A tech industry billionaire has apologized for – but claimed ignorance about – a social media scheme that gave the impression the Russians meddled on behalf of Republican Roy Moore in his failed campaign against Doug Jones, the victorious Democrat in last year’s special Senate race in Alabama.
The co-founder and executive chairman of social media website LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, backed an effort by cyber security firm New Knowledge, run by Democrat operative Jonathon Morgan, to mimic the same tactics blamed on the Russians for affecting the 2016 presidential election. About $100,000 of Hoffman’s money funded the ruse.
“The project’s operators created a Facebook page on which they posed as conservative Alabamians, using it to try to divide Republicans and even to endorse a write-in candidate to draw votes from Mr. Moore,” the New York Times reported. “It involved a scheme to link … Read More ➡