Hacker News Reader

Comment by cubano | Hacker News Reader

I am glad someone brought this up...

The idea that Facebook's "Russian meme/adverts" situation had anything to do with Trump winning is laughable beyond any reasonable measure. He won because Clinton was perhaps the worst candidate in the history of US Presidential elections, not because some Russian trolls wrote some silly crap on FB.

But I agree with your premise...FB is just being used as a big fat scapegoat so the real culprits that engineered Clinton's loss don't lose their cushy political positions.

View on HN

>> I think they made a lot of enemies with their behavior during the election and afterwards. Deservedly so, imo.

> He won because Clinton was perhaps the worst candidate in the history of US Presidential elections, not because some Russian trolls wrote some silly crap on FB.

Both of these things are true. Nothing about Clinton's weakness excuses Facebook's shameful and evasive behavior when it was discovered that they were ground-zero for a foreign propaganda campaign.

You're getting downvoted by people who don't like that you think clinton was bad.

You're point though is true. The $10-200k that russia supposedly spent and the surrounding meme/fake news bubble that expanded around it simply didn't have the influence that people keep claiming it did.

And even if it did, does anyone honestly think that Russia has not been using the US media to try to "influence" elections since at least the end of WWII? Not that it makes it OK, but let's be realistic and understand that this is nothing new.

Nope, no one does. But the recent bout of cyberwarfare was directly due to the magnitsky act economically damaging Putin and his inner circle.

FWIW I agree that the effects of russian influence—intentionally at least—is overblown. However, Facebook still managed to make themselves look like comically evil in responding to the charges.

>He won because Clinton was perhaps the worst candidate in the history of US Presidential elections

This is the most hyperbolic, hand-wavy, and incorrect take. Guess that propaganda worked on you?

I voted for Trump, have never been an FB user, and have trashed FB for close to 10 years on this very site.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com