIA, Facebook, FSB, Government, GRU, Media, New York Times, Politics, Putin, Security Services, Social Media, Spies, U.S.-Russian Relations

JRL NEWSWATCH: “U.S. Think Tank’s Tiny Lab Helps Facebook Battle Fake Social Media” – Reuters/New York Times

August 9, 2018 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

File Image of Stylized Eye Surrounded by Binary Code

“A day before Facebook announced that it had discovered and disabled a propaganda campaign designed to sow dissension among U.S. voters, it exclusively shared some of the suspicious pages with an online forensics team so busy it hasn’t put a nameplate on the door. The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab is based in a 12-foot-by-12-foot office in the Washington, […]

JRL NEWSWATCH: “The Kremlin is spearheading a new ‘social-media monitoring system’ to hold local officials more accountable” – Meduza

July 23, 2018 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Spies, Spy Allegations

“The Kremlin is reportedly spearheading a new social-media monitoring system called ‘Incident Management’ … follow[ing] social networks in real time …. being tested in two regions [one of which is] Moscow. … monitor[ing] … Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram[], creating an ‘incident’ whenever related disgruntled posts … appear[] on multiple networks. Local officials are … supposed to respond … […]

RUSSIALINK: “Differing approaches to Korea crisis may jeopardize N. Korea-U.S. summit – Kosachyov” – Interfax

May 16, 2018 JRL Russia List North Korea, Nuclear Proliferation, Nuclear, Missile Defense, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

North Korea Map and Flag, adapted from .gov image

MOSCOW. May 16 (Interfax) – The differing approaches of Washington and Pyongyang to the settlement process on the Korean Peninsula and the bilateral summit may jeopardize the very fact of the summit and its outcome, Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachyov said on Facebook. “The problems that emerged shortly before the pivotal meeting between the U.S. and North […]

NEWSLINK: “See Which Facebook Ads Russians Targeted to People Like You” – New York Times/Keith Collins

May 15, 2018 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

“Congress last week released thousands of Facebook ads linked to Russia that ran through the 2016 presidential election, the most comprehensive look to date at the misinformation campaign mounted on the social network. Choose from the options below to see which ads were targeted to people like you or those you know, down to age, location and interests. …”

NEWSWATCH: “Silicon Valley Giants Face a Test in Russia; Russian censors are going after Telegram, but the pressure is on Amazon, Google and Facebook too” – Bloomberg/Leonid Bershidsky

April 19, 2018 JRL Russia List JRL NewsBlog, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television

“The Russian authorities’ first experiment with blocking a popular messenger application — Telegram — is not working out so far. The web censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, has blocked millions of internet addresses to beat Telegram into submission, but it’s still widely available even without any bypass mechanisms, while numerous legitimate sites have experienced downtime. … Russian social networks have exploded with […]

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Leave a comment Censorship, Facebook, Government, Internet, JRL NewsBlog, Newswatch, Politics, Russia, Russian News, Slider, Social Media, Telegram

RUSSIALINK: Interfax: “Int’l rules of conduct needed to prevent situations like blocking of Russian media outlets’ Facebook accounts – Nikiforov”

April 5, 2018 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, United Nations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

MOSCOW. April 5 (Interfax) – Russia will insist that the United Nations adopt an international convention to lay down rules of conduct on the Internet and deal with the illegal blocking of online resources, Russian Communications and Mass Media Minister Nikolai Nikiforov said on Thursday. “Our foreign colleagues, above all American, continue to exhibit their customary practice of double standards. […]

Russian interference in the virtual world is not the problem; If there were no Russian “influence operations” in the virtual world, no disinformation campaign spearheaded by Russian bots and trolls, would the western world look much different today?

February 26, 2018 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

(opendemocracy.net – Tom Junes – February 22, 2018) [Text with links opendemocracy.net/od-russia/tom-junes/russian-interference-in-virtual-world-is-not-problem] Tom Junes is a historian and post-doctoral researcher focusing on protest movements in eastern Europe. He is a member of the Human and Social Studies Foundation Sofia and currently a visiting fellow at European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He is the author of Student Politics in Communist […]

NEWSLINK: “How Twitter Bots and Trump Fans Made #ReleaseTheMemo Go Viral” – Politico/MOLLY K. MCKEW

February 5, 2018 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

“Russian bots and their American allies gamed social media to put a flawed intelligence document atop the political agenda. That should alarm us.”

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Leave a comment Facebook, Internet, Newslinks, Russia, Russian News, Slider, Social Media, Twitter, U.S.-Russian Relations

NEWSLINK: “Facebook tells Congress it can’t prove or disprove Trump-Russia collusion” – The Hill/John Bowden

January 29, 2018 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

NEWSLINK: “There’s still little evidence that Russia’s 2016 social media efforts did much of anything” – Washington Post/ Philip Bump

December 29, 2017 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

NEWSLINK: “Independent Journalists in Russia Will Have to Live Without Their Western Role Models; The Western media’s controversial reporting is affecting independent journalism in Russia” – Moscow Times/ Oleg Kashin

November 15, 2017 JRL Russia List Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

File Photo of Oleg Kashin Outdoors with Boat and Water in Background

“The Western press has discovered that structures close to the Kremlin bought shares in Facebook and Twitter – obviously with far-reaching political designs. * * * At some point, quantity becomes quality, and the Western press has already published so many inaccurate, exaggerated, and knowingly untrue things about this country that the only Russians who seriously consider Milner a Kremlin […]

NEWSLINK: “Kremlin Cash Behind Billionaire’s Twitter and Facebook Investments” – New York Times/ Jesse Drucker

November 7, 2017 JRL Russia List Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

File Image of Laptop Computer, Tables and Mobile Device, adapted from image at energy.gov

Roskomnadzor not preparing coercive measures against U.S. media, social networks – head of agency

November 1, 2017 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

MOSCOW. Nov 1 (Interfax) – The Russian telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor is currently not preparing any coercive measures against the U.S. media, including CNN and social networks, Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov said. “Speaking about now, we are working within the legal framework and we are not preparing any specific actions on the U.S. media and U.S. social networks,” he told reporters […]

NEWSLINK: “Russian Influence Reached 126 Million Through Facebook Alone” – New York Times/ Mike Isaac and Daisuke Wakabayashi

November 1, 2017 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

NEWSLINK: “Russia’s Facebook ads show how Internet microtargeting can be weaponized” – Washington Post

October 12, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

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Leave a comment Cybersecurity, Facebook, Internet, Newslinks, Russia, Russian News, Slider, Social Media, Spies, U.S.-Russian Relations

NEWSLINK: “Russian propaganda may have been shared hundreds of millions of times, new research says” – Washington Post

October 11, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, Spies, Spy Allegations

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Leave a comment Facebook, Information War, Internet, Media, Newslinks, Propaganda, Russia, Russian News, Slider, Social Media, Spies, Twitter

Washington Post coverage of Russiagate

October 9, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

October 8, 2017 The notorious Kremlin-linked ‘troll farm’ and the Russians trying to take it down https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-notorious-kremlin-linked-troll-farm-and-the-russians-trying-to-take-it-down/2017/10/06/c8c4b160-a919-11e7-9a98-07140d2eed02_story.html?utm_term=.d27065c3abb0 October 9, 2017 Google uncovers Russian-bought ads on YouTube, Gmail and other platforms https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/09/google-uncovers-russian-bought-ads-on-youtube-gmail-and-other-platforms/?utm_term=.1314cf8ad2f0 October 9, 2017 Russian operatives used Twitter and Facebook to target veterans and military personnel, study says https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/09/russian-operatives-used-twitter-and-facebook-to-target-veterans-and-military-personnel-study-says/?utm_term=.313a59a7b68d

New York Times Covers Russia [Headlines & Links]

October 3, 2017 JRL Russia List Politics, Government, Protests, Elections

Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

October 3, 2017 ‘Look Up! Sputnik!’ 60 Years Later By MICHAEL KHODARKOVSKY https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/opinion/sputnik-cold-war-space-race.html [“America’s response in 1957 was a huge investment in space technologies; within 12 years, it had put the first men on the moon. Today, too, a major investment in cybersecurity by a much wealthier and more innovative West might remind Moscow that it cannot afford or win […]

NEWSLINK: “Facebook can’t protect elections on its own” – Washington Post editorial

October 2, 2017 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

“… Existing federal regulations place stricter requirements on political ads on radio and television than those on the Internet. There’s a reason for that: The use of online advertising in political campaigns has spiked in prominence in only the past few years, before most rules governing election spending were written. As a result, Facebook had no legal responsibility to let […]

NEWSLINK: “How Russian trolls tried to organize anti-immigrant rallies, and more; Are Russia’s ‘Friends’ Hiding in Your Facebook Feed?” – The Nation/ Bob Dreyfuss

September 28, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

“All of a sudden, Facebook—and perhaps Twitter and Google, too—find themselves at the center of the Russiagate investigation. You can’t say you didn’t see this coming. …”

NEWSWATCH: “Hardliners urge Kremlin crackdown on social media; Russia has introduced increasingly draconian web laws but some are pushing for more” – Financial Times/ Max Seddon

May 2, 2017 JRL Russia List Corruption, Law, Police, Courts, Crime, JRL NewsBlog, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections

“… success in using social media to mobilise youthful anti-corruption protesters has sparked calls for the Kremlin to step up internet censorship. … [A]t a censorship conference … Oscar-winning film director Nikita Mikhalkov … showed a documentary that accused … Navalny of luring children to violent protests against … Putin. ‘… [Young people] don’t know any history and they won’t until they get a rubber […]

Boycott Russia Today: “BRT reading list of critical online articles about RT, 2010-2016”

June 6, 2016 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television

The facebook page “Boycott Russia Today” has compiled an updated BRT reading list of critical online articles about RT, 2010-2016 at https://www.facebook.com/notes/boycott-russia-today/brt-reading-list-of-critical-online-articles-about-rt-2010-2016-updated-4-june-2/815909395145453 [featured image is file photo]

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Leave a comment Facebook, Information War, Media, Newswatch, Russia, Russian News, Social Media

Ukraine’s Minister Of Facebook

July 6, 2014 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Glenn Kates – July 3, 2014) Angry about continued protests outside Ukraine’s parliament building and an apparent attack on a female journalist, a Facebook user vents his anger on his personal page. “The real Ukrainian warriors [the troops fighting against separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions] will return from the front for just a minute and beat you so […]

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Leave a comment Arsen Avakov, Facebook, Russia, Russian News, Social Media, Ukraine, Ukrainian News

Russian Premier Medvedev Defends Facebook, Twitter

May 19, 2014 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television

File Photo Dmitry Medvedev at Desk with Laptop Computer

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Torrey Clark – May 17, 2014) Russians access to Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. is safe if Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has a say in the matter. The government leader rebuked a communications official for saying in an interview published yesterday that Russia has the right to fully block online social networks if they don’t uphold […]

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Leave a comment Censorship, Facebook, Government, Internet, Medvedev, Russia, Russian News, Social Media, Twitter

NEWSLINK: Russians use ‘love’ emoticon on Facebook more than any other

February 16, 2014 JRL Russia List Life in Russia, Culture, Arts, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television

[“Russians use ‘love’ emoticon on Facebook more than any other” – San Francisco Business Times – Steven E.F. Brown- February 13, 2014 – bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2014/02/russians-love-emoticon-facebook-berkeley.html?page=all] The San Francisco Business Times reports that the top emoticon for Russian facebook users is the love icon. Yet researchers at Cal-Berkeley and Cambridge provide a mixed assessment of what that means: Russians choose an emoticon […]

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Leave a comment Facebook, Internet, Love, Mental Health, Russia, Russian News, Social Media

Senior Russian investigations official warns of dangers posed by social media

May 16, 2013 JRL Russia List Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections

(Interfax – Anapa, May 15, 2013) Destructive forces, including foreign ones, use the absence of controls over on-line publications for information wars aimed at undermining people’s trust in the country’s leadership and law-enforcement bodies, official Investigation Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin has said. “Today, social networks and major blog services comprise hundreds of thousands of independent users who are subjected to […]

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Leave a comment Facebook, Human Rights, Investigative Committee, Russia, Russian News, Social Media, Twitter, VKontakte

Russian Foreign Ministry opens Facebook account

February 22, 2013 JRL Russia List Foreign Policy, Security, Visas, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections

Russian Foreign Ministry Building Tower file photo

(Interfax – Moscow, February 21, 2013) The Russian Foreign Ministry has opened an official account in the social network Facebook, says a report published on the ministry’s website today. “Topical information about the Russian foreign policy, archive materials about the history of the Russian diplomatic service, helpful information for countrymen and Russians staying abroad will be posted there. We expect […]

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Leave a comment Facebook, Foreign Policy, Government, Internet, Social Media

Zuckerberg Visit Sparks Brain-Drain Debate in Russia

October 4, 2012 JRL Russia List Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Population Disaster, Demographics, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – October 3, 2012 – Leonid Bershidsky, an editor and novelist, is Moscow and Kiev correspondent for World View. For Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s visit to Moscow was a great photo opportunity. Some of Russia’s technology entrepreneurs, though, saw it as the latest salvo in a global battle for the […]

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Leave a comment Brain Drain, Business, Facebook, Internet, Investment, IT, Social Media, Technology

The Tao of Mark Zuckerberg

October 2, 2012 JRL Russia List Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television

RIA Novosti – Natalia Antonova – October 1, 2012 Natalia Antonova is the deputy editor of The Moscow News. I never thought that there would come a day when I would unabashedly cheer on Mark Zuckerberg. After all, even among hardcore Facebook users such as myself, it is much more fashionable to poke fun at the guy, gently or otherwise. […]

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Leave a comment Business, Economy, Facebook, Internet, Investment, Social Media, Technology

NEWSLINK: Facebook’s Zuckerberg to meet Russian PM

September 29, 2012 JRL Russia List Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Politics, Government, Protests, Elections

Facebook’s Zuckerberg to meet Russian PM – AFP – September 28, 2012 click here to read original article AFP covers plans for Facebook social network founder Mark Zuckerberg to visit Russia and meet with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Facebook is holding an event in Moscow, and already has ties to Russian IT. “Zuckerberg will be visiting Russia at a […]

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Leave a comment Business, Facebook, Internet, Social Media, Technology