Dogs, disinformation and deepfakes: Inside Dutton's meme machine

<p>In 2019, Scott Morrison’s government managed to narrowly win a third term, despite polling placing them behind Labor for almost three years.</p><p>At the heart of the victory was a change in the way they campaigned, bringing in a pair of New Zealand election strategists armed with a new weapon: low-quality memes.</p><p>Since then, the duo known as Topham Guerin have brought their political tricks to bigger battlegrounds and have been hired by Peter Dutton ahead of the next federal election.</p><p>But their methods – including a recent embrace of deepfakes – raise questions about the ethics of political campaigning in the digital age.</p><p>Today, special correspondent for <em>The Saturday Paper</em> Jason Koutsoukis on the rise of Topham Guerin and the political power of bad memes.</p><p><br /></p><p><strong>Socials: </strong>Stay in touch with us on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/7ampodcast">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://www.instagram.com/7ampodcast">Instagram</a></p><p><strong>Guest:</strong> Special correspondent for <em>The Saturday Paper</em>, Jason Koutsoukis.</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>