In present day world, countries need to deal with technology ,social media, smart phone apps and their capacity to foment trouble in their countries by people outside and inside. This can be used very cheaply to organize protests, campaigns & even organize riots.
This begins new era of politics for democracies. The cry of russian meddling has atleast brought up this news to public conscience. It would be interesting to see how both the developed and the developing countries shall react to this. The targeting ads that companies have used can be turned into targeted campaigns, the algorithms used to keep people engaged can be used as well.
With this new big data, it might be possible to test out political slogans everyday, find the perfect slogans, issues both locally and nationally. If ad campaigns are useful, why is it hard to believe that targeted campaigns are not as effective ?.
The use of politics has come only after social media has successfully used ads as a way to generate revenue for themselves. Is this the beginning of the new era of hacking the human minds, both at the level of individuals and at the level of communities?. Can anything be done to arrest this development or control this partially?.
Will govt try to follow the china model and create own online & phone media agencies to control or will they demand right to monitor social media agencies and phones inside their own countries.
Will this hurt the social media companies like twitter or facebook?
Personally i find the ‘big data’ issue useless & Russian meddling is just propaganda, even Cambridge analytica case is more about non-compliance with laws of US than about political manipulation.
Cambridge analytica case {What’s the case & what is just political posturing} –
https://reason.com/blog/2018/03/19/cambridge-analytica
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/whether-or-not-it-wins-or-loses-cambridge-analytica-comes-up-trumps-20180322-p4z5n9.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/03/22/the-scary-truth-that-cambridge-analytica-understands/?utm_term=.f0fd88d6b240
Note From article – // “Cambridge Analytica’s business model is arguably just a supercharged version of something political parties have done for years — identifying potential supporters, compiling detailed pictures of what makes them tick, then tailor-making messages to different groups depending on what they want to hear,” //
Now the question that should be pondered with regards to the effectiveness of Cambridge analytica campaign –
https://qz.com/1234364/cambridge-analytica-worked-for-mercer-backed-ted-cruz-before-trump/
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/03/cambridge-analytica-academic-says-he-s-a-scapegoat.html
Regarding “Russia Meddling” check this –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MRQlC9wnok
Agreed
They engineered both sides to fight each other, some for Islam, some against it. polarizing society and taking advantage of it. It takes small % of votes to swing to change elections in countries like India which have a fractured polity. A small voter swing is all the difference people can make.
for example One can influence people sending say racist messages repeatedly before elections to affect political leanings.
//Cambridge Analytica’s business model is arguably just a supercharged version of something political parties have done for years — identifying potential supporters, compiling detailed pictures of what makes them tick, then tailor-making messages to different groups depending on what they want to hear,//
This is a very big deal. Imagine countries doing it to other countries at throw away prize. The way these sm sites are creating addictive behavior, they can be retooled to create echo chambers,even radicalize them further to make them more entrenched in their positions. The future is big. It is 24/7 messaging and can be done for years, targeting people individually .
Yes I think Zuck had a close shave..
// Imagine countries doing it to other countries at throw away prize. //
They are already doing it in the form of geo-politics. Everybody has echo chambers, everybody is nepotist, everybody has confirmation biases & then there are also blind spots, elites have been utilizing all things for controlling the narrative about the rest of the society & as i have shown before the rest of the people simply don’t have any choice.
To lighten the mood from this grim situation watch this – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovF1zsDoeM {Everybody’s a Little Racist}
Learn how pit one group against another & how to play identity politics –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X8yGhBV1a8
“they were already doing it” just doesnt cut it. It actually used to take a lot of effort and money. Now, with tech, you can find out people who already are susceptible to one’s message and target them first.
Nop it was easier, check George Orwell’s writings & his essay – Politics & English Language.
Now take the lessons of the essay & note the “Doublespeak” in action in real world & you will be amazed how his ideas go right through the bullshit we see everyday.
Also check the book – Brave New World Aldolus Huxley.
{A short comparision of 2 great books Brave New World & George Orwell’s 1984}
Also check book – Propaganda 1928 Edward L. Bernays
———————————————————-
Elites never had any trouble of money & other resources. Secondly knowledge creates Hierarchy i.e. One is Informer & Other is Informed, this in itself allows for various forms of manipulations & the people unaware of these manipulations are always at risk .
Majority of people are unaware of this since one half is busy in earning to maintain the social & economic position their families have reached while the other half is very poor & is just trying to survive while 5-10% elites are enjoying worldly pleasures & creating all these narratives about the people & their identities in the world.
There was always propaganda, true. Technology makes it more precise and more comprehensive is what I am saying. I like orwell .
except politics today is 24/7. With communication technology & internet including political comedy,satire, we are discussing politics 24/7. It wasnt so before. There was space and time for people including politicians to put away their tribal hats . Now it feels like politics is always there and you just have to side with your team . We arent discussing “whats the best idea?”, we are discussing support for one side or the other.
I vote NOTA & have my own demands that i deem necessary for progress so that’s one way to put politics in it’s place.
NOTA has been made meaningless. What’s the point in voting NOTA? More people would vote NOTA if the votes count. Let us suppose that if NOTA wins, then another election should be held with all the present contestants disqualified for contesting again. If that happens more people would go and vote NOTA than sitting at home.
What about transnational campaigns, is this fair or acceptable?
transnational campaigns – I believe that only local transformations are possible so i don’t find them useful.
siding with one or other local partner.
Nop transnational ideals, local responses & changes.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/meghara/we-had-to-stop-facebook-when-anti-muslim-violence-goes-viral?utm_term=.xxZmj0JBK#.chLJeOMr1
facebook used to rally violence.
// NOTA has been made meaningless. What’s the point in voting NOTA? More people would vote NOTA if the votes count. Let us suppose that if NOTA wins, then another election should be held with all the present contestants disqualified for contesting again. If that happens more people would go and vote NOTA than sitting at home. //
That can only happen if people like you {who call it meaningless} stop saying that & start encouraging people to vote NOTA & if NOTA wins then SC & EC can be asked to review current rules and make change to it like the one you suggested above.
The effort it takes to conduct elections again would be tremendous. I am not sure of this method. It is impractical.
Do you think that political parties would prefer re-elections ? Seeing how the costs of election campaigns have been rising steadily they themselves would not want it to happen. Think about it, NOTA winning & this rule coming into effect can tremendously change the Indian politics.
Media has been used for all sorts of purposes including propaganda & violence. One bad example does not make the media useless e.g. George Orwell as British propagandist & was using radio to do so {which is equivalent to the modern FB} or what about TV propaganda {Leader’s statement which hinted about it} in 1984 that flamed Sikh riots & other hate speeches we constantly hear on TV’s.
What people of different communities need to do is to be open to discuss & accept the faults in their beliefs & it can only happen with education & free speech. Indian subcontinent also needs to start theological studies or inter-religious studies.
So you dont think technology makes any difference at all?. That it manipulates at an individual level is of no concern ?. It is true that foreign interference in politics was present for long time. US support to defeat communist govt in kerala is an example.
I am not saying that technology makes no difference rather i am saying that it is plagued with same problems which were already there, that’s all.