:00:00. > :00:32.Donald Trump's ideas aren't just different, they are a series
:00:33. > :00:43.She's been taking plenty of money out for herself.
:00:44. > :00:45.It's the most expensive playground fight in history.
:00:46. > :00:48.In Donald Trump's America, people are put back to work.
:00:49. > :00:53.Let's remember what happened on 9/11, these were not refugees.
:00:54. > :01:01.This Monday sees the first US presidential debates,
:01:02. > :01:04.and, although voters will probably be reminded of what the nominees
:01:05. > :01:11.I can't help thinking there'll be at least a little bit
:01:12. > :01:17.The last big presidential battle was all about YouTubeing
:01:18. > :01:21.the candidates into people's homes, but now Facebook and Twitter
:01:22. > :01:24.are the main online battlegrounds, and that's not just in the US.
:01:25. > :01:27.There's no doubt about it, some of the big platforms
:01:28. > :01:34.You've got national parties who want to get their
:01:35. > :01:37.political messages out, and they have to pay for that -
:01:38. > :01:41.that's bought advertising, in the old sense.
:01:42. > :01:44.And if they don't do that, they don't get their message
:01:45. > :01:47.to voters, and that's where Facebook have got us all on lockdown.
:01:48. > :01:50.The Tories were ahead of the game at the last general election,
:01:51. > :01:54.the other parties are going to catch up by the next general
:01:55. > :02:00.But social media is about more than paid for advertising.
:02:01. > :02:05.Politicians can engage with voters, their messages can go viral.
:02:06. > :02:08.Supporter groups can rally and massively big up
:02:09. > :02:14.We even judge how important that message is based on the number
:02:15. > :02:22.So it's probably quite important to know that not all of these
:02:23. > :02:33.They are fake followers, run by political campaigns
:02:34. > :02:35.to amplify certain topics, follow certain people
:02:36. > :02:41.These are the political Twitter bots.
:02:42. > :02:44.The bots will take the message and repeat it an hour
:02:45. > :02:48.later, or maybe two hours and three hours later.
:02:49. > :02:52.They'll send it off to their own networks of followers, tens, 20,000
:02:53. > :02:55.times beyond what the politician can initially reach with
:02:56. > :02:59.Phil Howard is a professor of political science
:03:00. > :03:02.at the Oxford Internet Institute, whose research has revealed that
:03:03. > :03:04.political campaigns are now routinely using bots
:03:05. > :03:13.Including deflecting Donald Trump's comments about Mexican-Americans.
:03:14. > :03:14.They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime,
:03:15. > :03:20.He made a claim that Mexican-American voters
:03:21. > :03:23.would support him, would be voting for him in a big way.
:03:24. > :03:29.And shortly after making this big claim, there was a community
:03:30. > :03:32.of Latino Twitter bots, so folks with Mexican sounding names,
:03:33. > :03:35.who were US citizens and using Twitter to voice
:03:36. > :03:41.A little bit of research showed that these were all new users,
:03:42. > :03:43.they weren't actually users, they were bots, tweeting the same
:03:44. > :03:45.message, sometimes exactly the same message,
:03:46. > :03:57.And so he was able to say "Mexican-Americans will vote for me"
:03:58. > :03:59.and point to a community that was actually just
:04:00. > :04:03.There are very strict rules governing what the media can report
:04:04. > :04:11.To your knowledge, are there rules that cover social
:04:12. > :04:15.I think there should be more public policy oversight,
:04:16. > :04:19.over social networks, social media networks during elections.
:04:20. > :04:23.In the US context, the elections, the Federal Elections Commission
:04:24. > :04:25.there, has decided that electronic communications are not part
:04:26. > :04:33.For example, they'll be following many more accounts
:04:34. > :04:43.They might have blank or irrelevant profile pictures and names,
:04:44. > :04:47.and they may be tweeting at an inhumanly fast rate.
:04:48. > :04:51.High-quality bots, however, will look a lot more human.
:04:52. > :04:54.In fact, they may even be connected to a real human,
:04:55. > :04:55.who can give occasional real responses.
:04:56. > :04:58.There's actually a market in these false accounts.
:04:59. > :05:02.So you buy 1,000 users who look good, they'll join five
:05:03. > :05:06.or ten at a time, over the course of a month or two.
:05:07. > :05:09.By the time you're into the campaign season, three weeks before,
:05:10. > :05:15.This is a great question, and it's part of the research
:05:16. > :05:21.The people designing political bots often work for the political
:05:22. > :05:28.campaign teams that a candidate will hire when they want Office.
:05:29. > :05:31.Hiring somebody to write bots, to amplify your message,
:05:32. > :05:36.is now a normal part of political campaigning in advanced democracies.
:05:37. > :05:41.But then there are the bots that, so far, haven't done anything...
:05:42. > :05:46.This bot is an example of a bot that has joined relatively recently.
:05:47. > :05:50.It's following 108 people, but nobody is following it.
:05:51. > :05:53.We think of this as a sleeper, a sleeper bot, it's
:05:54. > :06:01.My great fear is that large networks of these bots may be activated
:06:02. > :06:08.Someone will activate bot networks to either bring up the vote,
:06:09. > :06:16.There's enough bot networks out there, and we've seen them used
:06:17. > :06:18.in sensitive political moments, that I'm pretty sure they'll play
:06:19. > :06:30.an active part of political communication in the US election.
:06:31. > :06:35.Next up, we're going to take a look at some new tricks you can do
:06:36. > :06:38.Burner numbers for Tinder, no roaming charges, a stealth mode
:06:39. > :06:42.Dan Simmons looks at the revolution happening in mobile,
:06:43. > :06:44.and he's met one company boss who's taking no prisoners.
:06:45. > :06:57.I've only rang you like a hundred times today.
:06:58. > :06:59.Just stop calling me, erase my contact.
:07:00. > :07:22.This is the Vodafone voicemail service for...
:07:23. > :08:28.According to this man there is an easy and hard way
:08:29. > :08:35.to control who has your digits, and that was the hard way.
:08:36. > :08:38.Our phone numbers, our mobile numbers, is the things that's
:08:39. > :08:41.When someone doesn't want to give his phone
:08:42. > :08:44.number, he's telling you, I give you my e-mail,
:08:45. > :08:47.add me on Facebook, etc, etc, but the phone number
:08:48. > :08:51.Taig used to be a stuntman, oh, and he's also a double
:08:52. > :09:00.But now he's reinventing himself as the boss of one of several
:09:01. > :09:02.new phone companies that is starting to shake
:09:03. > :09:10.His onoff service is changing the rules in France, and now the UK,
:09:11. > :09:20.We are bringing like a virtual operating system that provides
:09:21. > :09:22.multiple phone numbers, but not only that.
:09:23. > :09:25.For example, you can send SMS at a delayed time.
:09:26. > :09:28.You can put the call on voicemail, but leave the SMS on.
:09:29. > :09:31.You cannot do that with any phone in the world.
:09:32. > :09:34.It gives you so much flexibility in your hands,
:09:35. > :09:37.to give maybe a different phone number for your business,
:09:38. > :09:40.for your friends, for one night, or whatever.
:09:41. > :09:45.Users can go into stealth mode, to hide the numbers they're
:09:46. > :09:49.using for certain things from prying eyes, or adopt a number that's local
:09:50. > :09:55.Using apps to make internet calls isn't new, but both caller
:09:56. > :09:57.and receiver often have to have the app installed,
:09:58. > :10:08.As well as data, it uses the GSM network to connect to the handset,
:10:09. > :10:16.so you can do SMS messages, get wider coverage,
:10:17. > :10:18.and just one person, even if that's the receiver,
:10:19. > :10:22.There's another benefit that we've all been seeing with these
:10:23. > :10:25.new messengers and that's cheap, or apparently free, calls.
:10:26. > :10:29.You may say, well that's all very well, but I still need to pay
:10:30. > :10:32.for a mobile contract to get a connection to use
:10:33. > :10:43.FreedomPop, for example, wants to give you a free SIM
:10:44. > :10:45.with free calls and free data and this month,
:10:46. > :10:48.for the first time, unlimited use of the Whatsapp messenger.
:10:49. > :10:55.FreedomPop right now provides a basic free service.
:10:56. > :10:58.We're trying to get to a point where we can
:10:59. > :11:01.take that free service, double it up and double it up again.
:11:02. > :11:05.And ultimately we'd like to get to a point where your voice,
:11:06. > :11:11.The old telecoms networks are starting to respond to these
:11:12. > :11:14.Next month, Deutsche Telekom launches its new Immmr
:11:15. > :11:17.app that merges SMS, calls and offers multiple numbers.
:11:18. > :11:19.While others can't wait to create their own,
:11:20. > :11:21.and will partner with onoff in around 40 countries
:11:22. > :11:30.In the race for cheap thrills, it seems nobody wants to be
:11:31. > :11:48.That's it for the short version of Click this week. The long version is
:11:49. > :11:52.on iPlayer and we are online if you want to play behind the scenes.
:11:53. > :11:54.Banks for watching and see you soon.