Facebook is fending off Russian trolls and actual fake news as the 2020 election gears up. The Menlo Park-based social media giant rolled out a slew of election initiatives Oct. 21 to prevent the spread of misinformation and to protect candidates.
But they may have been just a day too late in shielding San Jose Councilman Lan Diep from an attack. The D4 councilor—who’s running for re-election against employment rights attorney Huy Tran and chemical engineer-slash-Berryessa Union School District trustee David Cohen—said his candidate page was mysteriously deactivated on Oct. 20.
Diep tells Fly that he received a notification that his coveted blue verified check mark was being suspended due to “suspicious activity.” Facebook walked him through a few precautionary steps and asked him to reset his password.
But when he did, the page disappeared. That made it considerably more difficult to connect with voters. “In this day and age, Facebook plays a role in political campaigns,” Diep said. “I direct voters to look at my Facebook page on all my campaign literature, so it’s extremely frustrating for it to be down. It certainly leaves me at a disadvantage.”
Five days later Diep’s page reappeared, but this time under a different name: Lan Diep Nasspay. Oddly enough, his url was also altered from @lanforsanjose to @laaaanforsanjose. (It has since been changed back).
Diep’s still unsure what happened and a representative for Facebook offered no explanation when they told Fly his page was back online.
It’s hard to say whether Diep was hacked or if the Russians were trying to interfere with elections in the capital of Silicon Valley.
> Facebook is fending off Russian trolls and actual fake news as the 2020 election gears up. The Menlo Park-based social media giant , , , ,
Russian trolls! HA HA HA ! That’s funny.
> It’s hard to say whether Diep was hacked or if the Russians were trying to interfere with elections in the capital of Silicon Valley.
The “Russian trolls” were probably Facebook insiders living in Silicon Valley, and maybe in Lan Diep’s district.
A California Public Records Request obtained in March 2019, showed email exchanges between Stanford University Law Professor Michele Dauber and Santa Clara County DA Jeff Rosen that indicated employees and prosecutors in the DA’s office, including, DDA Alaleh Kianerci knew Ken Dauber, Michele’s husband and Google executive, requested that a buddy at Twitter take down the account of protestor Steve White, a man who opposed the Recall of Judge Persky. Mr. White has sued Ms. Dauber and the DA’s public information officer Sean Webby for violating his First Amendment Rights. If executives at Google, Facebook and Twitter have the desire and ability to take down accounts of their political allies, why would you not believe this is possible? Why would we not be questioning how this may be impacting local elections? And why would we not be investigating our local elected officials including DA Jeff Rosen who seems to get a free pass on outrageous government conduct in Silicon Valley.
> If executives at Google, Facebook and Twitter have the desire and ability to take down accounts of their political allies, why would you not believe this is possible? Why would we not be questioning how this may be impacting local elections?
There’s plenty of indicators that people at Google, Twitter, Facebook and other hotbeds of “woke” activists take their politics seriously and do not recognize any moral, ethical, or legal constraints in the quest to take down their ideological enemies.
“Hatred” of President Trump is regarded as high moral principle, and the concurrence of peers and co-workers is expected and presumed.
The Washington, D.C. “deep state” has it’s sympathizers in the offices and workshops of Silicon Valley, and there’s no reason to believe that they’re not just as malignant and subversive in any venue where they have an opportunity to impose their ideas of “change”:
Everyone knows cointelpro is real. They had FBI plants in my Relief work areas in New Orleans like Brandon Darby. Of course sh*t disappears in thin air now. And they are coming for our villages and our resources now. Who’s gonna get off their a** and start a tea party? Susan Bassi. Right On!!!!