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Report Claims That 18 Nation's Elections Were Impacted By Social Engineering Last Year (bbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the devastating-impact dept.

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.

7 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. OH MY GOSH BEAUHD! by Hetero · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can you BELIEVE IT! Someone used INFORMATION to INFLUENCE people's MINDS! WOW!!!

    1. Re: OH MY GOSH BEAUHD! by saloomy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It doesnâ(TM)t matter. We arenâ(TM)t allowed to question why someone votes a particular way, and free speech allows everyone to say whatever they want. It sucks that some use this to subvert some people's vote, but thats the price we pay for both free speech and open and free elections.

    2. Re: OH MY GOSH BEAUHD! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Jesus fucking Christ. This is all suddenly new? No, it's fucking not. Trump didn't get elected because Russia "hacked" an election you fucking idiot.
      And it wasn't 18 nations. It's every nation, all of them, every time, ever since the first nation was invented.

      You know how to stop it? You don't. It will never stop. The only way to counter it is a well educated, independently and critically thinking population.

  2. social engineering by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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."
  3. Wait... by x0ra · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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 ?

  4. Re:Only 18? by Darkling-MHCN · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What a depressing take on it all.

    This is the kind of thinking somehow distorts, fraud, dishonesty, immorality and turns it into virtues defined by a single word "winner".

    It honestly turns my stomach.

    We've got about 50-100 years to come up with something better than law of the jungle, if we can't evolve socially we're just going to wipe ourselves out along with most of the other species on this planet.

    So no I disagree, this sort of perversion, fraud, corruption, immorality, dishonesty shouldn't be a part of the election process and when it is, it should be called out and the candidate thrown out on his/her ass or better still put in jail.

  5. Re:Only 18? by Darkling-MHCN · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just because they did it 40 years ago doesn't mean it's OK to do it now.

    Four million years ago we ran around clubbing each other over the head, didn't farm and ate raw meat. Four hundred years ago an unmarried women with a cat could be justifiably burnt to death for being witch. Forty years ago it wasn't unheard of for people to be lynched because of the colour of their skin.

    Do you see now just how stupid your argument is? Just because they did it in the past doesn't make it OK for them to do it now, only on a much bigger scale.