Slovakia was perhaps the first warning shot? Did the deepfakes make the difference? Or were they one more last-minute dirty trick that made almost no difference?
In my opinion, almost no difference. I haven’t even heard about the deepfakes—not only I didn’t see them, but I also didn’t see anyone discussing them; this is the first time I am actually hearing about them. Also, the election results are basically what was predicted months ago, so it’s not like something changed during the last two days.
Looking at the historical results of SMER, their results were: 13.46%, 29.14%, 34.80%, 44.41%, 28.28%, 18.29%, 22.94%; so they didn’t even score exceptionally high this year. It’s just… unfortunately… this style of politics has a lot of supporters in Slovakia. (Tell stupid people exactly what they want to hear. When it goes predictably wrong, blame someone else. Duh.)
What changed the results was a decade of highest (per capita) Kremlin investments into disinformation network of 100’s [1000’s] of accounts on asocial networks & “alternative” media.
Wow, I didn’t know about “highest”, but 100% this. The problems in Slovakia are way deeper than “a surprising deepfake two days before election”.
In my opinion, almost no difference. I haven’t even heard about the deepfakes—not only I didn’t see them, but I also didn’t see anyone discussing them; this is the first time I am actually hearing about them. Also, the election results are basically what was predicted months ago, so it’s not like something changed during the last two days.
Looking at the historical results of SMER, their results were: 13.46%, 29.14%, 34.80%, 44.41%, 28.28%, 18.29%, 22.94%; so they didn’t even score exceptionally high this year. It’s just… unfortunately… this style of politics has a lot of supporters in Slovakia. (Tell stupid people exactly what they want to hear. When it goes predictably wrong, blame someone else. Duh.)
Wow, I didn’t know about “highest”, but 100% this. The problems in Slovakia are way deeper than “a surprising deepfake two days before election”.