Cambridge Analytica to file for insolvency

[Smudger]

That's exactly what all this CA propaganda is all about. Trying to undermine the referendum democratic vote. The Observer reported on this story after the referendum, but only now are spin doctors using it in the lead up to actual Brexit. Smudger no offence, but you misunderstood what I said in two separate sentences.

Pobb255>you got me! (ex CA employee ha ha!)

hang on though, the CA stuff was propaganda in the first place, using half-truths, lies and 'stolen' data to target voters. Is it OK when done by the alt-right, but not when reported on but 'the left'? From what I can see, the initial reports on CA were 'there might be something a bit fishy here', worthy of further investigation. So they did 'further investigation' and involved some colleagues in other countries, such was the web of links, and this all takes time to bring together, cos if you get it wrong, you get sued.

Please, tell me where I misunderstood you. And tell me why. Cos from here, it seems like you're saying interference in democracy, possibly by Russia, most definitely by alt-right = OK, reporting on that = 'left' plot and undermining democracy.

[johnroe]

hang on though, the CA stuff was propaganda in the first place, using half-truths, lies and 'stolen' data to target voters. Is it OK when done by the alt-right, but not when reported on but 'the left'? From what I can see, the initial reports on CA were 'there might be something a bit fishy here', worthy of further investigation. So they did 'further investigation' and involved some colleagues in other countries, such was the web of links, and this all takes time to bring together, cos if you get it wrong, you get sued.

Please, tell me where I misunderstood you. And tell me why. Cos from here, it seems like you're saying interference in democracy, possibly by Russia, most definitely by alt-right = OK, reporting on that = 'left' plot and undermining democracy.

I agree with you, and when you made the point earlier, Both left and right are playing propaganda wars(ie: this week> is labour's anti semitism worse than Home office reducing immigration). I tend to read all the media and then try to read past the stories and see what the spin doctors are doing. Then I pretty much ignore most of it, especially if the stories contain words like; 'could have, 'may', 'alleged', etc. Obviously propaganda has always existed, it's just with; modern media, social media, russian bots, targeted propaganda, fake news, it's becoming increasingly sophisticated and increasingly difficult to sift the truth from the spin.

I just meant you misunderstood, in that the CA story was being used to try to bring about a second referendum. The Windrush story was saved for the local elections.

[johnroe]

Interesting podcast by Sven Hughes who worked for SCL group. A former psych-ops reservist, he says that these techniques are used by the military, but highly regulated. And that's the problem, the political/commercial world hasn't caught up yet, in terms of regulation. So it's unlikely that laws were broken, but the focus on unethical practices will mean that future companies are more transparent.

He says these methods were used by one of SCL companies to mount a very successful counter terrorism operation(essentially inserting themselves between IS recruiters and potential terrorists). He sees general propaganda as outdated in the modern tech era and believes if ethically applied that 'deep listening', 'empathic understanding', and relating to people in the language(metaphors,etc) that they use and understand, is a much more effective way of getting any message over. He left SCL over ethical concerns, to form his own more ethical psychological marketing company.

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/0...dge-analytica/