this just in to CNN Russian hacker is managed to infiltrate the computer network at the Democratic National Committee and where ever since Russia was accused of hacking and meddling in the 2016 US presidential vote more than 30 other countries have had their elections targeted by similar online disinformation campaigns the tactics include fake online posts doctored images and audio recordings even deep fake videos it's very easy now for people to manipulate public opinion using free and very simple technologies and Russia is no longer the game's only player potentially places like Iran or Saudi Arabia and China
anybody who wants to have an influence can and can do it and pretty easily but a group of Canadians is now fighting back academics and data scientists from across Canada have launched the digital democracy project a first-of-its-kind initiative to monitor the information Canadians are consuming online by analyzing hundreds of thousands of posts on social media each week we're interested in for instance identifying one particular rumor and then figuring out where that rumor entered the social media ecosystem or really get one one hashtag who is the first user the project will also be conducting regular national
surveys to see how social media is influencing public opinion and we think this is the first time at this scale these two tools have been brought together to really understand how the media environment is shaping the election Jeff sample Global News Toronto
