This happens every time the internet comes under fire. Hacktivist groups use bots and/or compromised accounts.
Edit: Should add that it’s much more prevalent in companies than politics. Programmer buddy of mine does side work and he had a small business contract him to write a bot that would log into various sites every so often and post positive reviews. Thing looked pretty slick.
It’s worrisome when this data effects policy in our democratic system. Those comments are seen as representing public sentiment. We seem to be under hack attack on every side.
The NYAG has opened an investigation into this and he and many other AGs are pleading with the FCC to put off tomorrow’s vote. Ajit Pai, the FCC chairman, is a former lawyer for Verizon and appears to be, essentially, a corporate stooge. Net neutrality repeal is horribly unpopular with the general public, but he is ignoring all of the calls to stop the vote so far.
Agreed. 100%
“Hack” may be a strong word though. It’s comments on public boards. As boards like that typically run pretty low security re: bots creating new accounts and posting, you’d be hard pressed to find a few programmers that couldn’t pull that off given the time and effort.
“Hack” typically implies a breach of security, while moves like this are usually due to a lack of them. Might be a distinction without a difference though, end result seems to be the same.
Gotcha. Sometimes hard to gauge. Friendly fire on my part. Carry on!
It’s the internet. Sarcasm doesn’t always translate.
Something else Ajit Pai, the FCC chairman, is up to: eliminating the 39% ownership cap for media companies in local markets. You can see it here. This is to clear the way for Sinclair Media Group to buy up huge swaths of the local TV market (Sinclair thinks Fox is too progressive).
Sinclair has “required” pieces that stations are must show, such as a video presented by Boris Epshteyn touting the Trump administration and defending Michael Flynn.
Haha. It’s like the “fairness doctorine” from back when, in reverse.
Indeed. And terrible.
But, on a good note, happy Birthday dude! Hope it’s a good one and there’s some frosty adult beverages involved.
Couple this with yesterday’s repeal of Net Neutrality, you can bet your ass even more Millennials will be fired up to vote against the GOP next year.
You’re not wrong. Always happy to put the claws away when I jump the gun. Have a good weekend, friend.
Apologize if this has been talked about pretty behind in the threads
The Party of Freedom forbidding use of certain words. The descent into farce is complete.
I’ve been chatting some with my friends who work at CDC and FDA about this. I’m really not trying to buy into liberal hysteria, but none of us can think of a legitimate purpose for banning the use of the phrase “science-based” or “evidence-based” in an agency whose very purpose is to use science to make evidence-based recommendations about pesky little things like public health.
Some in the GOP have been anti-education for a long time. Anti-science which partially stems from religious loons either already in the party or those who need pandered to.
I agree that there’s a perception of the GOP being anti-science, anti-education and anti-intellectual. I was attempting to put that aside and see if I could come up with a legitimate - any legitimate reason - for banning those terms from CDC budget proposals. So far I haven’t got one, but I’d love to hear it if anyone has one.
They’re in Kansas, so shouldn’t be too hard.
Because they are really anti-poor and anti-freedom.
Hilarious and I live in Kansas. I’m a bad example to use but not everyone is nuts there. Just enough to dominate all elections.
The concept of an educated voter was probably making Trump lose sleep. Hence, dumbitdownnnnnn