Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> That, of course, is in addition to the obvious reason that democratic countries by their very nature just don't do stuff like that

They absolutely do, with varying levels of transparency. I remember getting annoyed when the Scotland Office were posting anti-independence propaganda in the form of Buzzfeed listicles: https://www.buzzfeed.com/youdecide2014/scotland-the-uk-10-my...

Now, a couple of clicks will reveal that "you decide 2014" do say that they're the UK government, but it's not instantly obvious when you're looking at the Buzzfeed article.

The current UK Transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has previous for running a firm to game Google AdSense: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/sep/02/grant-shapp...

There have been several announcements of UK web propaganda operations: https://www.realwire.com/releases/British-Army-to-present-at... / https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/31/british-army...



Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: