ABSTRACT

This chapter positions online targeted manipulation as undermining the core economic assumptions of authentic choice in the market. The point of manipulation is to covertly steer a target's decision towards the manipulator's interests and away from the target's; as such, manipulation impedes a market actor's ability to enact preferences through choice. Folding targeted manipulation within persuasion or nudging allows manipulation—which operates closer to fraud or coercion in undermining choice in the market—to hide within more innocuous or difficult-to-regulate tactics that are deployed broadly across a group of users. Positioning targeted manipulation as akin to coercion and fraud changes the conversation about governance and brings in new parallel examples offline where consumer choice is protected. Governing targeted manipulation online will require placing responsibility on those in the position manipulate rather than attempting to identify each instance of targeted manipulation.