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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: 3, Informative) by RantyRantington on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:15AM

    by RantyRantington (2096) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:15AM (#407187)
    The biggest false narrative is that any decent human beings stand to win anything with this election.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:11AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:11AM (#407203)

    > The biggest false narrative is that any decent human beings stand to win anything with this election.

    We can argue about that. But what isn't up for debate is that hundreds of millions of decent human beings stand to lose a lot if the fireclown wins the election. His tax plan is all about fucking the 99% and with a republican congress, it will pass.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @06:46AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @06:46AM (#407245)

      People who want the government to respect the Constitution and everyone's liberties will lose no matter who wins, though maybe Trump would be a bit worse. Both of them support mass surveillance, are against encryption, are in support of organizations like the TSA, and generally support the very rights-violating intelligence community that violates people's rights on a massive scale every single day.

      Though, it is the act of mindlessly voting for the perceived 'lesser evil' that got us into this situation in the first place. Why not continue it for the next several decades, so we can keep our corrupt, authoritarian duopoly? That's a great idea that demonstrates long-term thinking.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:06PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:06PM (#407424)

        > Though, it is the act of mindlessly voting for the perceived 'lesser evil' that got us into this situation in the first place.

        Actually, its the act of mindlessly assuming there is such a thing as pure good that got us into this situation in the first place. All politics is compromise. You pick what matters most to you and focus on what you can actually achieve. Anything else is a fatalism that plays right into the hands of the people who want to make sure they get the most and you get the least. Stop letting your vote be determined by grade-school logic.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:02PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @04:02PM (#407467)

        A bit worse under drumpf? He's a fucking fascist that wants to suck Putin's dick. As bad as its going to be under Hillary, it would be many times worse under drumpf.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:52AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:52AM (#407702)

          Having four inches of my arms removed with a belt sander, or eight inches. You're blind if you fail to see why it doesn't matter so long as literal criminal behavior is accepted and supported by individual USians, as the US fedgov still gets more than 75% of its monetary resources from personal income tax returns. (On that note, I've heard tell of slavery in ancient Egypt amounting to coughing up 20% of your earnings to the Pharaoh.)

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Francis on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:13AM

    by Francis (5544) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:13AM (#407204)

    Absolutely. It's about time that the press learned something about integrity and ethics as well as the fact that just because you can print something, doesn't mean you should print it.

    Freedom of the press exists because allowing the government to set the rules is dangerous, they can easily set rules that prevent the public from ever finding out about various embarrassing things that they're doing. But, that does not require the press to post anything they want to. Part of having freedom is exercising restraint and judgment at times.

    In this case, they gave Trump several billions of dollars in free advertising every time he said something ridiculous or outlandish they put it on screen hoping for viewers. On the Democratic side, they spent a huge amount of time covering for Clinton's obvious inadequacies and towing the party line that Clinton's win was inevitable and ignored the serious election fraud in places like CA and RI. They didn't just find that there weren't problems, they actively ignored those stories because they wanted to be on Clinton's good side. They failed miserably to hold her feet to the fire about the months long lack of press conferences and the fact that Clinton was completely absent from the campaign trail for over a month while she went around looking for donations from wealthy donors.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 28 2016, @01:30PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @01:30PM (#407369) Journal

      the fact that Clinton was completely absent from the campaign trail for over a month while she went around looking for donations from wealthy donors.

      And there you have it, the raison d'etre for Hillary's campaign. It's all about the dollars. Does that deserve your vote, ye Hillary supporters?

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 28 2016, @01:36PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @01:36PM (#407372) Journal

      Absolutely. It's about time that the press learned something about integrity and ethics as well as the fact that just because you can print something, doesn't mean you should print it.

      Freedom of the press exists because allowing the government to set the rules is dangerous, they can easily set rules that prevent the public from ever finding out about various embarrassing things that they're doing. But, that does not require the press to post anything they want to. Part of having freedom is exercising restraint and judgment at times.

      Francis, that ship has long since sailed. An AC upthread listed all the intimate links between the press and government, who's married to whom, etc. It's that way with nearly every other function of government, too. The revolving door has pervaded all aspects of it. That's why you have corrupt hedge fund guys running the SEC, and who rotate out to plush do-nothing jobs in the hedge funds every couple of years. They are all on the same team together, and that team is always playing against the other team, which is us.

      It has to be said again and again until people wake up from the fever dream that is Left vs. Right, Republican vs. Democrat, and accept the reality, which is that it is 1% vs. 99% (for lack of a better, contemporary characterization).

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @08:55AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @08:55AM (#407290)
    It would be a win to trigger the never trump crowd into a 4 year hissyfit meltdown.

    That shit will be comedy gold. the sjw party losing.
    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday September 28 2016, @01:38PM

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @01:38PM (#407373) Journal

      I'd like to see the power elites triggered into a mass exodus to their island fortresses, just in time to see the rising seas from the global warming they caused drown them.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.