Whatsapp of Marcos Peña and the fake information campaign

Based on the fact that most citizens have a mobile phone and use WhatsApp the strategic team of change, ordered by Marcos Peña, will turn to the free email network in order to enroll in the school's parent groups, detect undecided, broadcast official messages and false news against the candidates of the opposition. The campaign will seek to ramify the spread of messages, as if it were a tree, with an almost incalculable range and the possibility that each recipient will become a transmitter and convince others to convert them into their own voters.

In recent days, there have been strong operations to spread fake news via WhatsApp, in addition to offensive messages already known to the opposition. Everything seems to indicate that the campaign will articulate around these axes, not only to convince but to discredit the adversary. Martín Romeo, director of the consulting firm SoloComunicación, told him The destape What 10% of respondents said that they would change their vote if a false news spoke badly, in an "uncomfortable or inadmissible" manner of the candidate that he thought he was choosing in the dark room.

Tal told Peña at a meeting with his own badistants at Vicente Lopez last month that the term will be that each person will organize a WhatsApp group with ten convinced members that they will vote for Mauricio Macri. Once this is done, the administrator should inform the communications team so that she sends out material to make it viral. "You have to give them information without being intimidated, send the necessary and just so that they are not tired and saturated", transcended the speech of the chief of staff.

In a note published in La Nación, it was clearly stated that the axes of the messages to be sent must guarantee their compatibility or the possibility of transmitting an institutional video of eight minutes, because, in general, the pieces are not so long. "You have to tell real emotions, citizens tell stories, we do not have to be the protagonists." The WhatsApp of the supposed audio of a happy truck driver for the Paso del Bajo, broadcast by Macri, is a clear example of this strategy.

"What works best in social networks, it's the audio-visual.A video will be more successful than an image and an image will be more successful than a plain text." who have the most success are most likely, even in terms of production, as a home video, "said Romeo. So, "The more likely the content is, the more likely it is that some media will have captured it and will start circulating as news."

But this is not only what influences the spread of false news: To believe that a false news is true has a great influence on partisan proximity. Thus, a voter of Cambiemos will rely much more on information against Kirchnerism and a convinced voter K will be closer to believing a fact against the ruling party.

This media has accessed a series of fake news broadcast via Whatsapp. In one of them, he said: "On the international level, who is interested in the return of Argentina to populism? Do you know who? Basically to Russia. Let's not forget that the Russians killed President Kennedy, as they will surely also kill Alberto Fernández, she would take the presidency and Argentina, again populist, would continue her route to Venezuela. "

The destape He discovered that there are two ways to run a campaign via this messenger network: on one side, you can send very long strings of the same number to all contacts, but WhatsApp can quickly detect it by as spam and block the number. Therefore, the most effective way is to "ask for information". How it works? The fundamental goal is for the recipients to be the initiators of the conversation.

For this, Cambiemos launched a number in the middle of last year so that the members of this alliance can communicate and ask for the information they want. Thus, the person will have the phone set as a favorite on his device and the sender will be able to send any messages that she wishes without any problem. The main advantage of this platform, as opposed to other social networks – Facebook or Twitter – is direct communication. The party has the private contact of the person, a close bond is generated and the possibility of sharing increases.

From Instant 365 Whatsapp Marketing they explained to The destape that on Facebook a message can be seen but "pbad". However, sharing the instant messaging service is much easier and more efficient and it is impossible to calculate how many times it can be replicated. "You share those you think will interest them"they explained.

In the various false information that circulated in the courier services, an audio recording was published on Florencia Kirchner. One lady baderted, without proof, that "she lives in Miami, hidden in Fisher Island, hidden in quotation marks". The woman said, "I never doubted it, I never doubted that he was not going to stay with flies and bananas in Cuba.You have to take a private plane and stay in Miami to live what it is: a thief and a rich princess. I send it to you so that you can pbad it on, someone can take it and make the report. "

In this regard, Romeo stated that 20% of those surveyed by their consulting firm said they "received information that they later learned that they were wrong and that they did not do anything". That is, not to have denied the misinformation they have distributed. "Those who have most experienced this situation are of legal age and are close to Cambiemos," he added. The destape. The problem is that "Generating a false news is quite simple. The characteristic is that they have to be apparently real: you have to take into account details, such as the wording, the image to use ", but not much more.

"The more likely the content is, the more likely it is that some media will raise it and start circulating as information" and that the false information will be installed and disseminated more forcefully, said the specialist: "If I read it in an information portal, it is generally badumed that what is circulating is real and that it is not necessary to verify it."

Thursday night, a false news circulated on the supposed discovery of "K money". They began sharing via WhatsApp a series of rock images and a video in which, when they were broken, the Kirchnerian fortune revealed by Macrismo was unveiled. "He sent it to my leader Dietrich, supposedly, he's going to TN today."he prayed the message sent in the chain. However, the operation was quickly dismantled as the footage belonged to an operation in Spain that had nothing to do with the spread.

These campaigns, like all, are not free. To be able to save a number from which to send hundreds of thousands of messages – for which special server is needed – you have to pay between $ 20,000 and $ 40,000 a month. On the other hand, if the broadcaster opts for an old and obsolete methodology such as SMS, the cost of each text can vary between 1.5 and 3 $.