PEOPLE YOU MAY KNOW' REVEALS A WAR ON DEMOCRACY BEING WAGED WITH BIG DATA
As a journalist taking assignments in war-torn areas, London-based American expat Charles Kriel developed an interest in big data and its use in disinformation campaigns. This eventually led to his appointment as special advisor on fake news to the House of Commons' DCMS (Digital, Culture, Media, Sport) select committee as it investigated the roles Cambridge Analytica, Facebook, and Russia played in influencing the Brexit referendum.
Disappointed with Britain's lack of political will to pursue needed regulation of tech companies, Kriel and film director Katharina Gellein Viken, determined to bring what they'd learned about big data manipulation, microtargeting, and tech companies' undermining of civil society to the broader public.
The result is the new documentary People You May Know, starring Kriel and directed by Viken, which spotlights the role played by churches, many of which use big data for microtargeted outreach, in the information manipulation ecosystem that continues to erode democracy in the US, the UK, and elsewhere. Distributed in the United States by Sundance and available on Prime Video, this --------- documentary couldn't be more timely for an election cycle marred by turbulence, uncertainty about such fundamental matters as peaceful transfer of power, and a right-wing Christian power grab.
CK: What's important to understand is that the Koch brothers commissioned a religious charity, Cofi, and a religious software company, Gloo, to work with Cambridge Analytica to create a platform where churches could specifically target people who are suffering from mental illness or grief in order to recruit them into the churches, and then to weaponize them for the politics of the far Right.
