Bitcoin Forum

The Facebook scandal opened people's eyes on how they're being manipulated.

The news is dominated currently by Cambridge Analytica, the data company that helped propel Donald Trump into the White House. It is in hot water this week, following reports that it harvested information from 50 million Facebook users without their consent.

You can see how they went about their business in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbeOCKZFfQ

"The two fundamental human drivers when it comes to taking information onboard effectively are hopes and fears, and many of those are unspoken and even unconscious. You didn’t know that was a fear until you saw something that just evoked that reaction from you. And our job is to get, is to drop the bucket further down the well than anybody else, to understand what are those really deep-seated underlying fears, concerns. It’s no good fighting an election campaign on the facts, because actually it’s all about emotion."

Could it be possible that the same kind of analytics and manipulations are called in by banks and/or governments to FUD cryptocurrencies?

I'm not interested in someone helping Trump become President. I wonder who paid for it. I still consider him an agent of the Russians. But this method of promoting trump says that those who support him fools. In my choice it is impossible to influence from outside. I always do my own analysis. But many people do not have their own opinion and this can be a problem for everyone.

I don't think that you have to even go that further if governments or banks really wanted to spread FUD about cryptocurrencies in the social medias. Just a simple 1 article can really put a lot of pressure on the investors and the market as well. And it some other social media publisher or author will just spin the news around for clickbait, I'm sure that it will have a domino effect putting a dent on the market price. So we don't need analytics here, its not rocket science. Try to test it yourself, just post negative or fake news in your social media account and I'm sure that it will draw a lot of attention and can bring a lot of negative sentiments to emotional traders.

It seems to me that such manipulation is possible only when a person has no ideas. Any negative news regarding cryptocurrencies only affects speculators. They are afraid of everything. For them, the main thing is their capital. I'm not afraid of any bad news in the cryptocurrency world. My opinion can not change Harvard, etc. I will support the idea of cryptocurrencies regardless of the price.

For us experienced users here on crypto any FUDS wont really easily shaken us but same as you said tendency on creating a panic or pressure would really be there no matter how false is the news is but there are still people who do took advantage and the same time people do easily panic too. Manipulation isnt really surprising either they would use trick to FUD crypto the truth would really still prevail.

We are living in a fragile world where almost everything can be manipulated through strategic marketing. Social media like facebook or instagram are just providing a platform to execute this. Google is doing such type of marketing since ages. Other social media websites are just nothing compared to Google. If you are an android phone user, you are actually giving away all your personal information to them willingly but unknowingly. So there is a huge possibility of what you have mentioned.

Just to give you an example, if google decides to discourage you from using crypto they can do it very easily. They will simply index all negative news about crypto like banning of crypto and negative statements about crypto. Then these types of comments would be served through their advertising distribution network. If you keep seeing such negative news about cryptos for few days, you will automatically turn negative about it in your sub conscious mind and apparently we have no way to fight such kind of manipulation.

In recent times we have seen a Polish YouTuber that was sponsored by the central bank of Poland to run an anti crypto campaign. If a central bank is willing to let itself sink that low, then we shouldn't discard any other possibilities of high level fud and manipulation. At the end of the day, the stakes in the crypto market are insanely high. It may very well have been an attempt of the central bank of Poland to stock up Bitcoin at lower levels, we just don't know. Central banks have stocked up thousands of billions in gold, so why wouldn't they slowly stock up Bitcoins to prepare for what has to come? Yes, it's speculation at this point, but I am not, and definitely won't surprised anymore. It's all part of the game apparently....

Unlike Cambridge Analytica, cryptocurrencies interest area is targetted towards an audience that is much smaller. Cambridge analytica had a secretive campaign to manipulate votes through advertisements on social media and collection of important data from such users. For cryptocurrencies, it wouldn't really require such a campaign (although it's most certainly possible). Most prominent and large banks are already in this game towards spreading fear and uncertainty for their customers who invest in cryptocurrencies. They've even gone to the extent to threaten their customers of account closures and breaking long-term relationships with them over just a small transaction in cryptocurrencies. Similarly in one of the presentations by Bank of International Settlements (BIS) they had mentioned that authorities must be prepared to act against the invasive spread of cryptocurrencies to protect consumers and investors. Agustin Carstens also described Bitcoin as a ponzi scheme. Most of these are just FUD's created by banks, just for the sake that the banks survive a little longer while Bitcoin attempts to overtake traditional money.

Central banks (at least the major ones) stocking up on cryptocurrencies does seem to be a very remote possibility to me. Countries like North Korea and Venezuela might still do it as a proxy for storing foreign exchange, as they effectively become shut out from the international financial system. If any regular country tries to stock up cryptocurrency, it would seem to me that they have lost faith in the world order and the IMF. I don't see that happening very soon,
If a targeted campaign like Cambridge Analytica does take place, my guess is that it would be sponsored by the big banks. It would have to be a continuous campaign, not centered around an event like the US election.

What else could people expect? Such things are not fair, but they will remain it this form or another.
This is not the first time on Facebook or other platforms and I'm sure it won't be the last. Everyone who uses it should be aware of it.

Of course! If something can be done you can bet that some people will try it. Watch a bit of youtube and you'll see people doing complete useless things to gain publicity because publicity means money. It's how all social media work.
Cryptocurrencies are still a gold mine and where's money to be made there will be people trying to make it. A great example of this was that "campaign" of Bitcoin Cash. Now it's more of a BCC (bitcoin crash) than BCH :D but back then there was a moment when they were shilling so hard that they managed to induce a market panic and people started selling BTC for BCH. It didn't last long, less than a week, but the pumpers made a lot of money on it.

Maybe it's too easy to FUD crypto without having to resort to Cambridge Analytica style data mining for crypto investor's inner demons, but I wonder if they at least hired some psychologists to help design the FUD attacks. Has there even been a day without FUD in the past few months?

I am surprised that many people are surprised of this truth. We live in a world of manipulations every seconds of our lives and this has been going on for centuries but just became so pervasive because now we live in an interconnected world. Just watch your TV, open your radio, browse the internet, listen to your friends or just open your ears to the noise outside (and even inside) your house and you know what I mean.

Unfortunately, we live now in a society where people are becoming dumb and immature to deal with those manipulations...because those are actually just suggestions in nature and it is all up to us to eventually decide on what to do with the information or enticements presented unto us. Mature people decide based on merits and not so much on emotions. How not to be manipulated? Shut down your connections to the outside world...never have an account in social media and never listen to what people can be saying. But can we do that?

The Facebook scandal opened people's eyes on how they're being manipulated. The news is dominated currently by Cambridge Analytica, the data company that helped propel Donald Trump into the White House. It is in hot water this week, following reports that it harvested information from 50 million Facebook users without their consent. But Crypto curencies are different thing.  Same kind of analytics and manipulations won’t be possible.

Data trafficking, manipulations these are nothing new. We all are being used knowingly or unknowingly. I don’t think experienced users will be panicked by FUDS. New users are logically a bit nervous and tends to panic easily. I strongly believe, we should stick to mainstream News portals only.

I don't think that there is any reason of being tensed for that kind of analytics or manipulations which are called by banks or Gov't. It is true that this kind of news in social media can make people worried before investing in cryptocurrency. But at the end of the day, people will understand by the own judgement.

"Could it be possible that the same kind of analytics and manipulations are called in by banks and/or governments to FUD cryptocurrencies?"-

not only possible but is being actively used in our every day's lives
it is just one of the examples that was made public for some reason,obviously,wasn't an accidental leak
public opinion is being manipulated every time you hear news,watch a new Hollywood blockbuster or see an ad
one of the examples-Overton window
in short:public opinion is moved from something that is unthinkable to acceptable and then norm through manipulation
cannibalism,bio-mechanical organisms,nano chip implants -this is just a tiny list of the things that are being shifted currently
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

My personal view is that it's possible, but why bother? People in crypto are few, so debilitating regulations wouldn't be met with much resistance. Run of the mill FUD like saying crypto might be banned in the future from a person with a position powerful enough is all they really need to make prices tumble. They do collect data without a doubt, but not for FUD.

This is perfectly possible in the future though, when crypto becomes large enough. At the moment, it's nowhere near as important as the presidency of a world superpower.

Yes, I think it's possible, but they shot their bolt with crypto-as-boogeyman so long ago that it's now the default position. If you pay attention to it you already know what they'll attempt to throw at you. It's water off a duck's back.

The longer they keep screaming, the more impotent it'll seem as people come on board anyway and realise it's all bilge.

I don't really see why they'd bother paying for advertising when they can change laws or add regulations. That's free and far more powerful.

As for the voting bit, anyone whose vote is influenced by a fucking Facebook ad should have the ability to vote taken away from them and given to farm animals. Their judgement is probably more sound.

Yes, why bother indeed?

Why have there been a NSA program, a CFTC crypto committee, a SEC cyber task force, congressional hearings, CEOs of the biggest banks slamming crypto, G20 meetings focused on crypto, a EU roundtable, several presidencies of world superpowers banning cryptocurrencies...

There must be something about crypto for all of them to bother.

100s of threads were made by newbie accounts on "omg Bitcoin will get to 100k USD in a year" all November.
100s of threads were made by newbie accounts on "omg Bitcoin will get to 4k USD" all January.
And this was here on bitcointalk.

But, nooo, there was no manipulation at all. Or maybe, a little...

You seem to have taken my post out of context. I was questioning the rationale behind funding a massive manipulative conspiracy which is a completely roundabout way of doing things, considering the fact that they can pass laws and achieve the same, if not even greater effects. They obviously already do such a thing now, but the topic is about Cambridge Analytica type tricks used to FUD crypto, not crypto attacks in general. If you think such attacks are happening behind the scenes, well, let's just agree to disagree.

I don't think that the banks and government are using analytics data for cryptocurrencies just yet, as it is more of a virgin territory for them. They will need enough time to understand the space before creating a strategy. However, it is already clear that they are so far using at least two (Uncertainty & Doubt) since the beginning of 2018, and they have been doing so directly using mainstream media - hence one of the major reasons why the crypto space has not done well since the turn of the year.

Every once in a while we can hear something about these scumbags that are twisting my brain with things that they are doing. However, spying on other people is a standard now and it will be as long as there are people in this world. Just techniques are changing. That Edward Snowden definitely knows something, right?

But my dear friend, audience these days is not as stupid as you think!! They use their own minds and brains, then come at some conclusion. If not all then I would say more than 50% of the people would try to analyze the situation then would come at a rational decision!!

It's not only about the social media that you've been emphasizing, there are hell lot of other methods to grab attention of people. But yes, nothing is as reliable n faster as social media is!! But manipulating people is not that easy these days. It requires a great deal of thought and effort to make people believe certain matter!

With $315 Billion mcap, cryptocurrencies aren't a concern yet that such a manipulation is required to drive the market. Market is mainly being manipulated by the exchanges who have all the detail about sell and buy order and the bots which manage the bulk trade for the big holders and traders. Those bots run on algorithms that are tough to crack and are quite fast. Right now, manipulation at the level of Cambridge Analytica is quite absurd.

Crypto market is highly amateur at the moment. Manipulation is indeed easy and that domino effect can be created by just a single piece of rumor not even a news is required. There might be people who think or analyse the news. But when the majority traders are selling or buying, market suffers.

I get what you're saying, you think a blanket attack on crypto is effective enough. In response I say, since they already spent that many resources setting up special task forces, crypto must be a bigger threat to them than we are led to believe. Microtargeting is not rocket science. Hiring a marketing psychologist and data analyst to tap into people's fears and coordinate their FUD strategy won't blow their budget.

Manipulating the crypto market is the easiest thing to do as long as you do it correctly. One Tweet may be enough to trigger a sell-off, an article taken out of context could do that as well.

It's just a matter of correctly timing your actions. It shouldn't be a surprise anymore that all these fud and manipulation attempts happen during an ongoing correction. People at that point are vulnerable. 

That's why you also see fud clear up once the market is rushing up again. An increasing market also increases people's confidence, which means that spreading more fud is a pointless effort.

Manipulation in this market means playing with people mentally. If you know when to strike, you'll be largely controlling this market without much problems.

And in response to that, I say, if crypto were large enough of a threat, why not just ban them? Some countries have already done it, and I would argue that it has been far more effective than any FUD attack they could launch. China has basically stopped just short of a complete ban and it completely crippled their trading volume, even proving to be effective enough to drive away traders to Hong Kong (https://coinjournal.net/chinese-cryptocurrency-aficionados-flee-hong-kong/). I know they can afford it, but why spend millions when you can pass a bill and be done with it? In the end, even special task forces are a way to enforce rules; rules that they themselves have written and can easily rewrite.

As I have mentioned in my first post, I do believe it's within the realm of possibility, but I simply don't see a reason for them to jump through all these hoops.

Here is a more recent article. Yes, the ban made trading in mainland China more difficult, but there's still a lot of demand.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/despite-crackdown-on-trading-crypto-and-blockchain-in-china-are-alive

Apparently, where there's a will, there's a way. Now they are trying a different approach, creating their own cryptocurrency.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/china-to-develop-centralized-crypto-protects-yuan-against-non-state-digital-currency