Free Elections soon to be a ‘Blip in History’
Why do we as Australians concern ourselves with American politics? Well, they tend to export many ideas to us. The good, the bad and the ugly.
In this case, we should be asking ourselves how Google could affect our next federal election in 2022, and perhaps our upcoming state elections if they choose.
How much damage could Google, Facebook & Twitter do by swinging 2-8% of our voters, as they did with the American election?
2-8% of voters may sound small but that equates to 300,000 – 1.2 million votes which could turn that sweeping win from Scott Morrison in 2019 into a career ending, crushing defeat if well strategized.
There is a glimmer of hope though. Some of the strategies that Dr. Epstein warns of are more effective in the USA due to their non-compulsory approach to voting. Australia’s compulsory take on voting actually neutralises some methods of manipulation, such as the reminder messages to certain voters but not others.
However, Australia’s system doesn’t counter most techniques relating to the pipeline of information, especially with search engines and censorship, which are psychologically impactful.
Monday saw Donald Trump threaten to ban TikTok from the USA unless it’s sold to an American company by next month, due to long-standing privacy concerns.
I have to admit that I’ve been rather perplexed by the focus on TikTok, considering that companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter have been violating and selling people’s private data for some time now.
In fact, in the case of Google they have been overtly manipulating its search engine and algorithms to swing votes against then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016 and against Republican Candidates in the 2018 mid-term congressional elections.
Why would Google do that? Well, you might like to know that the parent company of Google, ‘Alphabet Inc.’, was the top financial donor of the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016.
Enter Dr. Robert Epstein. In July of 2019, Dr. Epstein testified before congress on the dangers of ‘Big Tech’ manipulating anywhere from 2.6 – 10.4 million votes from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential Election.
Dr. Epstein is the senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioural Research and Technology.
Some of the search techniques he warns of from Google, Facebook & Twitter include the “search engine manipulation effect, the search suggestion effect, the answer bot effect and a number of others”.
“In 2020, if all these companies are supporting the same candidate, there are 15 million votes on the line that can be shifted without people’s knowledge, and without leaving a paper trail for authorities to trace.”
Just to put this into perspective for you, in 2016 Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3 million votes, however she lost the electoral college by 80,000 votes in Rust Belt states secured by Donald Trump like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
___
Originally published at The Spectator Australia.
Photo by Greg Bulla on Unsplash.
Recent Articles:
10 February 2025
7.6 MINS
When you aggressively work on draining the swamp, there is one thing you can be certain of: a whole lot of ugly, dark and disgusting stuff starts coming to the surface.
10 February 2025
4.6 MINS
The talk has turned into reality, and we now have new laws to combat hate speech and vilification. You will have already worked out that hate speech laws are a two-edged sword. Put forward as being for protection, they can be equally used for control.
10 February 2025
3.2 MINS
Now, US-based public health watchdog Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doesn’t hold any evidence for its safety claims for Covid vaccines.
10 February 2025
2.6 MINS
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan recently rushed to address her state’s most pressing issue — ensuring the alphabet mafia feel sufficiently validated. The Labor Premier issued a stunning and brave statement reassuring Victoria’s LGBTQ+ community that she believed in them.
7 February 2025
3.4 MINS
Beyoncé, an R&B legend, was handed the Best Country Album for “Cowboy Carter” at the Grammy Awards on Sunday. John Rich – a Christian, clued-in culture critic, and Country Music veteran – questioned the legitimacy of the awards process.
7 February 2025
5.2 MINS
4 February 2025 marked the five-year anniversary of a military countermeasure deployment campaign that was launched against COVID-19, an illness which, on 4 February 2020, was poorly defined and was alleged to have killed only a few hundred people worldwide.
7 February 2025
5.2 MINS
Trump has not only reversed misguided Biden-era policies related to life and family, but has also advanced socially conservative policies at a pace few anticipated. Given the breadth of action taken, it is worth summarising these recent developments.