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Comment by iamacyborg | Hacker News Reader

Everyone seems to be forgetting that the Mueller report was a thing and this type of research is fairly critical in ensuring there’s no foul play in elections from foreign interests.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_20...

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Foreign interests are always interfering in US elections (and everyone else's too); that's the price of being a democracy. It's a tale as old as democracy itself. There are plenty of other notable examples in US history, but it's a constant, and efforts obviously only intensified in the post-war era as America became more important to everyone else.

The example in 2016 of one particular country's actions is more about what the establishment chose to report for political reasons, although obviously there is some novelty in the way influence efforts are changing over time to adapt to new technologies.

I think you’re brushing under the rug just how easy these efforts have become through modern social media platforms.

I don’t think they are easy. Russia spent tens of millions on the 2016 election and research found it had essentially no effect. The last three presidential elections were won by the candidate with the least money (and often by significant margins).

Elections are won by people voting for issues that affect them, not a rich boogeyman

I don't think the ease really matters when we're talking about nation-states who look at the outcome of US elections as having a major impact on their country's future. Ease matters for regular people. Nation-states are prepared to do whatever it takes, regardless of cost or manpower.

A good, obvious and well-documented example is that both British and German agents were spending millions to impact US elections in the WWII period. There are obviously today hundreds of lobbying groups dedicated to producing propaganda and swaying legislation in the US that benefits their country. Some of it is aboveboard, some of it is not.

Or through buying your candidate's rug pull coins.

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