Social Media Elections

For John, BLUF:  It is about influencing voters.  And, for some, telling the truth.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

PSYCHOLOGIST:  GOOGLE GENERATED AT LEAST 2.6 MILLION VOTES FOR HILLARY

Here is the sub-headline:

Dr. Robert Epstein is a psychologist, professor, and author. He’s the former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today.

From Powerline Blog, by Mr Paul Mirengoff, 9 August 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

Dr. Epstein is a liberal Democrat. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee (see below), he described himself as a “vocal public supporter” of Hillary Clinton.  He said that to characterize him as not a Republican and not a conservative is “an understatement.”

Epstein testified that in the 2016 election, Google generated a minimum of 2.6 million votes for Clinton through deceptive manipulation of search results.  He warned that if, in 2020, companies like Google and Facebook all support the same presidential candidate (as surely they will) they could affect up to 15 million votes, e.g. by “go vote” reminders sent only to those believed to be Democrats.

Blogger Mirengoff is skeptical of the claim, but I am willing to give it some credit.  someone I respect has suggested that there are folks with Psychological Operations experience who have become political guns for hire.  in this modern digital age we may be going back to the ideas of Author Vance Packard and his book The Hidden Persuaders.

I wonder if Law Prof Glenn Harlan Reynolds addresses this in his new book, The Social Media Upheaval?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff