Welcome to the Tech Mem Ride Home for Thursday, May 10th, 2018.

Today, the suspected Russian Facebook ads are released, a new Apple credit card is coming,

why Roku is a quiet powerhouse, Robin Hood raises a ton of money, and how your digital assistant might be susceptible to subliminal commands.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. House Democrats today released 3, 319 Facebook ads that they say are from Russia-linked accounts spanning the years 2015 through 2017,

showing the types of ads they say were attempting to so distrust and contention in U.S. politics.

The ads were released today by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee and Representative

Adam Schiff of California, the ranking member of the committee,

released a statement saying, quote, the only way we can begin to inoculate ourselves

against a future attack is to see firsthand the types of messages, themes, and imagery the Russians

used to divide us." There is a website where you can download a sampling of the ads which I will

link to in the show notes.

It should be noted that these ads were not entirely one-sided but were seemingly attempting to stir

up passions on any side of a given issue.

For instance, there was an ad spreading fake news

that a Muslim was involved in a shooting incident in 2016

when that wasn't true.

But there was also another ad encouraging Muslims to let their fellow Americans know that they don't support terrorism.

There were competing ads encouraging people to protest for and against President Trump shortly after his election but before his inauguration.

As Bloomberg's Sarah Friar tweeted, I've looked through many of the Facebook ads and it's clear

that Russia was aiming to exploit the fault lines in American society, gun control, race relations, immigration, and get people angry on both sides.

The Wall Street journals's Byron Tao tweeted,

Some Russia-linked ads are downright weird.

...