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the 2016 presidential election was in
many people's minds the election of
Cambridge analytic the first time that
political parties realized they could
target tiny sections of the electorate
online so if that was the technology
that defined the last election what kind
of technology will define the 2020
election well I've been asking political
operatives here in Washington that
question and one thing that keeps coming
up as an area of interest is so called
relational organizing this is the idea
that campaigns will use their own
activists lists of friends and family
members and get them to get their
message out that way that of course is
not a new idea but in the era of the
smart phone campaigns are getting much
more sophisticated about the ways in
which they can target your family
friends several Democratic candidates
have developed apps which their
activists can download those apps will
then with the activists permission break
all of the contacts from that person's
phone and compare those contacts with
its own list of people who might vote
for that candidate if it finds a match
between those two lists it suggests to
that activists that it send a message to
the member of their family or a friend
who might think of voting for the
candidate and in fact they have so much
data on those people they can suggest
individually tailored messages designed
specifically to hit that particular
person's preferences or views now the
campaign's themselves stressed that all
this is being done with their activist
expressed permission but if you get a
text from a friend or family member or
colleague or acquaintance during this
campaign urging you to vote one
candidate or another bear in mind that
candidates campaign might know more
about you than you realize now each week
I try and answer a different question
from a viewer
previous vlog CHF GBP asked a question
about the Chinese telecoms
equipment maker Huawei and essentially
wanted to know what has happened to the
lawsuits that were filed against the
company by the US Department of Justice
now I think that what CHF GBP is
referring to here are the cases against
huawei for violating US sanctions
against Iran and stealing technology
from t-mobile and the answer I'm afraid
is that not a lot has happened we did
have a ruling this week in the case
which was that the court ruled that the
lead Huawei lawyer on the case James
Cole had a conflict of interest because
he had previously worked for the
Department of Justice and so couldn't
remain on the case but one year after
these charges were filed
we're still at this stage where both
sides are arguing about who exactly can
argue the case on their behalf the
wheels of justice turn slowly and
particularly so in a case as complex as
this thank you very much for that
question and if you have a question on
this topic or any other please leave it
in the comments below