The integrity of democratic electoral process is vulnerable to the marketing strategies employed in the consumer marketplace.
Dirty politics:
allegations of corruption,fraud,cheating, ...and rigging of elections
The sheeple are gullible/suggestible and easily manipulated/influenced by marketing techniques.
Capturing votes in an election campaign is no different than persuading people to buy a brand of soap/soup!
How AI algorithms sway election results:
(cyberbots and cyberwarfare)
It wasn't just the Russians who meddled in the 2016 US presid3ntial election.
Other corporate "sabateurs-for-hire" also had a hand in corrupting the election process.
http://time.com/5216680/cambridge-analytica-christopher-wylie-predecessor-poisoned/
Whistleblower Christopher Wylie told the U.K.'s Guardian, which broke Wylie's confession that he used the illegally harvested private information of more than 50 million Facebook users for a Bannon-run company called Cambridge Analytica to target voters on behalf of Donald Trump's 2016 U.S. election campaign.
Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the personal data of millions of Americans was allegedly misused by a consulting firm working for Donald Trump's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, is renewing calls for a tech sector code of ethics.
http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/the-current
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-43558876
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When does persuading others in the course of pursueing one's own interests become unethical?
Is anytjing "off limits" in selling a political candidate to the public?
Or is everything fair game in love and political warfare?
ReplyDeleteThankyou Christopher Wylie. ...
for blowing the whistle and helping us understand what goes on in the backroom war rooms of political parties-- how personal information is collected and used to manipulate election results.
And here I thouhht I was cynical abput politics and politiccians because they try to buy your vote by bribing uou with their endless promises.
ReplyDeleteGoez to show theres no depth to wch some camdidates seeking public office will mot stoop.
They wil llie, cheat,steal..and employ any number of nefarious taactics to gain power!
Why does anyone botbher to vote?!
Machiavelli was right!
The power-seekers have no ethical scruples.
ReplyDeleteThey will do anything to seize power.
Russian hackers hijacked US election:
ReplyDeleteTwelve Russian military officers indicted for interfering with 2016 US presidential election. Rosenstein investigation identifies and charges 12 intelligence officers with conspiracy.
Big data algorhythms are used to capture your attention, to influence/to sell you something.
ReplyDeletePeople who don't know how to guard their attention are at the mercy of the world.
They are vulnerable to being "hacked"
The hacking of democracy
Liberalism is threatened (under attack)
The resurgance of authoritarianism
Corporations have accumulated enuf personal data on us that they can manipulate us without our knowing that we are being manipulated.
They plant desires and choices in our heads wihout our knowledge and our permission.
If yhey know you better than you know yourself, they can sell you anything--a product,a politician, an entire ideology.
Yuval harari cbc.ca/ideas
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/yuval-harari-hacking-humanity-1.4810248
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/ideas/episode/15592057
Yuval Harari: Hacking Humanity
Sep 5, 2018
Yuval Harari is a global intellectual. And the internationally bestselling author is worried: our brains are getting hacked. Artificial intelligence, biotechnology and ever-sophisticated algorithms are tapping into our values, habits, tastes, desires and the very thought patterns that define us - all to control how we shop, what we read, and whom we vote for. The notion of free will is defunct. And the grand project of liberalism, with its focus on the individual, is worn out. But in this exclusive interview with Paul Kennedy, he explains why he remains cautiously optimistic about humanity's future.
The world wants to sell you somrthing...but to do it thry firdt have to capture your attention.
Guard your attention well! ... by knowing what is worthy of your precious attention!
Our attention is the most valuable thing we have to give. Marketers assume thhat our attention is up for grabs and thry will use every strategy and gimmick (no matter how unscrupilous) to capture it!
ReplyDeleteElections are nothing more than expensive marketing campaigns
ReplyDeleteUsually its the candidate with the largest adveryizing budget that ens up buying his way into power...er public office
In the game of politics, if you don't pay, you ca'nt play!
So whats democratic about thst?
Personal data collection and persuasion technology hsve outpaced ethical considerations
ReplyDeleteThe collection,storage and use of personal data must be regulated and constrained within legal limits and morality.
Corporations and those lusting for power are willing to engage in
outright deceit, deception, and all manner of dishonesty for personal gain, profit, or advantage.
In every election instances of unscrupulous strategies for influencing the vote are routinely exposed.
Big Data has got your number!
ReplyDeleteWhoever controls the data, controls the world! Mining for and collecting data is more profitable than mining gold.
We're all being manipulated and controled.
Zukerberg files patent for an algorhythm capable of anticipating/predicting your location(life route)every day based on info posted on your facebook page.
Knowing where you are every moment of the day--the better to manipulate you by targeting you with ads with greater specificity and effectiveness.
(a la Cambridge Analytica)