Targeted viral mail that selectively wipes out Democratic harddrives, or that critically impairs the PCs of Republican activists? The day before an election, or the day before the other "side" has something *real* that will happen or be deployed or be announced?
Byond specific, highly malicious attacks that capitalize on social networks, it's interesting to note that email is highly under-utilized as a political tool: where is the political spam? I'm not talking about the DNC spamming me, but I wonder why there aren't more fringe groups filling inboxes. The political economy of non-commercial spam seems similar to commercial spam--i.e. low hit rate, bad PR images, high payoff for each successful hit--and there is also an "allies externality". If my group spams, the PR cost is not just borne by my group advertising, but probably my (potentially more mainstream) political allies. Moreover, just as you don't win customers by pissing them off, you don't gain adherents to your cause by flooding their inboxes. But most of us know political groups that clearly don't care what the mainstream thinks of them. Hate groups, prostletizing religious zealots, fringe political parties--these groups all have acknowledged that they are not going to win the PR battle. The reason LaRouchians stand on corners with large signs and Jehovah's Witnesses go door-to-door is that they want to catch the few people who might be interested, and public, annoying displays are the easiest way to catch them. I am curious as to why these groups are not filling our inboxes. There are enough web-savvy conspiracy theorists out there, and some of them must be desperate to wake us sheeplike masses from our ignorant slumber. They call in to AM talk shows. Sometimes they leaflet a neighborhood. Where is the spam? A few hypotheses: 1) They haven't discovered spam yet, or haven't thought of it yet. 2) Even extremist nuts aren't sick enough to spam people. 3) The cost of starting a spam operation is too high. 4) There is enough of it now and the above model is wrong, or there are fewer extremist groups than I think. I'm not terribly satisfied with any of these. Any ideas? /\llan