Buying Beliefs?

London's Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (Ulez) reduces vehicle exhaust-generated air pollution. Such air pollution seriously damages human health and reduces longevity. Anti-Ulez sentiment was credited with the UK government surprisingly retaining 'Boris' Johnson's old seat, in the 2023 by-election. Research on 'Twitter'/'X'conducted by social media analyst, Valent, concludes there's clear evidence of 'an extensive online campaign, targeted to undermine support for Ulez' (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/19/sadiq-khan-says-hundreds-of-thousands-spent-on-anti-ulez-twitter-manipulation). Valent found that almost half of the accounts on this platform mentioning Ulez, were created after November 2022. Of these, 90% exhibited signs of 'inauthenticity'. They used generic names, with high proportions of fake followers. Valent concludes that the accounts were set up to gain prominence for anti-Ulez on local user's time lines. It's estimated that this campaign (and Valent only looked at Twitter) cost at least £168,000. That sounds like a lot of money. It shows, however, how cheaply people's opinions can be manipulated and votes be bought. Democracy is very vulnerable,when exposed to targeted social media campaigns. Plutocrats, Big Business and other vested interests are all presumably 'rubbing their hands'.