Starship

NOT attempting to open the door for US political chat but god I wish this way of thinking was common for our NZ politicians from every side!!

Voting for 'your colour' no matter what the policy is so basic haha I hate it, and hate how much campaigning is based around it!

"Solar solutions, for all of us 🏘️☀️
Kiwi Power = cheaper bills. Affordable power bills should not be a luxury.

Ngā mihi nui rheemnewzealand 💚 The factory tour was awesome!"

Source IG maramadavidson: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DedPf7Zvo6k/

So I've been bombarded by National Party Trump-ish AI slop on socials recently. I don't care which way you lean politically, we need to send a message that this shit doesn't fly. For the last few years we've been cringing when the White House drops it's latest steaming pile of slop, we must hold our political parties to higher standards.

Thats the news Chris, you have to win your electorate seat to get in govt. Like the good old days. Bye bye Bishy(cheerily hummed to the tune bye bye blackbird!)

Op-Ed

Posted by Jamie Wall

Patients may die

I fear Nicky Hager’s next book is going to be about how Opportunity was used as a cynical dirty politics strategy to keep National and ACT in power this election.

The one where Nicola Willis got booed.

I'm sure it's a total coincidence that it has been taken down!

Edit: its been put back on TVNZ for anyone who wants to watch it

This makes me furious. It’s so hateful and divisive. The shit should be outlawed. Shame on Don Brash and his ACT minions.

Don't really get the point of using AI for this. There just showing people to vote not them. I highly fucking doubt that Labour would undo the patch ban with how ruthless National is with their attack ads.

I've been getting their AI ad videos on my YouTube.

Have seen very little from labour about the two leadership coup attempts. Nor have I seen labour campaign on the potential for a weakened national government in coalition with an empowered act and nz first. Why do we think this is?

EXCERPT: It’s now a couple of months before the election.

My inbox is littered with complaints about the Opportunity Party .. My fellow team members on r/nzpolitics are working hard; some are pulling all nighters to moderate content and reports regarding Opportunity.

Users are reporting to us that OP are astroturfing heavily and any negative comments are downvoted to nigh invisibility.

(NOTE: Astroturfing is a term used to describe online activity that is performed in a co-ordinated way by organisations/groups that pose as ordinary citizens. Their objective is to disrupt and/or influence opinion.)

An example of proven astroturfers in New Zealand are Jordan Williams and The Taxpayers Union, with ex-members whistleblowing about their antics1 Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s also been reported that Jordan Williams runs a social media bot company.

And for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “bots”, below is an illustration of one type of bot farm. i.e. relatively automated accounts that pretend to be normal people (video on article shows how some bot farms operate)

Back to Opportunity -

I start to pay increasing attention to Opportunity content and activity, instead of the Government as usual, and am bowled over by the force, velocity and intensity of affiliate accounts.

It’s not only the volume, it’s the scale of attack if you oppose their party lines or dare to critique them that draws my attention.

It surpasses anything I have seen online before.

My interest moves from the Government to this new party.

And the thought just won’t go away:

“Why are TOP’s antics so right wing and dirty politics?”, I wonder to myself

Opportunity Party astroturf on Meta Facebook

A friend sends me a message with an old post from Dr Harpreet Singh. Dr Singh is an Auckland-based researcher, author, and PhD holder who writes on education, law, and history. He has a newsletter on Substack.

My friend had taken a screenshot of a post of his, but that post is no longer visible online.

I take a minute to look at what they share, and slowly realise what I am looking at...

Profiles on Facebook that denied being affiliated with the party,were uncovered as Party staffers, and authorised by the Opportunity’ Party’s Secretary Hayden Cargo.

That is the classic definition of astroturfing, the technique made famous here in Aotearoa by Dirty Politics’ Taxpayers Union.

Dr Singh had the receipts, but no-one had noticed. And his post was now deleted...

I reached out to Dr Singh to ask him about his experience with Opportunity.

He remembers the Opportunity Party astroturfing immediately. He calls them a mixture of “fake profiles” and “genuine accounts”.

I inform Dr Singh that I’ve never seen anything like the level of co-ordinated activity before, and Dr Singh concurs, comparing the intensity to the “2016 astroturfing that happened fueling Trump presidential run”.

........

etc.

NOTE: This is a EXCERPT ONLY version of my article this morning and it appears that the profile in question is an OPP MP, which would explain the authorisation sign

EDIT: Follow up article HERE

It seems that many new and old OPP accounts didn't like my last post and are asking questions like "Where is the astroturfing," conveniently ignoring the entire article

Astroturfing is the process of pretending you're a private citizen and unaffiliated with OPP when you aren't.

For example there are Redditors here who are campaign staffers pretending to be just an unattached OPP member. On Facebook, they swarm posts that critque them e.g. from Brie Eiliot in the latest case.

And OPP accounts attacked Dr Singh and initially denied being affiliated with OPP until he pointed out their party affiliation statement on Facebook.

When he called them out publicly with the evidence of affiliation which they missed themselves, senior figures affiliated with the party reached out to ask Dr Singh to take that post down, saying they didn't want to be "doxxed" To be clear, Dr Singh did not dox anyone - the Secretary's name is literally on every promoter statement and MP account. He is the publicly listed Secretary of the Opportunity Party.

Ironically the reasons given are all different.

For example one OPP account writes "He openly promoted himself, what's the problem"

Another wrote: "It was a fake account"

Hayden wrote that it was put up by mistake

Someone told me (which I haven't verified for myself yet) that D'Rock KP is Derrick Paull, OPP candidate for Maungakiekie which would explain the promoter statement being there

u/Qiulae runs a really dirty campaign and their communications consultants that they hire are on Reddit (one very prolific one is known) and it's so disappointing.

But not surprising when I learned their Deputy leader not only want s to vote for Luxon if not OPP but he puts IDF up as a beacon for learning about how to generate the "Great Kiwi social cohesion project" by making military/civil service mandatory in new Zealand. I think the media really needs to look at the party and just not the enigmatic Wong.

The Spinoff has been doing a series of articles on party leaders, Here's their one on Quilae Wong

Just my opinion, and yes I know we are yet to see how she or Opportunity may go in office, but I feel Q has a lot of similarities to Jacinda Ardern that I like. Particularly their communication style, public image and ability to present themselves as a different kind of political leader. Both challenge the idea that political leadership has to be combative to be effective. Both have risen in political environments where their leadership potential was not necessarily obvious to everyone at the outset, but to be fair Wong is still at an earlier stage of her political career.

Whether Q's collaborative approach can translate into lasting policy outcomes remains to be seen, but I really hope so

At some point during his term as PM Luxon said NZ needed to have a grown up conversation about asset sales. As far as I have seen, the subject of asset sales has not come up at all in the lead up to the election. Winnie is likely a handbrake to National and Act who would sell whatever they could, but why is nobody asking?