
Russia's Election Interference Is Digital Marketing 101 - IntronExon
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/russia-trump-election-facebook-twitter-advertising/553676/?single_page=true
======
chatmasta
So was Trump’s election campaign. I’ve been saying this since he announced his
candidacy. Convincing people to walk to the polls and vote for a certain
candidate is no different than convincing them to buy a product. It’s
marketing. And in marketing, black hat tactics always win, at least in the
short term. They lose in the long-term because some controlling algorithm
adapts to their strategy.

An election is a short term ad campaign. Convince people, get the vote out,
then it’s done. So black hat tactics will be successful against white hat
tactics because there is no time for the system (often the same used in
advertising) to evolve to respond to the tactics.

Unless there is a force to stop this sort of weaponization of data, the
problem will proliferate and the strategies will evolve. Only structural
forces against such weaponization of data can allow the “white hat” strategies
room to thrive.

Our political system selects for rule breaking, obstruction and obfuscation.

