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facebook russia elections meddling

President Donald Trump has played down the importance of his former campaign aide George Papadopoulos, who was indicted in the Russia inquiry.

The president said his onetime foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was a “low level volunteer” and “liar”.

However, Donald Trump once called George Papadopoulos an “excellent guy”.

George Papadopoulos, 30, this month pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russia-related contacts.

Image source Twitter

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Two other ex-aides have been charged as part of the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the US election.

Former campaign chief Paul Manafort and Rick Gates appeared in court on October 30 to deny charges including money laundering.

In his October 31 tweets, President Trump attempted to deflect scrutiny on to the Democratic Party, or his tax reform proposals.

The president wrote on Twitter: “The Fake News is working overtime. As Paul Manaforts [sic] lawyer said, there was ‘no collusion’ and events mentioned took place long before he came to the campaign.”

However, the indictment alleges Paul Manafort and Rick Gates conspired financial crimes from 2006-17, which does include the period over the summer when Manafort served as manager for the Trump campaign.

The president’s tweets continue: “Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!”

George Papadopoulos appears in a photo that Donald Trump tweeted of himself in March 2016 hosting a national security meeting with his foreign policy team.

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As many as 126 million American Facebook users may have seen content uploaded by Russia-based operatives over the past two years, the social networking site said.

According to Facebook, about 80,000 posts were produced before and after the 2016 US presidential election.

Most of the posts focused on divisive social and political messages.

Facebook released the figures ahead of a Senate hearing where it – together with Twitter and Google – will detail Russia’s impact on the social networks.

Russia has repeatedly denied allegations that it attempted to influence the last US presidential election, in which Republican Donald Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

In a separate major development on October 30, an investigation by independent counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia produced its first charges against three former aides, and a guilty plea.

Photo Getty Images

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President Donald Trump has dismissed allegations of collusion with Russia, and has repeatedly called on Hillary Clinton to be investigated.

The latest figures released by Facebook have been seen by Reuters and the Washington Post.

The 80,000 posts were published between June 2015 and August 2017.

According to Facebook, they were posted by a Russian company linked to the Kremlin.

Reuters reports that Facebook’s general counsel Colin Stretch said: “These actions run counter to Facebook’s mission of building community and everything we stand for.

“And we are determined to do everything we can to address this new threat.”

The Washington Post reported on October 30 that Google revealed that Russian trolls uploaded more than 1,000 videos on YouTube on 18 different channels.

Meanwhile, Twitter found and suspended all 2,752 accounts that it had tracked to Russia-based Internet Research Agency, a source familiar with the company’s written testimony was quoted as saying by Reuters.

President Donald Trump went on a tweet storm about the “guilt” of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.

His Twitter outburst on October 29 came amid reports that the first arrest in the Russian collusion inquiry would be made this week, possibly as early as October 30.

The president insisted allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russia were “phony” and a “witch hunt”.

He said Republicans were united behind him, before urging: “DO SOMETHING!”

According to media reports, the first charges have been filed in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election to assist Donald Trump.

It is not clear what the charges are and whom they are targeting, CNN and Reuters report, quoting unnamed sources.

Image source Flickr

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On October 29, the president issued four tweets on the subject.

The first tweet said: “Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?),….”

Then he added: “…the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia,….”

Ending with: “…’collusion,’ which doesn’t exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R’s…”

“…are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!”

About an hour later President Trump  tweeted: “All of this ‘Russia’ talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT!”

The president’s critics on Twitter were quick to accuse him of attempting to divert attention from the Russian investigation by complaining about the lack of focus on an opponent he defeated in the presidential election nearly a year ago.

US intelligence agencies have already concluded that the Russian government sought to help Donald Trump win the election.

Robert Mueller’s investigation is looking into any links between Russia and the Trump campaign. Both deny there was any collusion.

His team is known to have conducted extensive interviews with several current and former White House officials.

Former FBI director Robert Mueller was appointed by the department of justice as special counsel in May shortly after President Trump fired FBI director James Comey.

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Mark Zuckerberg has rejected President Donald Trump’s comments that Facebook has always been against him.

President Trump accused Facebook of “collusion” on Twitter, branding it “anti-Trump”.

He made the same claim against the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Facebook will shortly hand over 3,000 political adverts to congressional investigators probing alleged Russian meddling in the US election.

The social network believes the ads were probably purchased by Russian entities during and after the 2016 presidential contest.

Facebook, Twitter and Google have been asked to testify before the US Senate Intelligence Committee on November 1 about the allegations of Russian interference.

Google and Facebook have confirmed they have received invitations to attend the committee hearing, but none of the social media giants have yet said they will be present.

Image source Wikimedia

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In a Facebook post responding to President Trump’s criticism, the social network’s founder Mark Zuckerberg said he was striving to make “a platform for all ideas”. He said that aside from “problematic ads”, Facebook’s impact ranged from “giving people a voice, to enabling candidates to communicate directly, to helping millions of people vote”.

Mark Zuckerberg noted that both ends of the political spectrum were upset about content they disliked, and that liberals in the US had accused him of enabling President Trump’s victory.

The 33-year-old said the candidates’ campaigns had “spent hundreds of millions advertising online,” which he called “1000x more than any problematic ads we’ve found”.

Mark Zuckerberg said he regretted saying on the day Donald Trump was elected that it was “crazy” to say that misinformation on Facebook changed the election’s outcome, because it sounded dismissive.

He promised Facebook would “continue to build a community for all people” – and to “defend against nation states attempting to spread misinformation and subvert elections”.

Mark Zuckerberg’s response attracted 65,000 “likes” within two hours of being posted.

Russia has long denied any form of interference in the US election, and President Trump has railed against allegations that his staff had improper links to Russia.

However, US intelligence agencies have concluded Russia tried to sway the vote in favor of Donald Trump. Congressional committees and an FBI inquiry are currently probing the matter.