How likes influence your views

Facebook having 2.2 Monthly Active Users, together with Google and Twitter create three interconnected digital republics where the majority of human interactions take place and where increasing amounts of people spend a great amount of time daily. Such constellation created a fantastic environment for the development and usage of the targeted ad industry.

The same algorithms, however, have recently gained momentum in being used by bad actors in the creation of the so-called computational propaganda - custom made messaging aimed at exploiting the micro-vulnerabilities of the human mind in order to influence the public discourse and feed people's decisions. The talk will discuss the case of Cambridge Analytica, Brexit and the use of bots for influencing people's decisions.