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So next time Russia should buy ads for the candidate they want to lose. 1. Buy ads for opposition. 2. Opposition reports invalid figures not accounting for ru

So next time Russia should buy ads for the candidate they want to lose. 1. Buy ads for opposition. 2. Opposition reports invalid figures not accounting for russian ads 3. People accuse opposition of being helped by russia and misreporting funds. 4. Opposition wins, recount stays the same, courts annul it because russia. Am I missing something here?

jltsiren 2y ago
You are missing two things. First, the elections will be rerun. If people think the annulment was unfair, the opposition candidate may get even more votes due to organic publicity. Second, you can't just buy ads. You must also find someone with wide enough circulation willing to show the ads. And that someone may be liable for the consequences.
- theultdev 2y ago
  No those two things are clear to me. First, yes they will be re-ran, and it's doubtful the winning candidate will even get to run. Also, where does it end, do we keep re-running it until we get the right candidate? What if it was the candidate you voted for, how would you feel? Second, yes apparently you can, it happened. If the whole country was able to be swayed by TikTok ads but apparently no politicians noticed then they aren't very good at politicking or governing. If they noticed an issue they should have dealt with TikTok earlier. So far TikTok hasn't been held liable, only the voters who choose to vote for this candidate.
  - jltsiren 2y ago
    Right now, TikTok is under EU level investigation, which will take much longer than a few days. If found guilty, it can face a fine up to 6% of worldwide revenues.
    - theultdev 2y ago
      Yes, as I said, as of right now they have not been held liable, only the voters have been punished by having their votes revoked. The voters were apparently too stupid and got tricked by scary russian ads, so we must re-do the elections until they come to their senses and pick the correct candidate. It's TikTok's fault for letting Russian ads in, so we'll take some of their money and we'll also stay in power. Win-win for the establishment. It couldn't possibly be that the voters knew exactly what they were voting for... They're too gullible, that's it.
      - jltsiren 2y ago
        The point is that in the future, TikTok / Google / whatever will have to be more careful with political ads, because they can be bad for business. Whatever your opinion on the candidates is, it's a fact that many people didn't consider the election results legitimate. In a situation like that, it's impossible to make them legitimate by any administrative action. Courts can make the results legal, but legitimacy is something people decide on their own. If legitimacy is considered important, the only way to regain it is to run new elections. It may take a long time and many attempts, and it may not work at all. But you can't have legitimate elections if the losers don't accept that the elections were fair and they lost.
        theultdev 2y ago
        > it's a fact that many people didn't consider the election results legitimate it's a fact that more people considered it legitimate, otherwise the candidate in question wouldn't have won the election. let me ask you this about your "fact" how "many people" didn't consider it legitimate? should be easy to answer since it's a fact.
        jltsiren 2y ago
        Legitimacy is not determined by majority vote. It's determined by the people who don't like the results for whatever reason. If the vast majority of them accept that the elections were legitimate, they were legitimate. If a substantial minority of them don't accept the results, the legitimacy is questionable at best, and the country is in a lot of trouble.

jltsiren 2y ago

You are missing two things. First, the elections will be rerun. If people think the annulment was unfair, the opposition candidate may get even more votes due to organic publicity. Second, you can't just buy ads. You must also find someone with wide enough circulation willing to show the ads. And that someone may be liable for the consequences.

theultdev 2y ago
No those two things are clear to me. First, yes they will be re-ran, and it's doubtful the winning candidate will even get to run. Also, where does it end, do we keep re-running it until we get the right candidate? What if it was the candidate you voted for, how would you feel? Second, yes apparently you can, it happened. If the whole country was able to be swayed by TikTok ads but apparently no politicians noticed then they aren't very good at politicking or governing. If they noticed an issue they should have dealt with TikTok earlier. So far TikTok hasn't been held liable, only the voters who choose to vote for this candidate.
- jltsiren 2y ago
  Right now, TikTok is under EU level investigation, which will take much longer than a few days. If found guilty, it can face a fine up to 6% of worldwide revenues.
  - theultdev 2y ago
    Yes, as I said, as of right now they have not been held liable, only the voters have been punished by having their votes revoked. The voters were apparently too stupid and got tricked by scary russian ads, so we must re-do the elections until they come to their senses and pick the correct candidate. It's TikTok's fault for letting Russian ads in, so we'll take some of their money and we'll also stay in power. Win-win for the establishment. It couldn't possibly be that the voters knew exactly what they were voting for... They're too gullible, that's it.
    - jltsiren 2y ago
      The point is that in the future, TikTok / Google / whatever will have to be more careful with political ads, because they can be bad for business. Whatever your opinion on the candidates is, it's a fact that many people didn't consider the election results legitimate. In a situation like that, it's impossible to make them legitimate by any administrative action. Courts can make the results legal, but legitimacy is something people decide on their own. If legitimacy is considered important, the only way to regain it is to run new elections. It may take a long time and many attempts, and it may not work at all. But you can't have legitimate elections if the losers don't accept that the elections were fair and they lost.
      - theultdev 2y ago
        > it's a fact that many people didn't consider the election results legitimate it's a fact that more people considered it legitimate, otherwise the candidate in question wouldn't have won the election. let me ask you this about your "fact" how "many people" didn't consider it legitimate? should be easy to answer since it's a fact.
        jltsiren 2y ago
        Legitimacy is not determined by majority vote. It's determined by the people who don't like the results for whatever reason. If the vast majority of them accept that the elections were legitimate, they were legitimate. If a substantial minority of them don't accept the results, the legitimacy is questionable at best, and the country is in a lot of trouble.