The Great Hack and the state of news

I have been watching a few documentaries on Netflix. There are some good ones about music and I am enjoying Our Planet, even if some of it is depressing when you see the damage we do to nature. A recent addition is The Great Hack which documents some of the investigations into Cambridge Analytica and how they used data obtained from Facebook.

It reminds me a lot of Citizen Four that followed Edward Snowden as he started revealing what the NSA had been up to. Both documentaries follow events as they unfurl with access to the people involved. Both also feature journalists from The Guardian. I read a lot of the Cambridge Analytica (CA) reports at the time, but this feature gave me more insight.

They use various digital effects to emphasise our dependence on data and how much we leak about ourselves. CA were very good at processing that data and were caught in the act. Other agencies are going to be doing the same things and laying low. With enough data you can pinpoint the relatively small numbers of people who can be persuaded to change their vote and swing an election. CA also participated in other 'psy-ops' in elections around the world. In Trinidad they initiated a youth movement that persuaded black people to not vote.

There is lots of mention of Brexit as well as the US elections. People from the company are very cagey about how much they were involved in the Leave campaign. CA CEO Alexander Nix could make a good Bond villain as he seems very manipulative. He is obviously a very smart man.

In this age of fake news there are forces trying to destroy confidence in the so-called mainstream media, but we need them as they have the resources to investigate what is going on and hold the guilty parties to account. Random Youtubers and bloggers cannot do this.

I have been browsing various fact checking websites to get a different angle on some stories. Snopes has been around for a while. It is useful for checking out sensationalist emails. Politifact and Factcheck cover US politics. Full Fact does the same for the UK. Any news source depends on its reputation. Not every journalist is out to sensationalise every story, but of course they have to sell their work to earn a living. Not that they are likely to earn as much as many politicians. I happen to believe that a lot of politicians are sincere too. I do not hold with blanket statements that everyone is corrupt. They are all people just like the rest of us with families and principles. Some are ruthless, but the world would be a lot worse if they all were.

Do not believe everything you read.

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