4 ms·

So long as the news-story "Putin elected Trump" exists, this isn't going away. Only once we're sure that it's only "our guys" can use Facebook to manipulate pub

by harryf 9y ago

So long as the news-story "Putin elected Trump" exists, this isn't going away. Only once we're sure that it's only "our guys" can use Facebook to manipulate public opinion will this go away. That probably means the end game will be something like "certified advertisers" for political campaigns and similar e.g. only registered political parties are allowed to make political ads, so can in effect be held accountable. That could potentially mean less revenue for Facebook in the US, although they'll probably make it up again by dealing in other nations e.g. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/revealed-the-powerful-facebook-data-matching-tool-the-liberal-party-rejected-over-legal-fears-20180322-p4z5rh.html https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/revealed-the-powerfu...

simion314 9y ago
Do you think if the situation was reversed like Hillary was elected because Chinese hackers used FB, fake news etc the situation would be different? If yes why is that? I am not from US so I do not understand why that would be true since the 2 camps are very balanced. How big is the group of US citizens that dislike both Trump and Hilary and would have been similarly outraged regardless of who would have used this tactics.
- harryf 9y ago
  I'm also not from the US but from following US politics the two competing sides seem to react to different types of outrage. With Obama in power and the GOP "in opposition" you have this "low brow" story around Obama's US citizenship. With Bill Clinton you had a "low brow" scandal around sex and Monica Lewinsky. These seem to provoke the GOP base on nationalistic and religious levels. Meanwhile, with Trump in power and Dems in opposition, you have a "high brow" story around fake news and Russian-manipulated elections, despite Hillary also have a "Russian scandal" in the closet https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/06/561587174/the-alternative-russia-scandal https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/06/561587174.... Seems this story appeals well to the Dem base. So I'd expect if Hillary had one, a Chinese hacker story would be too "high brow" to create outrage with the GOP base. You'd probably have some other low brow story being echoed by Fox News e.g. Pizzagate.
  - rishav_sharan 9y ago
    Well the low brow Stormy story is the current big Trump story on Reddit. I think politics itself has regressed somewhat nowadays and no matter who is in power, you will hear such stories about them
    - simion314 9y ago
      I am not from US but I want this FB thing to be kept into the light and some changes done, when it happens in smaller countries there is no chance of any change to happen.
  - Cthulhu_ 9y ago
    There's also the "low brow" (?) one with Stormy Daniels though, as well as the supposed video where Trump gets pissed on by Russian prostitutes. The Daniels case just ended, with her pretty much admitting there's no evidence. Another case of trolling IMO; first we had fake news, lately we have trolling, where a SHOCKING! revelation is announced and talked about for a week (remember that memo?), everyone in the media focuses on it and makes a lot of possible scenarios, aaand then it turns out it wasn't a serious thing. But there's been an impact already.
    - nasredin 9y ago
      The Stormy Daniels legal case is still active AFAIK.
- nulagrithom 9y ago
  I'm not even sure it's about like/dislike. Trump winning the election was a huge surprise, even to some Trump supporters. Many people are looking for a reason to "explain" the election of Trump. It makes stories about Russian meddling much easier to believe and experience outrage over. Had it been Hillary, I don't think there would've been this kind of outrage. She was the "obvious" choice for president. It would be hard to believe a story about Chinese hackers since she didn't need that kind of help anyway. If it did come out that there was some kind of foreign influence, it would've been much easier to downplay it as negligible since the election of Hillary wouldn't have been much a surprise.

by harryf 9y ago

simion314 9y ago

Do you think if the situation was reversed like Hillary was elected because Chinese hackers used FB, fake news etc the situation would be different? If yes why is that? I am not from US so I do not understand why that would be true since the 2 camps are very balanced. How big is the group of US citizens that dislike both Trump and Hilary and would have been similarly outraged regardless of who would have used this tactics.

harryf 9y ago
I'm also not from the US but from following US politics the two competing sides seem to react to different types of outrage. With Obama in power and the GOP "in opposition" you have this "low brow" story around Obama's US citizenship. With Bill Clinton you had a "low brow" scandal around sex and Monica Lewinsky. These seem to provoke the GOP base on nationalistic and religious levels. Meanwhile, with Trump in power and Dems in opposition, you have a "high brow" story around fake news and Russian-manipulated elections, despite Hillary also have a "Russian scandal" in the closet https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/06/561587174/the-alternative-russia-scandal https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/06/561587174.... Seems this story appeals well to the Dem base. So I'd expect if Hillary had one, a Chinese hacker story would be too "high brow" to create outrage with the GOP base. You'd probably have some other low brow story being echoed by Fox News e.g. Pizzagate.
- rishav_sharan 9y ago
  Well the low brow Stormy story is the current big Trump story on Reddit. I think politics itself has regressed somewhat nowadays and no matter who is in power, you will hear such stories about them
  - simion314 9y ago
    I am not from US but I want this FB thing to be kept into the light and some changes done, when it happens in smaller countries there is no chance of any change to happen.
- Cthulhu_ 9y ago
  There's also the "low brow" (?) one with Stormy Daniels though, as well as the supposed video where Trump gets pissed on by Russian prostitutes. The Daniels case just ended, with her pretty much admitting there's no evidence. Another case of trolling IMO; first we had fake news, lately we have trolling, where a SHOCKING! revelation is announced and talked about for a week (remember that memo?), everyone in the media focuses on it and makes a lot of possible scenarios, aaand then it turns out it wasn't a serious thing. But there's been an impact already.
  - nasredin 9y ago
    The Stormy Daniels legal case is still active AFAIK.
nulagrithom 9y ago
I'm not even sure it's about like/dislike. Trump winning the election was a huge surprise, even to some Trump supporters. Many people are looking for a reason to "explain" the election of Trump. It makes stories about Russian meddling much easier to believe and experience outrage over. Had it been Hillary, I don't think there would've been this kind of outrage. She was the "obvious" choice for president. It would be hard to believe a story about Chinese hackers since she didn't need that kind of help anyway. If it did come out that there was some kind of foreign influence, it would've been much easier to downplay it as negligible since the election of Hillary wouldn't have been much a surprise.