Plutonis posted:

its very funny how [...] Pizza Hut [is] "fancy" restaurants in Brazil

Plutonis posted:

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1405219989712424966

Echo Chamber posted:

Is there a map thread?
https://twitter.com/benjaminnorton/status/1405387959189315585?s=21

AnimeIsTrash posted:

The grayzone folks did an interview with a Mexican journalist about AMLO, it elaborates a bit more on stuff people were talking about a few pages back.
https://soundcloud.com/moderaterebels/mexico-amlo-us-meddling-media-election

Ghost of Mussolini posted:

SexyBlindfold posted:

looking kinda desperate there, Keiko

https://twitter.com/KeikoFujimori/status/1407033426016804883?s=20

babypolis posted:

outsourcing your electoral fraud to the right wing psychos on facebook and whatsapp is the kind of foward thinking attitude that peru needs

quote:

A digital dark arts campaign by mercenary hackers helped Enrique Peña Nieto win Mexico’s 2012 presidential election, according to an imprisoned Colombian hacker who says he was involved.

Andrés Sepúlveda, an online campaign strategist, claimed he had also helped to manipulate elections in nine countries across Latin America by stealing data, installing malware and creating fake waves of enthusiasm and derision on social media.

In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, the Colombian – who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence – boasted of his ability to hack into campaign networks and manipulate opinion.

“My job was to do actions of dirty war and psychological operations, black propaganda, rumours – the whole dark side of politics that nobody knows exists but everyone can see,” the 31-year-old told Bloomberg.

However, Sepúlveda’s claims are fiercely contested by some of those he accuses. Juan José Rendón, the Miami-based political consultant who allegedly hired the hacker, told the Guardian he had only met him once and used his service only indirectly via subcontractors for website design in 2005.

“He is delusional,” Rendón said in a phone call. “All the things he describes are exactly like the TV show Mr Robot.”

Denying all accusations of wrongdoing, Rendón challenged Sepúlveda and Bloomberg to provide evidence of the claims in the form of emails or CCTV footage. He also cast doubt on the suggestion that the Internet is decisive in shaping public opinion.

“Can you really change the will of the people through social networks? Maybe in Ukraine or Syria where there is no alternatives. But here (in the Americas) where there is TV, a free press and door to door campaigns, it is not so influential,” he said.

Although he was well paid for his work, Sepúlveda said his primary motive was political. He supported right and centre-right candidates against what he called “dictatorships and socialists governments”.

In Mexico, however, he reportedly had a $600,000 budget to undermine the campaigns of Peña Nieto’s two main opponents on either side of the political spectrum: the ruling National Action party’s Josefina Vázquez Mota and the Democratic Revolution party’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

His team are said to have installed malware at the headquarters of the two candidates, which let them monitor phones and computers.

According to the report, Sepúlveda saw speech drafts, meetings plans and campaign schedules as they were typed into the keyboard.

Using this information, he used a “virtual army” of fake Twitter accounts to direct public debate towards subjects that would strengthen Peña Nieto – for example by acclaiming his plan to crack down on drug violence – or embarrass rivals.

Sepúlveda said he brought high-quality fake accounts that had been maintained for more than a year to make them look genuine, as well as generating 30,000 low-end Twitter bots that bumped up numbers of “likes” and “follows”, thereby creating memes and shaping discussion.

reignonyourparade posted:

That tweet guy wasn't just bullshitting but looking at the tweet he was kinda... not exaggerating things, and not even really being alarmist since it's legitimately stuff to be concerned about, but kind of presenting it in the most pessimistic way if that makes sense? Less "three pronged" and more "two separate legalistic challenges more grasping at straws than anything else, and also some people within the military that i don't think any of us can actually judge the size of/what they'd actually be capable of."

Kokoro Wish posted:

The guy actually has a YouTube channel where he makes videos on a lot of SA politics and other subjects. The last video was on what was going on, and he sounded a lot more doubtful of this coup attempts efficacy as time has gone on. There's not enough cover for people to jump in and support any of these actions being taken, as far as interested foreign parties go.

gradenko_2000 posted:

Some Guy TT posted:

i think reasonably often about all those articles ultra confident about the united states inevitable victory in the vaccine goodwill wars being followed up by our stockpiling all our vaccines for no reason

Atrocious Joe posted:

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1408128565527339010?s=20

Seems like a number of Argentines (Argentinians?) may have died in the collapse as well.

Maximo Roboto posted:

https://twitter.com/PopulismUpdates/status/1408186165711179776