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> There should rather be laws that prohibit the use of certain online marketing tools in political campaigns. For example, it should be a punishable felony to u

> There should rather be laws that prohibit the use of certain online marketing tools in political campaigns. For example, it should be a punishable felony to use viral marketing in political campaigns that involves any kind of fake comments, replication bots, deliberately falsified news, or fake accounts not tied to real persons. Maybe these tools should also be prohibited for ordinary marketing - IANAL but I think in many countries they already are -, but they should definitely be strictly prohibited in political campaigns. The issue is around defining what is fake and what is real, and that extremist governments will do their absolute best to twist the meanings of these words to fit their agenda.

jonathanstrange 8y ago
Sure, such issues need to be decided by the judicative and a nation's constitutional guarantees for the division of power must ensure that a government cannot abuse them. If a particular government can interfere with or directly influence the particular decision of a judge, then it's probably too late to save democracy anyway. In that case there is no need to abuse laws about political campaigns, though, it suffices to put political opponents into prison and/or take away their rights to be elected, as happens in countries like Turkey and Russia.