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Votes in 18 Nations 'Hacked' in Last Year

posted by martyb on Wednesday November 15 2017, @06:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the following-in-leader's-footsteps dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Elections in 18 separate nations were influenced by online disinformation campaigns last year, suggests research.

Independent watchdog Freedom House looked at how online discourse was influenced by governments, bots and paid opinion formers.

In total, 30 governments were actively engaged in using social media to stifle dissent, said the report.

Educating users to spot fake news and making tech firms police their networks could combat the manipulation, it said.

Hacking must explain why voters are going off-script.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:12AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:12AM (#597186)

    A pity there's nobody to sell critical thinking.

    The mainstream media will sell you that, they'll gladly tell you how educated you are as a bonus, but of course, there are no warranties if the received product does not work as advertized.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:19AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:19AM (#597188) Journal

    Mmm... I see... to recognize a good BS detector, one needs to have a BS detector.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:24PM (1 child)

      by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:24PM (#597417)

      Most people do have a BS detector. The problem is that their calibration is likely off, because the noise floor has been so high recently.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @08:21AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @08:21AM (#597615)

        Also the detector works 100% on the premise that their shit don't stink.