Trump Defends Secret Russian Ads on Facebook in 2016 Election
It is believed that Facebook worked in connivance with Russians to change the outcome of election in favor of Trump.
By Rakesh Raman
Social networking company Facebook is not quite eager to cooperate with the agencies investigating Russian meddling with biased ads on Facebook that may have helped Donald Trump win the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
While the House and Senate panels were expecting technical experts from Facebook to appear before them, Facebook has decided to send its lawyer Colin Stretch who will testify on November 1.
Although Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg had met lawmakers last week, they prefer to stay away from the probe that is aggressively exploring Trump-Russia ties and how they affected the 2016 election.
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It is said that some agencies linked to the Russian government bought ads on Facebook between 2015 and 2017 in order to influence the U.S. voters with fake content. About 3,000 such ads appeared on Facebook for which the company earned nearly $100,000.
Although Russians bought ads on other online sites such as Google also, the investigating agencies are currently focused on Facebook because it is believed that Facebook worked in connivance with Russians to change the outcome of election in favor of Trump.
Keep hearing about “tiny” amount of money spent on Facebook ads. What about the billions of dollars of Fake News on CNN, ABC, NBC & CBS?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2017
Obviously, Trump would like to defend Facebook. “Keep hearing about ‘tiny’ amount of money spent on Facebook ads. What about the billions of dollars of Fake News on CNN, ABC, NBC & CBS?” Trump tried to divert the focus from Facebook’s involvement in the election.
Trump also added: “Crooked Hillary Clinton spent hundreds of millions of dollars more on presidential election than I did. Facebook was on her side, not mine!”
Crooked Hillary Clinton spent hundreds of millions of dollars more on Presidential Election than I did. Facebook was on her side, not mine!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2017
The role of Facebook in the election is also expected to be explored by the ongoing investigation being carried out by Special Counsel Robert Mueller who is trying to find out the extent of collaboration between Trump campaign and Russia during last year’s election.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a government’s National award-winning journalist and social activist. He has formed an environment-protection group called Green Group in Delhi. Earlier, he had been associated with the United Nations (UN) through United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development. He also runs a free school for deserving children under his NGO – RMN Foundation.
