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Fast Walker 52

(7,723 posts)
12. I think this piece gets at what I was asking-- and is really scary
Sun Feb 19, 2017, 01:37 PM
Feb 2017
https://www.scout.ai/story/how-two-facebook-developers-could-decide-the-election

Thanks to Facebook’s renowned hacker culture, just two developers working together could push an update to the site’s news feed algorithms that changes the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. According to former Facebook developers Scout has spoken with, it takes one engineer to write the code and one to approve it and push it to production.

Done smartly, these kinds of manipulations would be very targeted and extremely difficult to detect. Imagine two developers pushing Facebook’s ‘I Voted’ banner to the top of news feeds among liberal voters in swing states to drive more of them to the polls. Imagine showing politically moderate users more favorable posts about Hillary — or about Trump — in their feed in the weeks leading up to the election.

These kinds of moves could swing the election.

If they did, there’s virtually no chance any of us would even realize what had happened.
"All your brain cells are belong to us." - KGOP, Inc. Achilleaze Feb 2017 #1
I spend a lot of time on Facebook and twitter actually and this piece really made me want to get off Fast Walker 52 Feb 2017 #3
This is the most important news in our history Cosmocat Feb 2017 #2
it certainly changes a lot of how we think about politics and it's creepy as hell Fast Walker 52 Feb 2017 #4
It makes sense Cosmocat Feb 2017 #6
Cambridge Analytica: ther's that name again. NT mahatmakanejeeves Feb 2017 #5
It's not going away, therefore Democrats need to utilize this method as well. KittyWampus Feb 2017 #7
yeah, I was thinking that-- I'm sure they will try Fast Walker 52 Feb 2017 #8
One thing I don't understand from this piece-- does anyone else get this??? Fast Walker 52 Feb 2017 #9
"Cambridge Analytica saw they had an opening based on measured engagement with their Facebook posts" Fast Walker 52 Feb 2017 #10
"Dark posts were also used to depress voter turnout among key groups of democratic voters." Fast Walker 52 Feb 2017 #11
I think this piece gets at what I was asking-- and is really scary Fast Walker 52 Feb 2017 #12
though to a certain extent, I think this article is like a giant ad for the Scout AI services Fast Walker 52 Feb 2017 #13
That's not the point. FigTree Feb 2017 #14
Yes critical thinking is key, but this AI crap is now part of our politics and I bet it influences Fast Walker 52 Feb 2017 #15
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