Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections

Re:Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Pa... by threeseed on Sunday May 26, 2019 @06:52PM (#20018074)

We recently had an Australian election in which there was a lot of fake news around a "death tax" imposed by one of the parties. That party lost in a close election in which at polling booths one of the top 3 issues was the death tax.

Trickery works. It's why everyone keeps doing it.

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Re:Coverage of a Disinformation Operation Against 2019 EU Pa... by nl on Sunday May 26, 2019 @07:51PM (#20018396)

The Australian election wasn't particularly close. The two-party-preferred margin was 3.2%, which is the mid-range in terms of margins this century (7 federal elections since 2000, 3 have had higher margins and 3 lower).

Yes the "death tax" was an outright lie. But there were lots of factors which went into that margin.

Also it's important to clarify that (for the most part - except possibly on some WeChat groups) - this wasn't a foreign campaign. It was mostly old fashioned paid advertising by the Liberal party itself.

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