Brexit: and the use of data analytics

A Devon MP has been asking awkward questions:
Russia 'probably' interfered with EU Referendum, says Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw - recap | Devon Live
Brexit hacking: MPs DEMAND inquiry over Russian involvement | UK | News | Express.co.uk
'Highly probable' Russia interfered in EU referendum - The i newspaper online iNews
'No Evidence' for Russian Interference in EU Referendum, Says Cabinet Office - Breitbart

However, it is very unlikely that this will go much further:

The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked

Carole Cadwalladr - Observer - Sunday 7 May 2017

Someone close to the intelligence select committee tells me that “work is being done” on potential Russian interference in the referendum.

Gavin Millar, a QC and expert in electoral law, described the situation as “highly disturbing”. He believes the only way to find the truth would be to hold a public inquiry. But a government would need to call it. A government that has just triggered an election specifically to shore up its power base. An election designed to set us into permanent alignment with Trump’s America.

The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked | Technology | The Guardian

And yet things might be closing in on the person we are supposed to be 'aligning' ourselves with:
EXCLUSIVE: Six FISA Warrants Granted in Trump Russia 
Alfa Bank, Trump Tower and a Social Media Impeachment

What has this all got to do with us down here in Devon, though?

There is the interplay of themes which does affect us:
Futures Forum: Brexit: and Trump and infrastructure projects
Futures Forum: Brexit: and climate change: "How Donald Trump and Brexit help us understand the cultural politics of climate change"
Futures Forum: The relocalisation movement and Richard Heinberg >>> “Transition is more important than ever in a world of Donald Trump”
Futures Forum: Brexit: and the new globalization

Especially in these election times:
Futures Forum: Brexit: and post truth politics: no extra money for the NHS
Futures Forum: Brexit: and post-fact politics

As the East Devon Watch blog says, in reference to the above piece in today's Observer:


WHY VOTERS MUST THINK FOR THEMSELVES

7 MAY 2017

The focus of this article is Brexit but it could be anything – the NHS, education, the environment, foreign policy.

It’s about how shady companies manipulate news and advertising to serve the ends of those who employ them and how together they can create a fake world that people can be influenced by without realising it is happening, so good are they at the job.

Don’t let social media or newspapers or politicians with particular allegiances tell you what to think – don’t even let East Devon Watch tell you what to think! Look around you, see for yourself, listen to different views (the more different to yours the better), think about how your life is now and how you would wish it to be for yourself and others in future – then put your cross in the box that fits best with that vision.

“ …the capacity for this science [data analytics] to be used to manipulate emotions is very well established. This is military-funded technology that has been harnessed by a global plutocracy and is being used to sway elections in ways that people can’t even see, don’t even realise is happening to them,” she says. “It’s about exploiting existing phenomenon like nationalism and then using it to manipulate people at the margins. To have so much data in the hands of a bunch of international plutocrats to do with it what they will is absolutely chilling.

“We are in an information war and billionaires are buying up these companies, which are then employed to go to work in the heart of government. That’s a very worrying situation.”

Why voters must think for themselves | East Devon Watch
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