Propaganda Watch: Russian Social Media Ads–3/3/19

Russian President Vladimir Putin superimposed into a Russian Flag. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

This is part of an ongoing series where I review some of the ads purchased by the Russians. In doing so I hope we can get a better understanding of what they were trying to do, and how to recognize it the next time we’re faced with propaganda.

If you want to follow along, the ads can all be downloaded here. The ads I’m using today came from the 2015-q3/2015-08 folder.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, this folder starts ramping up the divisive language. This one, file p(1)0001923 for Black Matters says, in no uncertain terms, trust no one:

Another for Black Matters, p(1)0006448, ponders if voting can even help the situation, since none of the candidates care about black people:

As these are being posted, the PatriotUS ads started zeroing in on anti-immigrant sentiments. p(1)0002305 plays into the “lazy” stereotype:

P(1)0002365 plays into the notion that Muslims cannot be real Americans:

It appears August 2015 is when they really started trying to divide us.

I will share more interesting ads I come across in other posts. For now, enjoy this Open Thread and remember, we can beat the Russians by not hating one another.

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