With the death of Pope Francis, the world loses not only a church leader but also a moral compass

THE Cambridge Analytica scandal blended together many modern worries: powerful computing technology, oversharing on social media, whistleblowers and shadowy figures undermining democracy around the world.
How information was harvested on you and your friends, perhaps even without your consent, before being used to influence the outcomes of elections was a huge story in the media. It was summarised recently in the documentary on the subject, The Great Hack.
Yet the media’s focus (which is replicated in the documentary) on the supposed uniqueness of the technology deployed by Cambridge Analytica means that it loses sight of the fact that the capitalist class has always had various means of disseminating propaganda to influence elections, of which this is merely the next generation.
Science has always been mixed up with money and power, but as a decorative facade for megayachts, it risks leaving reality behind altogether, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT


