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   Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social)'s status on Monday, 18-Nov-2024 09:24:12 JST Minoru Saba

   "...ex-Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito was re-elected...after [automatically losing the post] following a historic [unanimous] no-confidence vote..."
   "...Saito won...by a 5.2% margin [over runner-up Kazumi Inamura]"
   "...Inamura, [former mayor Amagasaki City, Hyogo Pref.], said she couldn’t quite comprehend what had caused her defeat..."
   https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/11/18/japan/politics/hyogo-governor-saito-re-elected/
   🔸Social media influence overturning general expectations of an Inamura win echoes trend in recent Tokyo Gov. & national elections🤔
   #Japan

   • Embed this notice
     Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social)'s status on Monday, 18-Nov-2024 09:29:51 JST Minoru Saba

     in reply to

     "...Inamura said she felt like the election ultimately became less about the candidates’ qualifications or policies, but more about what people choose to believe in.
     “It didn’t feel so much like I was competing against Candidate Saito, but rather about confronting something else,” she said. “I must admit, I did feel something strange in that regard.” "
     #Japan #elections
     🔸Echoes of what happened in USA?🤔

   • Embed this notice
     Muro deGrizeco :toad: (murodegrizeco@toad.social)'s status on Monday, 18-Nov-2024 10:48:02 JST Muro deGrizeco :toad:

     in reply to

     @minorusaba

     "Political Technology"?

   • Embed this notice
     Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social)'s status on Monday, 18-Nov-2024 17:26:40 JST Minoru Saba

     in reply to

     • Muro deGrizeco :toad:

     @murodegrizeco Motohiko Saito won by 1,113,911 votes to Kazumi Inamura's 976,637 & former Japan Innovation Party Takayuki Shimizu's 258,388 votes with 55.65% voter turnout; so splitting of opposing votes let Saito win.
     https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20241117/k10014640801000.html
     Legacy media expected Saito to lose, but Saito's camp posted content on social media that more than doubled Saito's followers on X to 190,000 & Saito seems to have surged past Inamura in last week of the campaign.
     https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/election/20241118-223124/
     #Japan

   • Embed this notice
     Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Nov-2024 10:41:15 JST Minoru Saba

     in reply to

     • Muro deGrizeco :toad:

     @murodegrizeco It looked like a bandwagon effect amplified by social media algorithms.
     Not sure if professional influencers/hidden agendas were involved, but the message "that Saito is a reformist fighting those with vested interests and a victim rather than a perpetrator [of misdeeds]" sounds as if there's a standard textbook on crowd #manipulation and #Japan worryingly lags in media literacy🤔
     https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/3663/

   • Embed this notice
     Muro deGrizeco :toad: (murodegrizeco@toad.social)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Nov-2024 12:30:03 JST Muro deGrizeco :toad:

     in reply to

     @minorusaba

     Manipulation methods, now supercharged by new technology.

     For us, it was a terrible injury in 2016, and now our ongoing transformation into a fake "managed democracy" in 2024.

     We do not have ways to defend against these attacks.

     We barely have an understanding of what is happening.

     To me, it seems likely that these techniques, "political technology", are now going to be used everywhere, globally, continuously.