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Report Claims That 18 Nation's Elections Were Impacted By Social Engineering Last Year (bbc.com)
sqorbit writes: Independent watchdog group Freedom House released a report that claims that 18 nation's elections were "hacked." Of the 65 countries that Freedom House monitors, 30 appear to be using social media in order to affect elections by attempting to control online discussions. The report covers fake news posts, paid online opinion writers and trolling tactics. Other items in the report speak to online censorship and VPN blocking that blocks information within countries to interfere with elections. The report says net freedom could be aided by: large-scale programs that showed people how to spot fake news; putting tight controls on political adverts; and making social media giants do more to remove bots and tune algorithms to be more objective.
Can you BELIEVE IT! Someone used INFORMATION to INFLUENCE people's MINDS! WOW!!!
Only 18? I thought that ALL elections were subject to "Social Engineering".
That's part of the point.
Elections aren't about being fair. They're about preventing civil war.
They do this by predicting how a civil war to reverse their decision would come out - believably enough to convince the losers of the election that they'd also lose the war to reverse their results.
Propaganda and other "fake news", to recruit and radicalize cannon-fodder for the civil ware are integral to the process. The election process SHOULD include them - or it becomes less believable and thus less stabilizing.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
So......there were only elections in 18 countries last year? Is that it?
Seriously, the only reason Trump is president is because he was better at social engineering than Clinton. And I have to hand it to Obama, he pushed that "Hope and Change" meme better than anyone before him ever has. It's all been done before, though.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Aren't elections, in general, nothing more but a huge social engineering scheme at scale ?
Look at Canada's Trudeau winning the election on a 10 billions deficit and featuring a 30 billions one in his first budget ? Or is it just "social engineering" when the "wrong side" wins ?
Not only that, they used social engineering to cause the /. editors to forget how to write a plural possessive.
Nations', not nation's.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
...because the politicians aren't behind it. The rest of the time its just called a campaign.
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
You're a perfect example of a conservative: Primitive. Tribal. Individualistic.
You want liberals to grow up ? Who acted like fucking 15 year-olds during the last election ? Electing a clown as their fucking president, endangering your country, the whole world, the future of your children and grandchildren, all that just to piss off liberals, like fucking teenagers committing armed robery just to piss off their parents. You're the ones who need to grow the fuck up.
Or rather, you need to EVOLVE. The rest of the civilized world is trying to evolve beyond simple animalistic darwinism, while you conservatives cling desperately to your old individualistic, primitive, savage ways. Life on earth has evolved beyond single-celled to multicellular organisms. Now humanity is also evolving from individualistic to communal society. And there's nothing you can do about. The dinosaurs' time is over. YOUR time is over.
Does anyone actually believe that local churches don't interfere in elections as well as thousands of commercial organizations? I am certain that the US does a great deal to influence the results of foreign elections as well . Look at lunatic groups like the Tea Party that devote themselves to do nothing but influence elections. Sure, you can bet that if Russia feels that a certain outcome in the US will be better for Russia that great efforts will be made. Our best answer is a much higher level of education for all of our youth. Right now we have a general public that is infested with all kinds of garbage that they believe to be the truth. I fear that if the general public starts to catch on to what is going on around them that all hell will break out and our nation and society might completely melt down. Look at the immoral vampires that now occupy the White House. They want to suck the life blood out of our nation and contribute nothing at all. An entire year has passed and the supposedly important wall is not being built at all. Congress and the Senate are doing nothing good for America or our people.
"USA does NOT have free and fair elections, the people voted against Trump by millions and millions of votes and he got the Whitehouse anyway."
Stopped reading comment here. Learn how our election works or STFU about it.