# The GCHQ has "ability to change online polls?" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 17, 2014, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gchq-has-ability-to-change-online-polls/693347 "2014-07-17T09:58:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gchq-has-ability-to-change-online-polls/693347/1 "2014-07-17T09:58:12Z")
I’m not running around with a sky-is-falling reaction to this, but I do have kind of a question about it. According to [this article,](http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/14/gchq-tools-manipulate-online-information-leak) the [GCHQ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GCHQ) has the ability to “change outcome of online polls.” I am having trouble coming up with a scenario where a government agency might “legitimately” have a reason to do that. Let’s say that we leave out reasons like **“the bad guys tried to skew the results their way, so we’re just skewing them back,”** Under what circumstances could it be right and proper to falsify the results of a poll which reflected actual peoples’ genuine opinions? ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gchq-has-ability-to-change-online-polls/693347/2 "2014-07-17T11:51:02Z")
Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t online polls self selecting and not truly representative and thus mean nothing? If that is the case then who cares that a government agency tampers with the results. It is not like they mean anything anyway. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gchq-has-ability-to-change-online-polls/693347/3 "2014-07-17T12:27:37Z")
Oh, it’s British. Nevermind then. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gchq-has-ability-to-change-online-polls/693347/4 "2014-07-17T12:48:03Z")
Well, I guess they could justify it by saying that, should they have polls on aspiringterrorist . com (\*) to decide whether they’re going to bomb a given target this week, the GCHQ could weigh heavily on the “Nays” side and thus save countless lives. More seriously, it could be used to manipulate public opinion in other countries. Or, of course, some news organisation in the UK could have a poll where they ask if the GCHQ’s surveillace is too creepy and abusive, and they can weigh heavily on the “Nays” side. But that seems like cheating. - fictional name ---
**Author:** ![Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@Absinthe\_Anecdote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absinthe_Anecdote)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gchq-has-ability-to-change-online-polls/693347/5 "2014-07-17T12:55:55Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Oh, it’s British. Nevermind then. They only know how to do that because NSA showed them how. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gchq-has-ability-to-change-online-polls/693347/6 "2014-07-17T19:03:03Z")
> [@Cyros](#): > > Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t online polls self selecting and not truly representative and thus mean nothing? If that is the case then who cares that a government agency tampers with the results. It is not like they mean anything anyway. Well, exactly. There’s a serious “why do they care?” factor too. But I was not saying that an online poll is necessarily an accurate representation of the views of an entire population. It’s still the genuine views of actual people, however small or specialized the cohort. It’s more the principal behind it, and the assumptions underlying. I keep thinking, when is it ever okay to subvert the results of what is presented as a bona fide reflection of public opinion in any sector? When I was growing up, I was told that this is the kind of thing they did in those bad totalitarian nations that we feared, and that was why they were evil. (also why we had to have regular “duck and cover” drills.) Furthermore, as someone who has serious reservations about electronic voting and [the 2004 Presidential election,](http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0601-34.htm) I just don’t like the idea of it, period. I think that being blase about a relatively innocuous incidence of this like the one in the article is dangerous because of the precedent it sets. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gchq-has-ability-to-change-online-polls/693347/7 "2014-07-17T20:24:50Z")
Hey, look. I have the ability to affect online polls too ```auto for i in `seq 1 100`; do curl -X POST http://aspiringterrorist.com/poll/123?option=yes; done; ``` Can I be a l33t GCHQ spy now? ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gchq-has-ability-to-change-online-polls/693347/8 "2014-07-17T20:57:06Z")
Shit. Now how do I know whether our vote that the Monkees are worthy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a bona fide expression of SDMB opinion, or nefarious manipulation by British intelligence? ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gchq-has-ability-to-change-online-polls/693347/9 "2014-07-17T21:11:51Z")
Well, the sort of people who believe in voting are the sort of people who trust whatever powers may be to do the counting. At some point one just has to accept the result as what the Establishment has agreed is the result. And that’s as good as it gets.