Post by jameshoff on Mar 13, 2024 23:40:47 GMT -5
Focused (rightly) on the winds of war blowing across the world, we risk not paying due attention to another dramatic issue that can change our future; and especially that of democracies. Next year, a third of the planet's inhabitants will vote. And the risk of vote manipulation via the web (and social media) is very strong. Especially due to the increasingly widespread use of artificial intelligence software. In 2024 (the list is not exhaustive, and includes both presidential and parliamentary elections) there will be elections in the United States, India, Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan, Great Britain, Austria, Finland, Belarus, Georgia, Romania, Indonesia , Egypt, Mexico, Algeria, Tunisia, South Africa, Uruguay, El Salvador, Dominican Republic. Chad, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Comoros Islands.
Therefore, we will vote in the most important country in the DY Leads world (the USA), in countries involved in existing or potential conflict situations (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Taiwan), in the country that is taking the lead in building the new movement world of the non-aligned (India) in countries key to the migratory emergency (Tunisia, Egypt, Chad, Mali, South Sudan), and in the United Kingdom which, in the event of a Labor victory, could call Brexit into question. Consultations in Austria, Finland and Romania will also be relevant, where the growth of anti-European Union right-wing groups has been announced and, obviously, the June elections for the renewal of the Strasbourg Parliament. FUTURE OF THE PLANET It is not an exaggeration to say that during the coming year a good part of the near future of the planet will be played out through elections. A scenario towards which, unfortunately, we are moving under the worst conditions. How "clean" will the electoral outcome be, and how much will it be distorted by emotional impulses that traditionally do not play in favor of internal cohesion and international cooperation? The topic of vote manipulation through the use of the web is not new.
In recent years there has been much discussion about the role of the Cambridge Analytica company, accused of having influenced the 2016 US presidential elections in a pro-Trump direction and the British referendum of the same year in a pro-Brexit sense. In that case the method used would have been that of targeting, i.e. the identification, carried out by collecting data from Facebook, of particularly receptive subjects to whom messages tailored to their needs and fears could be sent. ACTIONS AND STATEMENTS Now, however, technology has made enormous strides forward. There is the possibility, for anyone with a fair knowledge of the web and artificial intelligence programs, to create real fakes, both vocal and visual. We know how easy it has become to spread images through social media that attribute to a specific political leader statements that he has never uttered, or actions that he has never performed. The appetizer has already been served. Fakes of this type were put into circulation in Slovakia during the elections at the end of September, especially to the detriment of the anti-Russian candidate Michal Simecka, who was later defeated by the pro-Russian Robert Fico.
Therefore, we will vote in the most important country in the DY Leads world (the USA), in countries involved in existing or potential conflict situations (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Taiwan), in the country that is taking the lead in building the new movement world of the non-aligned (India) in countries key to the migratory emergency (Tunisia, Egypt, Chad, Mali, South Sudan), and in the United Kingdom which, in the event of a Labor victory, could call Brexit into question. Consultations in Austria, Finland and Romania will also be relevant, where the growth of anti-European Union right-wing groups has been announced and, obviously, the June elections for the renewal of the Strasbourg Parliament. FUTURE OF THE PLANET It is not an exaggeration to say that during the coming year a good part of the near future of the planet will be played out through elections. A scenario towards which, unfortunately, we are moving under the worst conditions. How "clean" will the electoral outcome be, and how much will it be distorted by emotional impulses that traditionally do not play in favor of internal cohesion and international cooperation? The topic of vote manipulation through the use of the web is not new.
In recent years there has been much discussion about the role of the Cambridge Analytica company, accused of having influenced the 2016 US presidential elections in a pro-Trump direction and the British referendum of the same year in a pro-Brexit sense. In that case the method used would have been that of targeting, i.e. the identification, carried out by collecting data from Facebook, of particularly receptive subjects to whom messages tailored to their needs and fears could be sent. ACTIONS AND STATEMENTS Now, however, technology has made enormous strides forward. There is the possibility, for anyone with a fair knowledge of the web and artificial intelligence programs, to create real fakes, both vocal and visual. We know how easy it has become to spread images through social media that attribute to a specific political leader statements that he has never uttered, or actions that he has never performed. The appetizer has already been served. Fakes of this type were put into circulation in Slovakia during the elections at the end of September, especially to the detriment of the anti-Russian candidate Michal Simecka, who was later defeated by the pro-Russian Robert Fico.