Brexit is just an example. Manipulation of citizens is of all time. The danger lies in how precise the targeting nowadays is, together with internet being world-wide and advanced.
Its the price we all paid for some of us having a dishonest ML data hoarder.
I'm involved in the integrity of elections in The Netherlands. I have a political preference, but I am able to leave that out when I manually count votes.
I also am aware of ways which undermine our democracy: electronic voting, strategic voting, and abused ML. I believe a high integrity on elections benefits society on the long term.
However given the international forecast of our societies (ie. what used to be called globalization 20 years ago), and difference in population and cheap labour, a country like Russia or China can heavily influence our society. In this case with the help of an American behemoth, but there is no reason other sources cannot be abused.
I don't have the solution to this problem. It warrants further investigation though. Hopefully before it is too late.
Brexit could only take place because the political class spent 25 years using the EU as an excuse for everything that went wrong.
The current PM spent his formative years making up stories about the EU to send back to the telegraph.
FAcebook's advertising only works (assuming that it does actually work) if people are receptive to the message. Those messages have to be thought up by someone.
Thats not facebook's fault. thats the fault of political discourse.
The Pro EU side _lost_ because they failed to follow the standard rules of election winning: Make the other side seem like they are going to make you poorer, or less patriotic (or both)
They spent their time shouting at the sceptics calling them racists. Waffling on about economics, never emotion, never empathy, Never ambition.
Much as its comforting to think that the likes of russia, google facebook and china are at fault, its really not the fault of advertising.
Its the price we all paid for some of us having a dishonest ML data hoarder.
I'm involved in the integrity of elections in The Netherlands. I have a political preference, but I am able to leave that out when I manually count votes.
I also am aware of ways which undermine our democracy: electronic voting, strategic voting, and abused ML. I believe a high integrity on elections benefits society on the long term.
However given the international forecast of our societies (ie. what used to be called globalization 20 years ago), and difference in population and cheap labour, a country like Russia or China can heavily influence our society. In this case with the help of an American behemoth, but there is no reason other sources cannot be abused.
I don't have the solution to this problem. It warrants further investigation though. Hopefully before it is too late.