Thread by @profcarroll

Report on social media polarization commissioned by Senate Intel Committee done by the Computational Propaganda Research Project at the Oxford Institute comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…

“all [IRA] Instagram posts garnered almost 185 million likes and users commented about 4 million times [across 116,205 posts]”

Commercial influencer agencies pay Instagram stars to make product placements. Kim Kardashian charges $250,000 per post for ~2 million likes.

Compare Instagram activity against Facebook activity. See how the Facebook ads were not the story here? See how Facebook’s initial claim that $100K of ads “no big deal” was a deception? Instagram was not a major topic of Congressional hearings. It should have been. Via @oiioxford

RU IRA Instagram posts mapped to election events. Was Instagram even mentioned at all in the Congressional tech hearings? Instagram was a memetic war-zone two years ago and we’re just now realizing it.
Via @polbots @Graphika_Inc

Microtargeting is ripping our nation apart. Americans have no data privacy or data rights. This is what happens. What’s more important: Ad targeting precision to sell ads for ski vacations and hair product with no wastage or national unity?

Wanamaker’s Rule: Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. I just don’t know which half.

Zuck/Sandberg: We captured everyone’s privacy and fixed that for you, Wanamaker.

Putin: They let me target them by their politics and race. It was easy. And cheap, paid in Rubles.

I’m done for the day. Remember, these reports do not claim votes were changed. There was no control group to test it. When you read the pushback on these reports that’s what you’ll get. But it’s about influencing our culture, not votes.

Bannon: Votes are downstream from culture.

If you want evidence that microtargeting can swing an election with Facebook ads with a control group for proof designed into the campaign, it happened in Alabama. Cost about $100,000 in dark money and dark ads. medium.com/@david.goldste…