{"id":45528,"date":"2019-04-20T10:55:37","date_gmt":"2019-04-20T15:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=45528"},"modified":"2019-04-20T10:55:41","modified_gmt":"2019-04-20T15:55:41","slug":"beware-the-weaponized-web-says-guy-who-helped-elect-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=45528","title":{"rendered":"Beware the \u2018Weaponized\u2019 Web, Says Guy Who Helped Elect Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2019\/04\/19\/Beware-Weaponized-Web\/\">Beware the \u2018Weaponized\u2019 Web, Says Guy Who Helped Elect Trump<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie on Facebook, democracy and hope.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/News\/2019\/04\/18\/ChristopherWylie.jpg\" alt=\"ChristopherWylie.jpg\"\/><figcaption>\u2018This is what people really have to understand: most people socialize and get their information now on a set of American-owned tech platforms that have no rules.\u2019&nbsp;Photo from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/websummit\/\">Web Summit<\/a>, Creative Commons licensed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Christopher Wylie, of highlighter hair and Cambridge Analytica fame, was in Vancouver this week to talk about \u201cConfronting the Disinformation Age.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2018, Wylie blew the whistle on Facebook and consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica, cofounded by Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon, for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/series\/cambridge-analytica-files\">collecting<\/a>&nbsp;data without users\u2019 consent.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The extensive and personal data sets, Wylie said, were used to target people with political messaging that appealed to their specific psychologies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFashion data was used to build AI models to help Steve Bannon build his insurgency and build the alt-right. And the alt-right is an insurgency,\u201d he said in a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessoffashion.com\/articles\/video\/cambridge-analytica-weaponised-fashion-brands-to-elect-trump-says-christopher-wylie\">presentation<\/a>&nbsp;last November. \u201cWe used weaponized algorithms, we used weaponized cultural narratives to undermine people and undermine their perception of reality.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said the success of the targeting led to Donald Trump\u2019s election win and the Brexit vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thedemocracyproject.ca\/\">Democracy Project<\/a>&nbsp;wanted to know what the Victoria native had to say about democracy in Canada, and it shared this interview with The Tyee. Our interview was edited for clarity and length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Zo\u00eb Ducklow: Who does democracy work for, and who is left out of the democratic process?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Christopher Wylie:<\/strong>\u00a0Historically, democracy has worked for people who hold the power of information versus people who become recipients of information. Whether it\u2019s elections or monarchs, the control of what\u2019s allowed to be said or not said in the press has been the central aspect of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beware the \u2018Weaponized\u2019 Web, Says Guy Who Helped Elect Trump Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie on Facebook, democracy and hope. Christopher Wylie, of highlighter hair and Cambridge Analytica fame, was in Vancouver this week to talk about \u201cConfronting the Disinformation Age.\u201d&nbsp; In 2018, Wylie blew the whistle on Facebook and consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica, cofounded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[19367,25675,204,1493,1169,23884,23844],"class_list":["post-45528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-cambridge-analytica","tag-christopher-wylie","tag-democracy","tag-facebook","tag-social-media","tag-thetyee-ca","tag-zoe-ducklow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45529,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45528\/revisions\/45529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}