
Ask HN: After CA, how do we protect voters from political manipulation online? - rapnie
If the Cambridge Analytica scandal showed us anything, it is how powerful big data, analytics and micro-targeting can be in influencing voters. The technologies CA used are available to anyone, and pose the question if any political campaign from now on can afford not to use them to the maximum extent.<p>This makes the entire political system rife for manipulation, and poses a risk to democracy itself.<p>Voters - misled by misinformation - are enticed to vote against their own interests. Regular people are the victims in this new reality. Social media and the internet are weaponized, while the people&#x27;s vote is disarmed.<p>How can we protect the people? What solutions have we come up with since CA to safeguard democracy in this digital age?
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buboard
> are enticed to vote against their own interests

voters vote against their own interests all the time

Any vote manipulation is manipulation, whether people think it's good or bad.
You fight propaganda with propaganda. Politics has always been a shitshow

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johncoltrane
I'm less worried by manipulation and misinformation in general than by the
thought that there are people who somehow believe that this is a new
phenomenon.

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rapnie
Oh, for sure it is not a new phenomenon, but now it is brought to an entirely
different level.

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johncoltrane
It's exactly the same phenomenon where the exact same groups use the exact
same techniques in a bid to obtain the exact same outcomes. Nothing has
changed in any meaningful way.

I'm afraid the democracy you want to protect has never existed anywhere or at
any time in History.

