2008 US election campaign spam
Monday October 29, 2007 at 6:12 am CST
Posted by Chris Barton
As a brit I’ve always predicted that with the upcoming US elections the online battle will be the most interesting part for me (aside from the comedy of course). So imagine my surprise when I’m greeted by this lot over the weekend:
Subject: Ron Paul Eliminates The IRS!
Subject: Iraq Scam Exposed, Ron Paul
Subject: IRS Fears Ron Paul?
Subject: Ron Paul Wins GOP Debate!
Subject: Ron Paul Exposes Federal Reserve
Etc.
They all linked YouTube searches for “ron paul” which results in the usual electoral propaganda you’d expect 372 days before an election.
Later in the day it changed however. With the usual addition of bayes poison, randomness in the subject lines and a tinyurl and no doubt some additional sending resources since they just burned a load, this campaign moved up a gear.
Subject: Ron Paul Wins GOP Debate! ydB
Subject: Ron Paul Wins GOP Debate! XZHMuk
Subject: Iraq Scam Exposed, Ron Paul qCnUa
Subject: IRS Fears Ron Paul? edukDy
Subject: Who Is Ron Paul? lyI
Subject: Ron Paul Stops Iraq War! nALGU
This is trivial stuff as I’m sure you can appreciate, but that tinyurl did catch my attention:
tinyurl 345s6g -redirects-> 301 Moved Permanently -to-> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeHWW5gbc0w
“This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.”
Now I have no idea what that video was (and frankly dear, I don’t give a damn!) but what struck me is that this would be a really efficient way to remove your competitions videos from youtube. I’m not picking on YouTube here, I believe almost any social site would do the same.
There are 2 people I feel for in this messy situation: postmaster@*.gov and abuse@youtube.com 
You’ll be seeing lots of this stuff in the coming months, the most worrying of which will be the false donation solicitations and finishing with incorrect dates for actual polling day!
I wonder how many candidates have EV certs? or “security logos” on their donation sites.
October 29th, 2007 at 8:31 am
This is either a toxic attack from another campaign - similar things have happened ALREADY - or it’s a complete imbecile.
I’m strongly inclined to think toxic attack. The bayes poison is what gets me. There are so many accusations of spamming that this is exactly what those in other campaigns want - actual spamming.
No real supporter would do it. Real supporters show up at rallies wearing, ‘WERE N UR STREETS, SPAMMIN UR RALLIES’ shirts instead, and point to the ground presence to fight accusations of spam.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Well,
I just want to thank Mr. Barton for pointing out that there’s a REAL candidate with everything this country needs to stay on it’s present course. I had no idea before this Mr. Colbert had actually thrown his hat in the ring.
Also, someone should advise Mr. Paul to get hotter looking chicks for his Rte 1 overpass spamming.
Giod Bless America!
Tom
October 31st, 2007 at 2:59 pm
This video was a very popular.
It was entitled, Ron Paul Addresses Banking Hearing on Moral Hazard
Ron Paul undressed Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on Moral Hazard. Basically, Paul called the Fed on its theft of the poor via inflationary monetary policy. Bernanke danced.
Read the comments here:
http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=AeHWW5gbc0w
November 1st, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Good point. Sadly, YouTube’s policy is actually going to encourage a lot of spam. If all it takes to get a very popular video off the website is to send around a piece of spam, I would imagine all of the campaigns (except Ron Paul’s - he doesn’t play that way) will start sending out email for their competition.
This is the easiest way to derail a candidate that I have heard of yet. Brilliant. Instead of going after the crook who did this, they attack the campaign. Why is that the usual tact in American policies - blame the victim and let the crook take a pass and accomplish all he wanted to do.
Nice job You Tube! I suppose I understand your policy, but it is not fair to Dr. Paul. Since most of his success comes from the Internet and your site I imagine both of you will suffer.
Sadly, no one seems interested in finding the crook and sending him to jail for treason and for interference with a Federal campaign.
I know this is not the show 24, but doesn’t anyone have the capability of finding this guy?