There is no substantial argument here. It builds mostly on anecdata from the author meeting Kaiser and being unimpressed as well as the Ted Cruz campaign droppi

There is no substantial argument here. It builds mostly on anecdata from the author meeting Kaiser and being unimpressed as well as the Ted Cruz campaign dropping CA. Apart from that, we see a reference to a meta-study, where the only actual underlying study[0] looking at online ads (as opposed to traditional campaign methods) is from the same author as the meta-study in 2013, measuring " Recall of the ads, candidate name recognition, and candidate evaluations" for direct candidate ads. The kind of campaigns allegedly employed during the Brexit and Trump campaigns are a lot more subtle than that and I don't think any of the studies are actually relevant here. These campaigns rather work on breeding anger and pushing the values and opinions of voters towards the intended direction, rather than directly promoting parties and candidates. I'd take this with a huge bag of salt and I am still leaning towards online campaigns having had a role in recent elections and referendums. All that said, I still haven't watched The Great Hack - wouldn't be surprised if there are significant misrepresentations there. And I'm also sure there's more to this than only CA. [0]: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11109-013-9239-z.pdf https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11109-013-9...