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posted by CoolHand on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the stuffing-the-ballot-box dept.

You may be getting trolled right now without even knowing it.

Donald Trump supporters artificially manipulated the results of online polls to create a false narrative that the Republican nominee won the first presidential debate on Monday night.

The efforts originated from users of the pro-Trump Reddit community r/The_Donald and 4chan messaged boards, which bombarded around 70 polls, including those launched by Time, Fortune, and CNBC.

In this latest incarnation, multiple Reddit users enlisted the Trump-supporting masses on r/The_Donald, which has over 200,000 subscribers, by posting dozens of online polls that are vulnerable to vote brigading, bots, and other forms of manipulation that make these non-scientific surveys notoriously unreliable.

Polls that were not open to public voting consistently put Clinton ahead of Trump. In a flash poll by Public Policy Polling, Clinton led Trump 51 to 40. A CNN/ORC poll conducted immediately following the debate found significantly stronger support for Clinton, who topped Trump 62 to 27.

http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/trump-clinton-debate-online-polls-4chan-the-donald/


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by aristarchus on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:02AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:02AM (#407183) Journal

    Oh, Tempores! Oh, Mores! How quickly kids these days forget! The proper term is "freeping", as in "freeping an online poll", or "to freep a poll". The term comes from the alt-right site Free Republic, whose denizens would hit an on-line poll all at once seeking to make it reflect their own twisted minority view. This is part of the reason we even now here have an inheritance from Slash: "if you are using these numbers for anything important, you are insane."

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +4  
       Interesting=3, Informative=1, Total=4
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:25AM

    by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:25AM (#407212) Journal

    Oh, Tempores! Oh, Mores!

    I don't like being "that guy", but the quotation is "O tempora! O mores!"

    Tempus is 3rd declension, but neuter, so the plural ends in -a, not -es. But I forgive you, given young master Tully wasn't born until over a century after you died.

    • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:36AM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:36AM (#407218) Journal

      Yes, you are correct, of course. Thank you. In my defense, besides the being dead thing, Latin is not my native language. τα παιδιά αυτές τις μέρες!

      • (Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday September 28 2016, @02:11PM

        by AthanasiusKircher (5291) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @02:11PM (#407388) Journal

        τα παιδιά αυτές τις μέρες!

        I see you've adopted the vocabulary (and declensions) of the young hip crowd, even amidst your exasperation with them. Personally, I prefer the sonorous qualities of the ancient tongue. :)

        • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday September 28 2016, @11:11PM

          by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @11:11PM (#407665) Journal

          I am severely impressed! No only do you know your Tully, but also can distinguish between Ionic Greek and Modern? Laudato si'

  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:36PM

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:36PM (#407445) Journal

    Freep isn't alt-right.

    I mean, they're incredibly bigoted, they're stupid, they utterly destroy any dissent inside their site, but but but... they're not millennials.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:55PM (#407460)

      Alt-right are fascists of all ages, not just "millennials".

      • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:05PM

        by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:05PM (#407471) Journal

        I guess.

        I feel like the term was invented to invoke the people who believe in all the stupid shit religious fundamentalists do, but are atheists.

        Or the ones who buy into all the hardcore social controls of traditionalism but smoke pot.

        Or they want to remove all the "other" races, but don't want to be removed themselves for being the wrong kind of white.

        I get what you're saying, inasmuch as being a giant piece of shit seems to be the most important and central element of the alt-right.

        • (Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Thursday September 29 2016, @03:15AM

          by Non Sequor (1005) on Thursday September 29 2016, @03:15AM (#407728) Journal

          I can't help but feel like the fascist movements of the 20th century grew out of using Nietzsche's ideas as a way of justifying contemptible theories of superiority and the justification of force. This century, Ayn Rand's John Galt mythos seems to be the new epicenter.

          --
          Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:58PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:58PM (#407510) Journal

      Yeah Free Republic is a totalitarian echo chamber. Nice advertisement for free speech and freedom, that.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:40PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:40PM (#407499) Homepage Journal

    I'd have modded you informative if you weren't already sitting at 5, because I've been on the internet since 1997 and have never heard of "freeping". Of course, that's probably because I find the alt-right offensive as dogshit and stay as far away as possible.

    --
    mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org