Learning from the hack. . .

We had two major political disasters in 2016, Brexit and Trump, both of which were the result of massive, virtual disinformation campaigns. Both blindsided their respective traditional nations. Neither has yet been understood by the mass of voters as an illegitimate distortion of the electoral process although growing numbers suspect this to be the case. Due to extreme polarization and a recognized legitimate minority supporting the surprise winner, confirmation of the illegitimacy of these elections will require a very clear smoking gun. The nature of these very complex manipulations makes this almost impossible at this stage. And the longer term effects of both could mean collapse of major governments. At the very least these events have nearly completely destroyed faith in representative government.

On a positive note there has been tremendous advances in the last six months in identifying and tracking bot driven indicators of this process. As this article shows the forces of neo fascism have turned on the same basic disinformation system that was able to install a wildly incompetent and unpopular regime in Washington while destabilising the British and EU governments. This must not be allowed to happen in France.

The truth, i.e. clearly false tending memes must be called out virally. The mass media must be denied the option of shirking their ethical responsibility in order to profit from trending disinformation. Learn and act. We are all censors of our planets virtual space.