black hat politics

WILL CRITCHLOW

Black hat politics

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All examples are made up unless explicitly linked to real events.

None of the real examples in this presentation have opposing politicians behind them (as far as I know!).

I’ve chosen to demonstrate examples from the perspective of the right attacking the left, but all examples could work in either direction.

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1.Hidden attacks

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What it is:Attack ads run on platforms like Facebook that allow demographic targeting and make it possible for your base never to see your attack ads

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How?

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Choose demographic targeting to avoid your own supporters

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Why it worksAttack ads are often designed to reduce opposition turnout rather than make people vote differently. The biggest risk is the negative backlash of “going negative”.

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In some cases, it’s possible (by avoiding journalists and very political people in the targeting) for the opposition campaign not even to notice the campaign.

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How campaigns defend against it

Use “honeypot” social media accounts with a variety of personas in order to see a wide range of marketing

Can also be worth social media monitoring to find people discussing ads you never saw

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2.Reattacks

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What it is:Retargeted attack ads designed to appear only to opposition supporters and only on their trusted websites

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How?

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Step 1: create a site designed to be shared by your opponents

I’m not claiming this particular article (http://dis.tl/IunQJX) is involved in anything like this

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Step 2: add re-targeting pixel

Visit recorded with a cookie on the user’s

machine

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Step 3: run attack ads that are seen only by opponents

Your advert goes here, only for the

visitors who saw your linkbait.

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Why it works

To the target, it looks like their chosen publications are running attack ads against their candidate

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They can be made to appear everywhere for the target audience

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At the same time, they’re never seen by your own supporters

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And they can even be made to look like editorial if you wish

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News websites have unsold inventory and don’t monitor the ads placed on their site

Print newspaper advertising revenue adjusted for inflation (http://dis.tl/Jb5q2M)

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How campaigns defend against it

Monitor social media to hear about ads you never saw

Source screenshots, details of platform

Shut down campaigns through the platform and / or host website

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3.Wiki-

circularity

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What it is:Getting negative stories to stick on Wikipedia long enough to make it into mainstream press, at which point Wikipedia is updated with the mainstream press reference making it hard to rebut.

See also: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/a-reputation-20-problem

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Why it works

Journalists often trust Wikipedia but don’t cite it

(because they know they shouldn’t trust it)

Famous example:http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/05/wikipedia-hoax-reveals-limits-of-journalists-research.ars

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How campaigns defend against itFast responses to defacement of Wikipedia

Obtain rapid corrections from journalists and get them to update their original story so it can’t be used as a Wikipedia reference.

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4.Rankslurs

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What it is:Creating websites designed to rank for opposition candidates’ names or policies

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We know this can be dangerous

Not suggesting Santorum’s issues were caused by an attack by opponents. Image source: http://dis.tl/I2pdO4

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Why it worksPeople trust GoogleDone cleverly, it’s plausibly deniable

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How campaigns defend against it

Pre-emptively creating a strong online reputation with a variety of your own sites ranking for the candidate’s name

Close monitoring of the web and search results

Crisis management

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5. Impersonatio

n

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What it is:Taking advantage of internet anonymity to impersonate candidates.

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How?

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Either:

Express plausible but damaging opinions while impersonating a candidate or staffer.

Bonus points for adding to the conspiracy by deleting public evidence as outcry begins.

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Or:

Shoot for virality, sacrificing a degree of plausibility.

For example, having a fake twitter account say something damaging and retweet it with strong “duped” genuine accounts.

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It can even work as an obvious spoof

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Or as an attack on a staffer

http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/aolf0/anon_posts_pic_of_himself_doing_drugs_at_work_to/

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Why it worksMore people see the (often viral) fake opinion than the (very not-viral) denial.

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How campaigns defend against it

Monitoring and rapid rebuttal on official sites or social media

Direct approach to comment-bearing sites and to identity services (e.g. Gravatar)

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So?

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Attack ads are nothing newhttp://adage.com/article/campaign-trail/political-ad-ailes-trippi-murphy-snyder-pick/232576/

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But the web is changing politics

Faster than many realise.

I encourage anyone with an interest in politics or the web to read this story:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/134/boy-wonder.html

This particular article is from 2009, but I think we’ll see even more eye-popping things in the next few years.

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Will Critchlow

Will co-founded Distilled in 2005.

Although most of his work has been in online marketing, he’s seen plenty of reputation management issues and spent enough time with political operatives to get the inside scoop.

Everything in this presentation is illustrative and none of the ideas here are intended to represent specific campaigns.

Will doesn’t recommend playing dirty political tricks.

Founder – Distilledwill.critchlow@distilled.net

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