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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @09:59AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @09:59AM (#407307)

    Polls are manipulated in an attempt to try to discourage people on the "losing" side to not bother going to the polls because "their candidate is going to lose anyway".

    I don't know how well (or if) it works, but there sure are some enthusiastic people putting a lot of effort into doing it every election season.

  • (Score: 2) by romlok on Wednesday September 28 2016, @10:52AM

    by romlok (1241) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @10:52AM (#407328)

    It's also possible to see it the other way around - if your "side" is winning in the polls, why bother going out to vote when you're going to win anyway?
    Which could suggest that the poll-stuffing is being done by the "losing" side, trying to get Trump supporters to stay at home feeling smug.

    I do wonder which interpretation has a more powerful effect overall. Surely there must be studies into this effect?

    • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:34PM

      by deimtee (3272) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:34PM (#407442) Journal

      if your "side" is winning in the polls, why bother going out to vote when you're going to win anyway?

      That doesn't work in Oz. We have compulsory voting. If you have to go vote, you may as well vote for who-ever you prefer;

      --
      If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.