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Jonny5 said:
How quickly we forget. There was a very fierce and almost year-long debate about McCain through 2007 and 2008. The US Senate actually went as far as to pass a resolution (sponsored by then Senators Obama and Clinton, among others) to declare John McCain was a "natural born citizen." They wouldn't be bothered to do that if "nobody questioned it." They even hinged that resolution on the fact that the US military occupied 'Canal Zone' was technically an extension of "American soil," which actually reinforces that whole requirement, strengthening it as a precedent.
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A bit of primary politics is hardly that big a deal. And as you note, it was McCain's opponent who supported his claim. Very different from what we're talking about today. That affair meant Ted Cruz got a substantially easier ride.
 
Wonder if Canada is ready to send election monitors to the USA?

From link.

In the past, CANADEM has worked with the Government of Canada to send observers to monitor elections around the world. With over 130 missions deployed to more than 40 countries, CANADEM has played a crucial role in strengthening the democratic process globally. By drawing on a civilian reserve of screened Canadian electoral and governance experts, we short-list observer candidates and conduct deployment logistics for selected candidates.
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Johnny Au said:
CANADEM would have to be on every social media channel as well from Facebook and Twitter to Reddit and Discord to even Gab and Voat.
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I never agreed that lies on FB were legitimate election interference. Information online is worth what you paid for it. If I make a website that looks like a news site and I post fake stories that Biden eats babies, well that’s on you if you take it as gospel and change your vote. If the Russians or Chinese want to spread lies on social media, go for it, it’s up to the voter to seek legitimate sources of information for their voting decision, like paid news and the party websites directly.

Election interference isn’t lies on Facebook; it’s attempts to prevent voter registration, it’s blocking poll stations, it’s restrictive voter identification policies, it’s fraudulently mailing or calling voters to tell send them to the wrong place to vote, etc. It’s not posting lies about a candidate on Twitter.
 
It wasn't just lies on Facebook. It was targeted lies on Facebook, targeted towards identified "soft" voters based on their Facebook feeds etc. So it's interference by influence. Add that to the voter repression that happens in the US, particularly with people of colour, and it's a gong show.
 
PinkLucy said:
If you are deliberately lying to them to influence them to vote a certain way, I do see that as a form of interference
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What? That sounds like every political advertisement, legit or otherwise, where every post and ad is trying to influence how one votes. That’s not voter interference, that‘s persuasion.

Voter interference is spam emails purporting to be from the electoral authorities telling you the date, times or place to vote have changed. Voter interference is hacking into the vote counting machines in a riding leaning one way to delete records. Voter interference is goons outside voting places to intimidate voters, or inside the polls rejecting voter ID. Voter interference is not some guy from Russia posting on Instagram that Biden is a pedophile. That’s just people trying to persuade you.
 
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It’s different because you aren’t about to see “Biden is a pedophile” as part of an official advertising campaign. That’s not the spin of advertising. It is a very deliberate action. In the case of Cambridge Analytica, it was done just to see how much social media could influence an election campaign. It’s why social media now pretends to care about the whole thing.

What we are seeing now is much more deep and dark than your run of the mill negative campaign advertising.
And of course campaign ads have always been designed to influence an outcome but this has gone to a whole other level. It's more about disruption than about getting a particular candidate elected
 
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The whole fakenews attack on Facebook is bullshit as they just ignore Twitter.

Twitter is far more toxic then fb right now but oddly people just ignore twitter.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Really? I figured most people with Twitter accounts rarely look at them, let alone rely on it for political insights.
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Issue is a lot of political and media types user twitter and engages in a big culture war and circle jerk on there.

As a result, Twitter has a massive influence on the wider media and conversations in society then it should really have.

That is why Twitter is so toxic.
 
One thing about us elections is you can mostly ignore anytime they say want to pass a bill as president.

The president unlike the pm has maybe 1 year or even less before getting pistol whipped in the mid term and having no longer any control of their agenda.

Its more focus on how they deal with events or work with others that have the most influence over.
 
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