What You Have To Look Forward To When It Comes To Political Spam

from the e-mudslinging dept

While we're glad that federal election rules do not regulate online speech, it still will be interesting to see how this results in a lot of political money flowing into spam campaigns. For an example of where we might be headed, just look south of the border at the vicious spam campaigns on behalf of each presidential candidate there. Most seem to be filled with typical campaign mudslinging -- but taken to an extreme level. Of course, as with traditional political mudslinging, you have to wonder if people are really convinced by these types of extremely negative ads that are clearly outright lies, exaggerations or statements taken out of context.
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  • identicon
    Sohrab, 21 Jun 2006 @ 9:27pm

    I think one advantage we have against the Politicians is the fact that they still do not understand technology and the web and how it can be used against them if they make or do the wrong thing. I dont believe they understand how fast news and info can travel via the web

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    DarkN00b, 21 Jun 2006 @ 9:47pm

    All I can say is thank god for Bayesian filters. :)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    g, 22 Jun 2006 @ 12:25am

    It worked for the Swift Boat Veterans...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Jun 2006 @ 6:34am

    Finally! An appropriate use for true blacklists!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Sanguine Dream, 22 Jun 2006 @ 7:53am

    As long as some ass-hat politician doesnt push for a law that states political spam must be allowed to circumvent filter software (you can pass it but good luck enforcing it) Ill be okay. This will just end up in the junk folder with all the other spam. And what kind of politician uses a method of spreading his word that is publicly looked down upon?

    I can see it now:

    Inbox(4)
    [ ] EnlRgeD PeNIs
    [ ] AJDjcjgEUHJcjdmgk.jsigSDGIKE
    [ ] Brought to you by (insert politician)
    [ ] HI, mY naME iZ CIndY, lEtS ho0kUP


    and guess whats gonna happen to them all?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    DV Henkel-Wallace, 22 Jun 2006 @ 8:36am

    It's annoying that the pols exempted themselves

    I get spam from the Democratic party. I classify it as spam because 1> I didn't ask for it and 2> they must have harvested my name from a third party or from some other method that spammers use.

    Pathetic.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mark, 22 Jun 2006 @ 9:13am

    mudslinging

    Of course, as with traditional political mudslinging, you have to wonder if people are really convinced by these types of extremely negative ads that are clearly outright lies, exaggerations or statements taken out of context.

    Ultimately the buck here stops, not with the politicians, but with the voters. If they just stopped voting for candidates who cook up vicious lies on the campaign trail, the mudslinging would stop. As long as it's a successful strategy, the democratic process will just sink deeper and deeper into the mud.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    admin, 22 Jun 2006 @ 1:28pm

    already happening

    I have been spammed by the RNC for over a year, and even
    wrote about it on my blog. I've called them on phone, explaining
    (politely) how stupid they are to be buying mailing lists and doing this as a) it annoys the piss out of whoever gets it and b) most of the addresses are very old - in my case they were using dead boxes on a domain i own that were last used over 10 years ago.
    But it seems they no longer have a lock as I just got one last
    week form 'Senator' Daschle.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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