The relevant part here is how TikTok was used to push an unknown character from a nobody to getting 22% of the votes in the first round, all while no one was aware of this. The polls didn't show him among the favorites. More than that the campaign was so we'll targeted that only people likely to vote for him saw the TikTok content making everyone else completely unaware of his presence.
However, due to their enormous influence, they have avoided de jure registering as such.
By your logic, the Romanian dark horse can't possibly be a Russian op because they never officially registered as a Russian agent.
While we use paper ballots and stamps for the actual voting and hand count every vote, transmiting and centralizing the results is done using IT infrastructure.
The cyber attack and the TikTok manipulation are 2 separate but related things.
Meta, Google, Apple, and Microsoft's algorithms have similar reach.
The real issue here is that afaik no country ever figured out a good way to regulation election speech in a democracy, past social norms and economic realities.
It won't achieve anything. The issue is not about China/Russia/America or mobile apps it's about media and media control.
Even your comment is filled with a negative narrative - Western Democracies VS our enemies ( China, Russia, etc ... ).
> drive out American relationships for China and Russia to take over quietly
Is it bad for a union to have multiple relationships or multiple vectors of development?
> it is creating mayhem in the systems we have grown to trust
I don't see it, but if something can cause a mayhem in the systems this means that these systems are flawed?
The problems the EU faces are the problems every one of the members would face alone. The system isn't perfect and needs constant tweaking but the alternative is being alone against the likes of Russia or China.
I often think what the EU would have been, had they implemented a shorter austerity in the aftermath of '08, and hadn't succumbed to the migrants, choosing to enforce a strong and severe border regime. The social safety net and the sentiment for further integration would both have been much stronger.
But of course, Merkel gotta Merkel and Germany gotta Germany. There should be a lot more resentment against Germany than there is currently.
Consequently, they need immigration to maintain population growth.
Unfortunately, not many folks understand how many orders of magnitude more difficult it is to maintain an economy and quality of life in a shrinking country.
Shrinking demographics are a consequence of a high education workforce, along with an uncontrolled immigration crisis. Importing randos to procreate with your native population is not a winning strategy.
In an ideal scenario, Germany and Japan would have collaborated on developing tools and technologies for automation. You sustain your growth with widespread use of robotic technologies.
Turns out, when you promise people more money, less taxes, and fewer of "them" (whoever the them-du-jour is), they tend to vote for you!
Historically, this truth has been balanced out by trustworthy news sources, but social media effectively imploded 80% of those by eating their ad revenue.