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Republicans and Elon Musk have become very skilled at exerting political influence in the US [1] and Europe [2] through social media in ways the public isn't re
by pms 11mo ago
Republicans and Elon Musk have become very skilled at exerting political influence in the US [1] and Europe [2] through social media in ways the public isn't really aware of. Is this really that far from the goal of Cambridge Analytica of influencing elections without people's knowledge? Is it fine for large online platforms to influence election outcomes? Why wouldn't an online platform be used to this end if that's beneficial for it and there is no regulation discouraging it?
[1] https://www.techpolicy.press/x-polls-skew-political-realitie https://www.techpolicy.press/x-polls-skew-political-realitie...
[2] https://zenodo.org/records/14880275 https://zenodo.org/records/14880275
- santadays 11mo agoI can’t imagine this is not happening. There exists the will, the means and the motivation, with not a small dose of what pg might call naughtiness.
- terminalshort 11mo agoI can't stand this "influencing elections" nonsense. It's a term meant to mislead with connotations of manipulating the voting tabulation when what is actually going on is influencing people to vote the way you want them to, which is perfectly legal and must always be legal in a functioning democracy.
- adamors 11mo agoIt’s so perfectly legal that other nation states can do it for you and you might end up with a winner that people didn’t even hear about before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Romanian_presidential_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Romanian_presidential_ele...
- terminalshort 11mo agoWho are these "people" that you claim never heard of him before? Kind of sounds like BS to me because, you know, he won the election...
- debugnik 11mo agoWon the election here means 22.94% of the vote, not long after having polled at 5%. He didn't even have a party. This person went really quickly from unknown to anyone not into politics, to incredibly popular within a targeted media bubble and still unknown to anyone unfamiliar with that bubble.
- terminalshort 11mo agoWhen that "bubble" is at minimum one quarter of the country, maybe you need to reconsider who is in the bubble here.
- tpm 11mo agoit's not "at minimum one quarter of the country", the turnout was 52.56% of registered voters, so its at minimum 22.94% of 52.56% of 18 million, which is 11% of the total population of Romania.
- pms 11mo agoIt's obviously not about "manipulating the voting tabulation". Influencing people to vote the way you want them to is fine as long as it's not based on deceit. Is this what you can't stand?
- terminalshort 11mo agoI hate it because I have never seen it used any other way than if my side does it, it's "campaigning," and when the other side does it, it's "influencing elections."
- pms 11mo agoAgreed that's inconsistent and not ok. We need rules, procedures, and systems that apply equally to different sides.