Read more: 鈥�The next US president will be a social media expert鈥�
TO A politician running for office, the fact that you read 快猫短视频 is valuable information. Combined with data on your spending habits, your record of voting (or not) and even your social media posts, it can be used to design messages to appeal directly to you. 鈥淢icrotargeting鈥� is now routine in election campaigning (see 鈥淭he next US president will be a social media expert鈥�).
If that makes you feel a little uncomfortable, bear in mind that politicians are only following a trail blazed by retailers. It would be naive to expect politicians to pass up such a good opportunity to connect with voters, and if data mining allows them to understand what we want from them, perhaps we should embrace democracy鈥檚 latest turn.
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However, we should feel queasy about organised political attacks being passed off as spontaneous grass-roots chatter on social media. This is more insidious than attack ads and automated phone calls, which in the US must name their source. Expecting regulators to impose similar rules on Twitter and Facebook is unrealistic. So when it comes to online debate, remember that not everything is what it seems. Think before you retweet.
