Mike Masnick ✅I see another influx to Mastodon in our future...
Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾@mmasnick Prob a dumb question but what's stopping bots from getting that blue check mark?
@liztai absolutely nothing.
Alex Zani
Sasha Fox@AlexandreZani @mmasnick @liztai Individuals? No. Corporations, billionaires, states; it's nothing for them. 10,000 bots is what, $80k?
And that suddenly becomes a much more worthwhile investment, because they represent a much larger percentage of accounts when it's "only accounts paying for Twitter Blue" as compared to "all twitter accounts"
@AlexandreZani @mmasnick @liztai Fill the "For You" recommendations with propaganda to reach a large number of people for a small cost.
Nicole Parsons@AlexandreZani @sashafox @mmasnick @liztai
The Republican billionaire donors funding fascism think that $1.1 billion on the 2022 midterms is a pittance.
They're preparing to spend any amount to end American democracy.
Dan@AlexandreZani @mmasnick @liztai why would it be their money? They just have to grab stolen credit cards (or if a government entity - generate them).
I mean think about how many scammers pay for ads now. This is cheaper than that. By a lot.
Heck, I won’t be surprised if his ad revenue drops because of this.
The Republican billionaire donors, foreign & domestic, funding Trump already have a system of money laundering in place via GoFundMe, GiveSendGo, PayPal, cryptocurrency, credit card fraud, payment processors, straw donor bank accounts.
Examine a large scale pattern of micropayments from small dollar donors from megachurches and nonprofits. As long as they're below the threshold, the source doesn't need to be recorded for the FEC.
Musk's most recent scam just adds to the repertoire of grift.
TeamRose@Npars01 seems more than possible…
But probable…
Who are we kidding…
It’s an FFING certainty!🧾
ig88@Npars01 that right there is a solid business model.
It used to be illegal to engage in foreign threat funding for terrorism since 9/11.
OPEC+ got smart.
Now they fund far-right conservative political parties instead, & are able to attack democracy with impunity, using corrupt Republican & Tory politicians.
The political violence gets whitewashed by the political party.
Moneyed oil interests can keep their hands clean as they support genocidal war in Ukraine & unresponsive & anti-democracy elites in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia etc
OPEC triggered a global recession in the 1970's as punishment for supporting Israel & are going to do it again.
OPEC financed decades of terrorism with airplane hijackings & bombings over Israel. Saudi Arabia funded 9/11.
OPEC got $3 billion a day profits for 50 years.
After the Arab Spring, OPEC joined Russia & switched tactics & started funding election interference.
These 20 companies are prepared to fry the planet & democracy.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions