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13 tweets,
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Thread: For over a year, on behalf of @VVAmerica, I've been quietly waging war against foreign elements who seek to target American troops and veterans with disinformation and politically divisive content. @bkesling and @dnvolz break it down in @WSJ today
wsj.com/articles/an-ar…
wsj.com/articles/an-ar…
2/ Many Americans -- including my colleagues at major Veterans Service Organizations -- need to be more careful about what they share on social media, and who created it. I've found tons of sites targeting troops, veterans and police, which are run by admins from outside USA
3/ Many are from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, but made to look like Americans expressing their patriotism.
4/ It's really important to be careful about what you share on the internet. Groups like "Veteran 2 Veteran Info" are run by Americans. Not every group or page that looks like it's made for veterans is. facebook.com/groups/6269368…
5/ "Veterans Nation - Honoring All Who Served" is run by admins in Kosovo.
facebook.com/groups/Veteran…
facebook.com/groups/Veteran…
6/ To see where a Facebook *Page* is run from, go to the page on your desktop and click "Info and Ads" on the bottom of the left column. If the page has a large enough following (well over 100k) or if they've bought political ads, you can see what country the admins live in.
7/ To see where a Facebook *Group* is from, go to the group and click "about" to see the list of admins. Click on the admins's profile photos and check to see where they've checked in, what pages they like, and what language they use in their posts.
8/ Many -- in fact most -- of the pages that I've evaluated don't have their admins revealed, as @facebook is concentrating on pages that have bought ads or have huge followings. To be fair... that's what congress has asked for. But it's not enough.
9/ The goal of these trolls is not to disrupt the 2018 election -- It's to disrupt the *electorate.* They wish to spread division among us, to make it a permanent American condition.
10/ Facebook can make this better by 1) revealing admin locations for ALL Pages and Groups; 2) make admin locations more prominent than they currently are; 3) make admin locations visible on the FB app. Currently you need to view via desktop.
11/ Update: lots of folks asking how I do this. Answer: manually. Search keywords like “veteran” on FB, then scroll through photos/posts/about/ads-and-info tabs.
Also... I keep my #MacBookAir on a bag filled with frozen water-bottles and water so the computer doesn’t catch fire.
Also... I keep my #MacBookAir on a bag filled with frozen water-bottles and water so the computer doesn’t catch fire.
12/ Amending tweets 6 and 10 — you CAN view admin locations on mobile. Just click the “i” (info) button above the “like” button on any page. If it’s large enough or bought ads, you’ll see admin countries.
Update:
