Netflix, documentary
You need to know this
We pride ourselves that our elections are not rigged. It is one of the things that set real democracies apart, in a good way, from dictatorships and corrupt governments.
However, we are wrong.
(At least if the contents of the Netflix documentary, The Great Hack, are truthful.)
You probably heard about the scandal surrounding the British company Cambridge Analytica who were caught abusing Facebook data to influence the election where Donald Trump became the president.
It is much bigger though.
Did you know that many other elections around the globe was rigged in a similar manner by the same company? In subtle ways they used stolen data, social media influence and other things to target specific voters. They changed enough people’s minds to win the election for whomever payed them.
Did you know that the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, SCL, used to train personal from both the UK and USA in information warfare? Or claimed they did.
And according to this documentary that is just the top of the iceberg.
You can start by protecting yourself a bit by watching The Great Hack. In truth, it is not all that great a documentary, but you should watch it anyway, and all the way through. It reveals quite a lot of interesting stuff we all need to know about.
Yes, we have made good systems which protect the voter, so they can vote in peace and quite.
Yes, we protect the votes from tampering afterwards, so the counting is done fairly.
Does this matter?
No, it is no longer enough. By sifting through the data, we all leave behind on social media, systems have been created which can figure out which voters are most likely to change their opinion in a an election or who are most likely to refrain from voting.
By influencing some to vote that would not or the opposite, or simply change people’s mind through a bombardment of adds you can sway most elections in the desired way.
But is this not fair enough? Those who have the money or time can influence people. Is that not have it has always been?
Times have changed, so it is not quite the same no.
Before this sort of thing had to be done in public places, in order to influence many people’s votes at the same time. Rally’s and posters. TV, radio and newspapers. What one side did was visible to the other.
The scandal around Cambridge Analytica showed how Facebook’s lack of user data protection and focus on earnings actively helped Cambridge Analytica influence the American elections, and get Donald Trump voted into office.
These days you use Facebook adds targeted specifically at only the people in the places where it matters the most, like an undecided voter in a swing state, and only those specific people see it.
How do you defend against hate (or compassion or whatever) spread in a not visible way to people you do not know who are? Is it fair that since at least currently doing this costs a lot of money the opposition will in many places not have the cash to fight those in power?
Another difference is that we at some point in the west decided it was a bad idea to send out soldiers or police to beat up or imprison opposition leaders and the like. We decided that this level of interference in an election was not fair.
Can we trust The Great Hack documentary?
While I do believe elections are being rigged in the subtle ways described, the creators are not very good at making documentaries. It is shoddy workmanship laden with fear-based rhetoric.
For instance, while the documentary raises many good points, they focus endlessly on the less important stuff. So many interviews with the former executive of Cambridge Analytica, Brittany Kaiser, but they never ask her any hard questions.
She claims to be a former activist who went to the “dark side,” and is now reformed.
Is she really though? Here is what I dug up:
Seems like Brittany Kaiser is a through-and-through con artist (or perhaps spy?) What do you think?
Unfortunately, the documentary missed a good opportunity to ask the questions above.
However military information warfare software and knowhow is now freely being used by private contractors like Cambridge Analytica on behalf of politicians to basically wage an information war on the citizens of our countries, and the most sad part of it is, that the politicians with the least restraint, weakest morals and the biggest wallets are the ones benefitting the most from this. Just like the ones who send out soldiers or police to beat up the opposition.
Who is doing it?
Everybody knows that China are censuring the internet big time. Did you know they have internment camps for Muslims too? How are they targeting their population in China digitally, making everyone do what the rulers want them to?
Russia has a troll army (excuse me, I meant “dedicate and clever IT professionals with a patriotic mindset working for Putin”). How are they targeting the Russian voters? Making them happy or afraid enough to keep voting for the rulers?
Obama did it, Trump did it. Brexit did it.
How many other countries or the opposition in those countries are doing digital voter warfare big time? Yours? Mine? France, Italy, and Germany perhaps?
Something must be done. Unfortunately, the people who make the laws are the ones using information warfare, so perhaps the “best” we can hope for is that all political parties and movements start to use information warfare and that we voters become better at spotting the stuff they do. If not, we will end up with a Donald in each country at the very top.
Or do we already have that?
“Hello Boris Johnson, how did you get voted into Downing Street no. 10?”
/Rune S. Nielsen