CSC 379 SUM2008:Week 1, Group 2

Political Uses of Spam for Special Interests and Influencing Elections

Acts of defamation through spam and chain letters present many ethical concerns and can have significant impacts on the public perception of political issues, candidates, or can be used as a medium to spread misinformation to surreptitiously influence elections. Provide an overview of the ways spam and chain letters can be used to influence politics, providing a brief review of the ethical concerns each raises, and links to online resources that cite specific instances or effects of each. Also briefly examine legal and ethical considerations in regulating political spam. DUE FRIDAY 11:30PM

http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12754-hackers-could-skew-us-elections.html

Spam and Chain Letters in Politics

Acquiring votes by e-mail is a logical extension of campaigning by telephone or mail, and is nothing but marketing for political ends. Whenever the e-mails are unsolicited, they qualify as spam. They can be sent by, on behalf of, or without any knowledge by, the favoured party or candidate. Young politicians and older statesmen, are coming up with savvy ways of using spam and chain letters to influence or communicate with large audiences. Spam campaigns have become increasingly more popular on a national level and even on local political levels. With the technology readily available it would make sense for politicians to utilize this as a resource to reach a certain demographic audience or a broad range of its constituents.

With this new power to connect with voters and constituents also comes with the ability to abuse this power. In a completely ethical world political figures would only spam those who have agreed to receive such emails. And the content of the spam would be truthful and relevant to the reader. In reality this is not the case. Many people in the city of Pittsburgh for example, complained about receiving several spam emails from a candidate for mayor which they did not request. Even after complaining and requesting to be removed from the list the spam still came in. It was later determined that someone who didn't work for the mayors office entered these peoples emails through a web form off the mayors website.

Another form of spam in the political realm are chain letters sent by independent groups or individuals. Some of the more famous instances of political spam were during the 2004 presidential elections. These messages can be as caustic as they are humorous. One shows a photo of two toilets marked Kerry and Edwards with the sign, "Flush The Johns." A bogus e-mail from "George W. Bush" recites a "résumé" with embarrassing disclosures.

Ethical concerns

Politicians love to spam for the same reason that Viagra vendors and alleged widows of deposed Nigerian dictators do: Bulk e-mail is a cheap way to reach lots of people. Sen. Joseph Lieberman was caught spamming, as was Howard Dean's ostensibly tech-savvy campaign. Republicans Bill Jones, the unsuccessful candidate for governor of California, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and senatorial candidate Elizabeth Dole have resorted to junk e-mail, too.

Politicians could, of course, regulate themselves. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have enacted rules governing how their members may use U.S. mail. Unfortunately, most elected representatives show no signs of being able to police their Internet outreach.

http://news.cnet.com/Political-spam-as-national-pastime/2010-1028_3-5213287.html

Taking a cue from phishing con artists, political scammers might seek to hijack or spoof the official sites of campaigns or local election boards, giving their misinformation an added veneer of credibility. Similarly, spoofed e-mails could be employed to persuade recipients that information is coming from a trusted source. In addition to conventional denial of service attacks, the Internet might also be used to facilitate distributed phone-jamming, of the sort often used to disrupt get-out-the-vote efforts. “

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