I think the internet is the big exception to the rule that there is strength in numbers. There may be billions of us - but I think we overestimate our power and influence. We may change a few votes, but I wouldn't credit us for someone winning an election - just like I wouldn't blame us for someone losing one.
It's not social media so much as hacking and asymmetric propaganda battles using the internet and social media as the battlefield, transforming folks phones, laptops, and pcs into trenches, redoubts, and places for the aristeia of disinformation and propaganda to play out.
"It is my contention that having just been through a period where society has had to adapt to the birth and nasceny of social media"
I think we can all agree that a lot of things are at work. Of course, last minute attacks on your opponents isn't some new thing, at least not in the US. Finding out the Russians are behind it is kinda novel, but as a tactic, it goes back about as far as Presidential elections do.There is a bit of nastiness about populism that certainly has made a comeback, but then my take is that it's way more about those who are being left behind by an ever more sophisticated economy striking back at the elites who are benefiting at what they see as their expense. To some extent, they do have a point, at least in the US and UK, the gap between those with the skills to benefit from today's economy and those who don't is growing. You can certainly see this in some of those places where Mrs. Clinton should have done better. Social Media is more the messenger than the cause, which of course make it the first target
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Social media is the conduit, so in some respects it is both the messenger and the medium, though not the message and the cause.
Do we shoot the messenger? Depends if they have colluded through action or omission in being the vehicle for the spread of disinformation. But then again, that would shut down the National Enquirer. So it's tricky. This is why you need sophisticated laws and a sophisticated judiciary. And why the law costs money. Essentially this is the sort of policing and monitoring of unseen infrastructure which you pay your taxes for. Or not if you're a believer in small government and you think everyone has time to distinguish between all the information and disinformation at the eleventh hour and vote in an informed way.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/08/macron-hackers-linked-to-russian-affiliated-group-behind-us-attack
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You're forgetting Hungary :)
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I think we can all agree that a lot of things are at work. Of course, last minute attacks on your opponents isn't some new thing, at least not in the US. Finding out the Russians are behind it is kinda novel, but as a tactic, it goes back about as far as Presidential elections do.There is a bit of nastiness about populism that certainly has made a comeback, but then my take is that it's way more about those who are being left behind by an ever more sophisticated economy striking back at the elites who are benefiting at what they see as their expense. To some extent, they do have a point, at least in the US and UK, the gap between those with the skills to benefit from today's economy and those who don't is growing. You can certainly see this in some of those places where Mrs. Clinton should have done better. Social Media is more the messenger than the cause, which of course make it the first target ( ... )
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Do we shoot the messenger? Depends if they have colluded through action or omission in being the vehicle for the spread of disinformation. But then again, that would shut down the National Enquirer. So it's tricky. This is why you need sophisticated laws and a sophisticated judiciary. And why the law costs money. Essentially this is the sort of policing and monitoring of unseen infrastructure which you pay your taxes for. Or not if you're a believer in small government and you think everyone has time to distinguish between all the information and disinformation at the eleventh hour and vote in an informed way.
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