I’m interested in observing the techniques of campaigns and its operators. Some campaigns appear to readily exploit the social media loopholes and play dirty. Social media platform like Facebook hosts anonymity and fake accounts. Thus the birth of bad actors and trolls to confuse, distract and smear opponents. I’ve noticed lots of these public comments against Vicky Cayetano and Kai Kahele.
On a quite side note, it’s no surprise that Elon Musk’s failed $44 Billion acquisition of Twitter is partly related to the “proportion of fake and spam accounts on the platform.” Twitter acknowledges that it has “false or spam accounts on its platform.”
Here is a troll example that we can examine:
Context: Lt. Governor Josh Green has been at the State Capitol for 18 years as a legislator as well as a doctor. The office of the Lt. Governor is a full-time position but Green continues his medical profession. Green is constantly seen in his medical scrub all over Hawaii. Green has cleverly branded himself as a “trusted caring” doctor in his political campaign.
The public began to question his medical training and credentials when “Dr. Green” positioned himself as the expert during the pandemic management for the State of Hawaii. He held countless confusing and contradicting press conferences. Green is not an epidemiologist but says he’s an emergency care doctor. Independent residents say it’s all about Green getting free airtime for his gubernatorial aspirations.
inevitably, the issue of being “board certified” became a thorn in his side. The record appears to show that Dr. Joshua Green is not “board certified”.
Recently, Dr. Green, in his grubs, stated that he was “board certified”. Whether Green is certified or not is a non-issue. However, it’s his discrepancies that alarm voters. There is continuous social buzz about this discrepancy.
Enter the disinformation or damage control for Dr. Green:
EXAMPLE: This is candidate Kai Kahele’s FACEBOOK page:
Below is the out-of-nowhere comments written about “Josh Green” on Kai Kahele’s post above. Note the introduction of confusing jabber and gibberish in the comments. The troll further went to drag in anti-semitism for whatever motive there may be. I QUESTIONED the troll simply because I was curious and wanted clarity.
For the sake of clarity, I posted a question ( See comment above) to ask if this person were a troll. Almost immediately, the FB account became unavailable as below. Does this action point to a troll account?
Below was a screenshot of what the troll account looked like. The entire troll comment in Kai Kahele’s post is now deleted.
I have seen tons and tons of these similar posts. For the sake of honest and intelligent dialogue in our democracy, I encourage all to public question comments like the above. Do it politely.
We must protect robust and intelligent dialogue in our democratic society. Get rid of bad actors and dirty games.
