Trolls Target Online Polls: Push Gabbard and De Blasio

[Milchshake]

Feels like everything from the 2016 Election will be back, but worse and more intense. Also, major Media has learned nothing from 2016 about the tactics of online manipulation of the news cycle.

Trolls target online polls following first Democratic presidential debate
Users from pro-Trump communities on 4chan and Reddit implored fellow members to vote for lower-polling candidates, specifically Tulsi Gabbard and Bill de Blasio.

Users from pro-Trump communities on 4chan and Reddit implored fellow members to vote for lower-polling candidates in online polls, specifically Tulsi Gabbard and Bill de Blasio, in the hours after Wednesday’s Democratic debate — a sign that digital manipulation efforts related to U.S. politics and elections remain very much alive.
Users on 4chan’s anonymous far-right /pol/message board repeatedly posted links to polls across the web, encouraging one another to “blow the polls out” for Gabbard, the congresswoman from Hawaii who has developed a substantial support base among many of its users.

The posts pointed users toward polls on national news websites like the Drudge Report, The Washington Examiner, and Heavy.com, but also polls from local news providers like NJ.com, which posts from several newspapers in the state.
“GIVE HER YOUR POWER,” read one 4chan post from 1 a.m. Thursday, pointing to a screenshot of the still-active Drudge poll showing Gabbard leading.

The next 17 months are going to be dark and full of terrors.

[Felya]

Called it... de Blasio rhetoric was very appealing to trolls.

[Elegiac]

And absolutely no one was surprised that Gabbard is the troll candidate.

[Independent voter]

On drudgereport.com they had Yang as #1 in their poll.

Yang is okay, but I don't think he is #1.

[Xeones]

The internet thought Taylor Swift should perform at a school for the deaf. Or that some names I'm really afraid to state here sounded like good things to call a new mountain dew.

Anyone who thinks online polls matter, or are indicative of anything beyond anonymous online polls are meaningless is barking up a wrong tree.

[PACOX]

I can't see their appeal to De Blasio but Gabbard is their queen for some reason reason. She doesn't like you guys, get over it.

Same people, MAGA Hats obviously, said they'd vote for Bernie over Trump. I don't see many of them switching over.

Its all trolling to try dissuade 'real' voters.

Some still try to say Harris is a no name politician and would crash an burn. I remember seeing a lot of that while she was slaying Sessions in Senate hearings.

[Slant]

Feels like everything from the 2016 Election will be back, but worse and more intense. Also, major Media has learned nothing from 2016 about the tactics of online manipulation of the news cycle.

Trolls target online polls following first Democratic presidential debate
Users from pro-Trump communities on 4chan and Reddit implored fellow members to vote for lower-polling candidates, specifically Tulsi Gabbard and Bill de Blasio.

Users from pro-Trump communities on 4chan and Reddit implored fellow members to vote for lower-polling candidates in online polls, specifically Tulsi Gabbard and Bill de Blasio, in the hours after Wednesday’s Democratic debate — a sign that digital manipulation efforts related to U.S. politics and elections remain very much alive.
Users on 4chan’s anonymous far-right /pol/message board repeatedly posted links to polls across the web, encouraging one another to “blow the polls out” for Gabbard, the congresswoman from Hawaii who has developed a substantial support base among many of its users.

The posts pointed users toward polls on national news websites like the Drudge Report, The Washington Examiner, and Heavy.com, but also polls from local news providers like NJ.com, which posts from several newspapers in the state.
“GIVE HER YOUR POWER,” read one 4chan post from 1 a.m. Thursday, pointing to a screenshot of the still-active Drudge poll showing Gabbard leading.

The next 17 months are going to be dark and full of terrors.

So... Trump voters vote for a low-ranking troll candidate. Taking away votes from Trump. How is this not shooting themselves in the foot?

[Edge-]

So... Trump voters vote for a low-ranking troll candidate. Taking away votes from Trump. How is this not shooting themselves in the foot?

That's not what's happening at all, these are just opinion polls. They're just trying to boost fringe candidates to start a tire fire within the DNC primary field. Nothing more, nothing less. They'll all still vote for Trump when the general comes along, they're just doing what they can to create some chaos to his benefit.

[Ooid]

Oh no how could they do that to an online poll? How will we ever recover as a nation from this egregious assault?

[Doctor Amadeus]

Yeah Not surprising. Tulsi is Garbage and the only ones rooting for her are Alt-Righters

[arandomuser]

yeah the anti war candidates that want to give putin more power in the world stage, i bet you 100% the yang gang will dissapear now since yang was honest and really made me like him when he said russia is our #1 geopolitical threat.

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Yeah Not surprising. Tulsi is Garbage and the only ones rooting for her are Alt-Righters

i absolutely despise tulsi, probably more than trump even because she runs in our primary , she said obama was too soft on terrorism for not killing enough civilians, and defended torture

[Redwyrm]

Pfft. Online Polls are about as useless and as easily manipulated as Trump is. I wouldn't trust an online poll to tell me the sun rises in the east.

[arandomuser]

Called it... de Blasio rhetoric was very appealing to trolls.

this is one that confuses me because he also said russia was a geopolitical foe, and the alt right ppl on 4chan are mostly russian stooges because they like russias ethnostate policies, so tulsi if a favorite of theirs, but de blasio seems the opposite. hes against authoritarianism and is pro diversity.

[Milchshake]

this is one that confuses me because he also said russia was a geopolitical foe, and the alt right ppl on 4chan are mostly russian stooges because they like russias ethnostate policies, so tulsi if a favorite of theirs, but de blasio seems the opposite. hes against authoritarianism and is pro diversity.

Disinformation in all axes is what these political trolls are about. They want to gaslight low information voters with sheer volume of bad information.

I wish online polls didn't matter. But they spread like memes on social media, twitter, mmo-c, etc. And thus have an impact on political discourse.


It's the responsibility of more informed voters to counter this, with better information.

Casual voter, "what's with all this Tulsi De Blasio hype?"
- People acting in bad faith are pushing them is what.

[Slant]

That's not what's happening at all, these are just opinion polls. They're just trying to boost fringe candidates to start a tire fire within the DNC primary field. Nothing more, nothing less. They'll all still vote for Trump when the general comes along, they're just doing what they can to create some chaos to his benefit.

Can anyone vote in those polls or do you have to be registered in the DNC?

[Edge-]

Can anyone vote in those polls or do you have to be registered in the DNC?

They're public online polls, anyone can vote or create bots to spam vote if they want.

[Redwyrm]

Disinformation in all axes is what these political trolls are about. They want to gaslight low information voters with sheer volume of bad information.

I wish online polls didn't matter. But they spread like memes on social media, twitter, mmo-c, etc. And thus have an impact on political discourse.


It's the responsibility of more informed voters to counter this, with better information.

Casual voter, "what's with all this Tulsi De Blasio hype?"
- People acting in bad faith are pushing them is what.

True. Can only remember the Howard Dean debacle and how he basically lost the nomination due to something that didn't happen.

[Fahrenheit]

On drudgereport.com they had Yang as #1 in their poll.

Yang is okay, but I don't think he is #1.

Yang is the sweetheart of non-serious, internet dwelling young men that want *Yangbux* to help them sit around in their parents basement and play video games. It’s a shame, because the guy has a legit point, and he seems like a good guy, but cretins have latched onto him.

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Biden, Harris, Sanders, Warren, BootEdgeEdge.

Everyone else is an also ran and needs to go home.

[spanishninja]

Yang is the sweetheart of non-serious, internet dwelling young men that want *Yangbux* to help them sit around in their parents basement and play video games. It’s a shame, because the guy has a legit point, and he seems like a good guy, but cretins have latched onto him.

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Biden, Harris, Sanders, Warren, BootEdgeEdge.

Everyone else is an also ran and needs to go home.

this is exactly why you can't just judge a candidate based on their followers. it's not like Yang is even close to the first person to try UBI.

[jeezusisacasual]

On drudgereport.com they had Yang as #1 in their poll.

Yang is okay, but I don't think he is #1.

I actually think Yang has some very solid points but i think he might be 1 election cycle to soon honestly. Apparently his mic was having issues and if that is true it is a shame because i feel like he wont be invited to another one.