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The Perfect Crime: Tech Companies Are Manipulating Our Elections and Indoctrinating Our Children — How We Can Stop Them

Posted on Monday, August 14, 2023
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Big Tech companies are deliberately manipulating the outcomes of our elections and the thinking and beliefs of our children. And they are having an enormous impact.

If you doubt that, consider this latest snippet of data from my lab, the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology (AIBRT).

Consider this: The GOP currently has a slim 10-seat majority in the House of Representatives. Without Google’s interference in 2022, it would likely now have a majority of more than three times that size.

The 2022 midterm elections that gave the Democrats a two-vote majority in the U.S. Senate had quite a bit of help from Google, and, to a lesser extent, from a couple of other major tech companies.

If Google had not interfered in the 2022 midterm elections, the GOP would likely have ended up with a Senate majority of at least two seats.

The Big Tech companies that exploded into existence over the past 20 years – as some of their prominent insiders have stated – have undermined our democracy, indoctrinated our children, and increasingly turned our freedom into an illusion.

Tristan Harris, a former “design ethicist” at Google, has warned that “the tech industry is creating the largest political actor in the world, influencing a billion people’s attention and thoughts every day.” Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist and one of the early investors in Google and Facebook, claims that Big Tech content has “morphed into continuous behavior modification on a mass basis.” Another early investor in these companies, the prominent author and venture capitalist Roger McNamee, has said that he now regrets having financed them, and asserts that they constitute “a menace to public health and to democracy.”

Rigorous Research

Such concerns are valid and the Senate numbers correct: we have been using rigorous, scientific methods to study Google and other tech companies for more than 10 years. During this time, we have discovered and quantified about a dozen powerful new forms of influence that the internet has made possible. We have also developed and deployed monitoring systems that track, record, and analyze the personalized content that Google and other tech companies send to voters and children 24 hours a day – in other words, we are monitoring their systems and doing to them what they do to us.

Our basic scientific, peer-reviewed studies clearly show the power that Google and other companies have to alter thinking and behavior. Our monitoring systems confirm that these companies are actually using these techniques, as confirmed by company whistleblowers, as well as by leaks of documentsemailsvideos, and other materials from Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

The techniques we have discovered – the Search Engine Manipulation Effect, the Answer Bot Effect, the Targeted Messaging Effect, and others – can easily shift the opinions and voting preferences of undecided voters by between 20% and 80% after just one manipulation. Google can also repeat these manipulations many times over a period of months prior to an election.

Assuming the effects of these techniques are additive, Google can likely produce even larger shifts in opinions and voting preferences than the ones from a single manipulation used just once.

Google also knows exactly who is vulnerable to these manipulations – who is still undecided before Election Day, for example – so they can target and bombard just the right people on a massive scale 24 hours a day.

Our research has shown repeatedly that the manipulations used can make them invisible to people, and can often produce shifts of 40% or more in the voting preferences of undecided voters without anyone having the slightest idea they have been manipulated. They feel free, even while they are being strongly controlled. As one journalist wrote, “It really is the perfect crime.”

Finally, our research measures the influence of “ephemeral experiences” – their term – meaning content that is seen briefly, affects the user, and then disappears forever, leaving no paper trail for authorities to trace, Most online content – search results, newsfeeds, video sequence, and so on – are ephemeral.

Can Google deliberately use ephemeral content to manipulate people? You bet. If you doubt that, read this 2018 article from the Wall Street Journal about some leaked emails from the company. In that email exchange, Googlers are discussing how they might use “ephemeral experiences” to change people’s views about Trump’s temporary 2017 travel ban on visitors from seven majority-Muslim countries.

Rapidly Growing Monitoring Capabilities

In the days leading up to the 2022 midterms, the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology monitored Big Tech content through the computers of 2,742 registered voters in 10 swing states, and preserved more than 2.5 million ephemeral experiences – data that is normally lost forever – on Google and other platforms.

We preserved overwhelming evidence of Google’s manipulations on their search engine, on their video recommendations on YouTube (owned by Google), and even on their homepage on Election Day. On that day in Florida, for example, 100% of liberals received go-vote reminders on their version of Google’s homepage, but only 59% of conservatives did (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Proportion of go-vote reminders on Google’s home page, broken down by the political leaning of the recipients.

The Tried and Tested Solution: a Permanent, Self-Sustaining Monitoring System

Google can, overall, easily shift the votes of between 20-80% of undecided voters; right now, that is about 40% of the electorate. This could be enormously consequential. By mid-2024, 20% of voters will likely still not have made up their minds on who to support. At that point, Google will still be able to shift up to 80% of the votes of those individuals – or up to 16% percent of the electorate.

If, in 2024, 158 million people cast ballots, as they did in 2020, it means Google could likely shift the votes of between 6.4 and 25.5 million people, thereby easily controlling the outcome of any election in which the projected win margin is less than 4%. No laws or regulations are in place to stop them, but our monitoring can. We are monitoring their systems and doing to them what they do to us. When the Big Tech companies know that their manipulations are being watched, they back off. It has already worked to completely shut down manipulations in one important election.

On November 5, 2020, three U.S. Senators sent a strong warning letter to the CEO of Google expressing concern about the extreme political bias our monitoring system had detected in the days leading up to the presidential election – bias sufficient to have shifted at least 6 million votes to Joe Biden.

As a result, Google immediately shut down its election manipulations in the two upcoming Senate runoff elections in Georgia.

We were monitoring Google content through the computers of a politically-balanced group of more than 1,000 registered voters in that state. Go-vote reminders ceased, and so did bias in Google search results.

In other words, monitoring, combined with political pressure from our leaders and our public, can and will force Google and other tech companies to stay clear of our elections and our children. It will also give legislators, regulators, and litigants the ammunition they need to challenge both the company and its executives in court.

Since 2016, we set up six election monitoring systems, for only the weeks leading up to each election. After the 2022 midterms – with the results being so blatant and disturbing – we decided that the time had finally come to set up a permanent monitoring system in all 50 states – a $50 million project that we were able to launch with $3 million in donations from some patriotic Americans.

Without a permanent system like this in place, we will never know the extent to which Google-and-the-Gang are messing with our elections, our kids, or even with our own heads.

Yes, they do mess with us. As explained in “How Google Stopped the Red Wave,” whenever you see online content screaming about Democrats who have perpetrated widespread ballot harvesting or ballot box stuffing, you are being manipulated by Google-and-the-Gang. It is their algorithms – controlled very precisely by their employees – that decide what content goes viral and what content is suppressed. If stories about other election irregularities are spreading like wildfire online and then being echoed on the news, it is because Google-and-the-Gang want them to. Why?

So you will not look at them – at the tech companies themselves.

As of this writing, we are preserving and analyzing Big Tech content through the computers of a politically-balanced group of 9,838 registered voters in all 50 states, and we have met our minimum “representative sample” thresholds in 5 states. We are also now monitoring and preserving content – some of which is quite alarming – through the phones and mobile devices of children and teens.

Best of all, we have now preserved more than 25 million ephemeral experiences on Google and other platforms – content that is normally lost forever. Our goal is to make our findings available to the public in real time, 24 hours a day, through dashboards such as America’s Digital Shield.

The problem is: unless we can find additional major funding soon, we will have to start scaling down our effort in August and may have to shut it down completely soon after.

If this type of election interference continues unmonitored and unchallenged, could the GOP itself – and ultimately all of American democracy – become ephemeral experiences?

Robert Epstein earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1981. He is currently Senior Research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology. He has published 15 books and more than 300 articles in both mainstream media outlets and scientific journals, among them, Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. He is the former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today magazine and was a longtime contributing editor at Scientific American. His 2019 Congressional testimony about Google can be viewed at https://EpsteinTestimony.com

Reprinted with Permission from The Gatestone Institute by Robert Epstein

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Rob citizenship
Rob citizenship
1 year ago

Praise for your work here with this article, Mr. Epstein — it reads as if it can provide some genuine hope for people who value the principles of Faith, Family and Freedom. Those of us who respect the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, respect the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights — we will never surrender to the dishonorable enemies of freedom. We will do whatever is necessary to keep the United States of America on the right course, using Honor, Honesty, Integrity, Courage and Loyalty as aids to navigation . In the spirit of respect for everything that encourages good character, good citizenship, respect for law and the will of God, respect for life and liberty. To protect the election process from corruption, to protect the youth of America from negative influence via the internet ( or any other means) these are honorable pursuits, requiring a sense of responsibility and respect for truth and liberty. This Country has stood up to and defeated evil forces before, and we can do it again. Let Good prevail. Let Liberty be the watchword. Victory for Truth . Courage !

David Millikan
David Millikan
1 year ago

Excellent article.
Charge EVERY Tech Company that INTERFERED with ELECTION INTERFERENCE and TREASON.

Rik
Rik
1 year ago

Example of the Perfect Crime is the Dimwitted Jackass residing in the White House today! I will NEVER believe that after a very successful 1st term, that Jackass Joe Biden could EVER honestly defeat President Trump without cheating and the truth is slowly being revealed!

Jim Crossan
Jim Crossan
1 year ago

It seems that a whole bunch of American voters are either easily manipulated or just plain asleep at the wheel. My advice is for them to wake up and stop getting your news from these parasites. After the votes are cast, manual counting only with sheriff’s deputies and national guard doing the counting. If the techie parasites don’t like it, they can reincorporate in Russia or China, give up their right to do business in the U S and just go away.

CLIFFORD F GERACI
CLIFFORD F GERACI
1 year ago

Just like these people suppressed free speech on College campus’s across America, now that they are running YAHOO, FB, YOUTUBE etc they are suppressing free speech on Social Media. These same college graduates are in the education department indoctrinating our next generation. Conservatives have abdicated so much power in the last couple of decades that it will be a gargantuan effort to get back on track. Evil is winning.

Steven
Steven
1 year ago

Due to the fact that the internet has basically never been properly regulated this Big Tech takeover of the social media platforms has been allowed to morph into this dangerous political and social monster. It can be very persuasive to those who do not follow politics on a daily basis. Their interference into our elections is totally unacceptable and very dangerous to our country.

Thinking
Thinking
1 year ago

I have always said computers are the downfall of society, culture and morals of a country. Because of the manipulation that can be done by government and those in power. And let us not forget big business and money grabbing criminals. I said this when IBM came out with the first PC.
Twitter and Facebook have no value, it is set up for government and big tech to spy on the people. All cell phones can monitor your conversation. I was talking to my granddaughter about that one day. She didn’t believe me. Till the next day she received all kinds of messages about our discussion and offers from businesses about which we had talked about to go buy this or that. The algorithms work. And what they are talking about here the ephemeral experiences would never happen if they had to send you a letter. You would have it in black and white.
That is why they now can indict Trump by interpreting his thoughts. You can’t proof that you received a message when it is gone in an instant. So after all this manipulation and brainwashing it is not such a stretch for the woke to believe Trump lied about that the election was fraudulent. Hillary Clinton said the same thing in 2016 and she was never charged with anything. Why not? Hillary destroyed thousands of emails and a server and nothing happened. Why Not? Why are the dems busy making America to be a communist country? Why do they do away with democracy they keep talking about we reps are trying to do away with. Only too many people have been or are being or will be in the future be manipulated by big tech. America may God bless and protect her.

jocko
jocko
1 year ago

VOTING MACHINES, NOW SUCK, AS they ARE ALL RUN BY CANCEROUS, ANTI-AMERICAN, LYING, CHEATING, libs

Robert Zuccaro
Robert Zuccaro
1 year ago

I was booted off Twitter in 2016 for posting a NY Times article about Hillary and Uranium One. I was booted from commenting on You Tube for Hunters computer. I know they censor users at their discretion because I’m one of those censored!

Robert Chase
Robert Chase
1 year ago

Why isn’t GOP 100% behind this effort? Who can we trust?

Douglas C
Douglas C
1 year ago

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” Goethe. Wow, so basically this article is saying there is a hidden in plain sight embedded fifth column (mostly Google) showing us the shiny thing over their (harvested ballots for instance) when all the time the big steal is through Google mind control of unaffiliated independent voters. I don’t know what concerns me more, the fact that alleged free market entrepreneurs Brin and Schmidt built a company whose core mission is to enslave America or that there are so many easily manipulable citizens susceptible to their techniques.
That this incredible reveal by Dr Epstein is begging for funding tells me that America is not really interested in saving itself, but rather prefers to believe the lies of manipulation to the hard work of educating oneself. I’m glad I’m of an age to where I won’t have to live for too long in this empire of lies and fools.

`RUSSELL REITZ
`RUSSELL REITZ
1 year ago

the only way a person can be manipulated. is in fact that they want to be manipulated.
and in no other way. and America must want to really be manipulated.
and “person” it shows. Why? not let China take over you people don’t want this land
and it shows. If you Americans wanted to do something about this. you would,
get 50,000, 70,00 100,000 people and “charge the WH..DC NO! IT IS
EASIER TO SET AND TALK ABOUT IT. TALK TALK TALK NEVER WON
A GAME. (ACTION DID)

Garyk
Garyk
1 year ago

More marxist democrat party corruption and immorality!
THROW THEM OUT!

jeppe
jeppe
1 year ago

I don’t use Facebook, Twitter, or other platforms like that.
The Dems say the election wasn’t stolen but between the MSM, the deep state and social media the constant drumbeat was hammering Trump and building up Biden. The MSM should register as PACs, that has been their function for years.

Bob Olden
Bob Olden
1 year ago

Every generation must battle to retain the freedoms our founders gave us. The young, raised on the overwhelmingly powerful internet, are also those who easily navigate the computer landscape. (Unlike my generation which is dying off quickly) Raised on leftist indoctrination, they enter social media with a naive expectation that it is benign. Some, however, venture to say something against the prevailing narrative and this becomes the moment of awakening when they discover the reality of the matrix of mind control. Perhaps they will have the courage to fight. May God give us thousands of heroes who will reject propaganda and pay the price to fight for freedom and truth!

sdg
sdg
1 year ago

Kill KILL everyone at Google, we won’t have fair elections until we stop the elitists tech companies. Bomb them all, destroy Google first then all the other tech com[panies, we don’t need any of them, nor the Chinese, throw them all out of America. Its war now whether you like it or not. Arm up and defend our country!!!!!!!!

Gabe Hanzeli kent wa
Gabe Hanzeli kent wa
1 year ago

gee isn’t this what they claim trump did?

LydiaSherrin
LydiaSherrin
1 year ago

Hello, thank-you for this informative article. Can this information be helpful to January 6th detainees and former President Trump? I am sure their legal representatives are aware of this issue.

Stephen Russell
Stephen Russell
1 year ago

Have to charge them since 2020 fraud alone (ammo for Trump cases alone)

K. Martin
K. Martin
1 year ago

“The problem is: unless we can find additional major funding soon, we will have to start scaling down our effort in August and may have to shut it down completely soon after.”
So how/where do people donate?

Dr. Robert Epstein
Dr. Robert Epstein
1 year ago

If you are in a position to help us raise the $50 million we need to complete building this system – and to make it permanent – please get in touch with me.
As of today, we are preserving and analyzing online content 24 hours a day through the computers of a politically-balanced group of 10,710 registered voters in all 50 US states, and we have also signed up more than 2,000 children and teens (with parental permission). We have preserved and analyzed more than 30 million ephemeral experiences this year alone, and we are finding extreme political bias on Google and other platforms.
Monitoring makes tech companies accountable to the public, which is why a permanent monitoring system needs to be built. Our 2020 monitoring project got Google to back down on several of its election manipulations after three US Senators shared some of our data with Google’s CEO.
Without a monitoring system in place to stop it, Google alone will be able to shift between 6.4 and 25.5 million votes in the 2024 Presidential election. Please help us if you can.
For more information, visit MyGoogleResearch.com” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow ugc”MyGoogleResearch.com, TechWatchProject.org” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow TechWatchProject.org, or EpsteinInTheNewYorkPost.com” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow EpsteinInTheNewYorkPost.com. That last article was written by Miranda Devine, the reporter who broke the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2019.

David
David
1 year ago

Along with the anti-American social media venues do you have mail in ballot ballot harvesting I am busy dominion voting machines are corrupt, even though our marxist media continues to spin that they are legit Those that comes over to prove the machines are corrupted or shut down by judicial tyrrany from the communist Democrats.

Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis
1 year ago

There is nothing new under the sun.
The Elite have conspired to steal our 1st Rights for generations. First, they controlled the print media, then TV and Broadcasting and now social media. Please see my Sway: It is time to restore 1st Amendment rights to real people!
sway.office.com/8EyjfBHJ9ca4s3gS?ref=Link

Robert Pelno
Robert Pelno
1 year ago

We have probable all been for Getting Computers out of our Election Process but how can we stop something like brain manipulation, especially in Children or teenagers when all they do is stare into a phone all day. Its sounds good to go after the tech company’s with total monitoring of them.

Sean Rickman
Sean Rickman
1 year ago

These big tech companies can do what they want,we can only hope that voters smarten up and see thru their corruptive”BULL EXHAUST”and vote the big tech robots out.As for me I will never ever again vote for a liberal,socialist,marxist democRAT.

Donna Brothers
Donna Brothers
1 year ago

Thanks for monitoring / pray it helps ????????

heil biden
heil biden
1 year ago

DEMORATS!

Timothy Welter
Timothy Welter
1 year ago

I sent for information on Mind Control not knowing how easy it truly is when using short wave radio transmitters they can force you to be scitsophrenic hear voices they broad cast at you. And you can’t usually stop it unless you find their exact broadcast frequency and Jam it, wish I was joking,hearing vote for Democrats 10,000 or more times A day could drive ya bonkers!!! SEMPER FIDELIS POISONED!!!”

Robin W Boyd
Robin W Boyd
1 year ago

The problem is the vast amount of money being scammed by tech companies working with Progressive politicians to justify using billions of tax dollars for issues that are not able to be controlled by mankind. With so much money being reallocated from American workers to government and tech companies, we must find a way to reduce the ability to use tax dollars for anything that cannot show immediate results that benefit American citizens.

james carlyle
james carlyle
1 year ago

Great agenda.

Gail Bosak
Gail Bosak
1 year ago

Thank you Mr Epstein for telling the truth !!! This country is doomed if we do not stand up now !!! And WE PAY everyone in that White House !! And now Obama is getting his revenge by 8 plus yrs of indictorating Socialism in this country and we were that naive to let it happen!! Sorry Democrats you were letting this happen !! You were playing god just like the millionares , billionaires and they believe there money gives them the right to play god In elections!!! And demand The Keystone Pipe line OPEN it up and I believe that true Americans should stand up and take our USA back !!

Nancy
Nancy
1 year ago

What happened in Germany during Hitler’s reign is happening right here is this wonderful country that is being destroyed by a corrupt government and those who believe they know more about what is good for us than we ourselves do. They believed that if you told the people the same thing enough times, through various media, they would believe it. Our younger generation is a prime example of that. I thank God that I am in the last years of my life.

Terry Dist
Terry Dist
1 year ago

Might your research be aided by distributed computing?

Give me a break
Give me a break
1 year ago

Come on

you people can’t use computers. You can’t tell the difference between windows 98 and the windows in your house Lol

InsanitySquared
InsanitySquared
1 year ago

Ever stopped to consider that it’s the Republicans’ fault that they cannot deliver a good message to the country? Maybe the fact that they have absolute morons in the party could be the culprit? Sure the tech and the media are against the Republicans but the Republicans have done a good job making themselves disliked by 50+% of the country.
Republicans offer no solutions for the most part; their main strategy is to just oppose the Democrats here and there, to make some noise about a few things. And to run imbeciles such as Trump, MTG, Boebert, and others who make the party look bad. I write this as a right-leaning independent because I see that with such stupid strategy the Republicans will keep on losing. Better come to your senses and become more moderate and intelligent to stand a chance in the future. Dumping Trump and nominating somebody rational could be a good start. Peace.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris takes the Oath of Office, being sworn in
Donald Trump vector portrait president of the united states
President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pray at the altar in the Redemptor Hominis Church Tuesday, June 2, 2020, at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)

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