How to hack Democracy, the Cambridge Analytica/SCL Group Way

[Gold Dragon]

Cambridge Analytica parent company manipulated Nigeria’s 2007 election, documents show

The parent company of Cambridge Analytica boasted of its success in manipulating a Nigerian election by using religious leaders to suppress the vote, according to documents released on Thursday.

The documents were released by Canadian whistle-blower Christopher Wylie to a committee of the British House of Commons. They include a promotional brochure by SCL Group, the British affiliate of Cambridge Analytica, which later worked with Canadian firm AggregateIQ in elections worldwide.

The brochure suggests that SCL considered the option of bribing Nigerian voters to vote for the government, but decided that such “financial incentives” would be ineffective because the voters had so much contempt for politicians that they would simply take the money and mark their ballot for someone else.

More background about Cambridge Analytica/SCL Group

Cambridge Analytica and its many scandals, explained

 

[Gold Dragon]

If anyone is interested in the ins and outs of how these companies collect then use their data to "influence/manipulate" for the benefit of their clients here are some great reads.

The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, explained with a simple diagram

‘I made Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower

The (dis)information mercenaries now controlling Trump’s databases

How Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook targeting model really worked – according to the person who built it

 

[Adonia]

I just heard a report today on the radio that Facebook GAVE people's information to the Obama administration leading up to the 2012 election. Seems like no hacking was needed whatsoever.

 

[Gold Dragon]

Maybe it was lost in translation but when I say hack democracy, it isn't about literally hacking servers or breaking through firewalls. It is a figurative use of the word hack as it applies to manipulating and breaking the systems in place that try to ensure voting is fair and representative in democratic countries.