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In the Orville episode Majority Rule

"An undercover team led by Commander Grayson lands on Sargas 4, an Earth-like planet with a culture similar to that of 21st-century human civilization, to locate two missing anthropologists. There, Lt. LaMarr is arrested for public indecency after receiving more than a million "down" votes, and must convince the public to pardon him or be subjected to "treatment" for his actions."

Because Captain Mercer is not allowed to simply break John out, he decides to have Isaac do this in an effort to rescue John:

hack the master feed to influence opinion and keep the downvote count below 10 million.

However, if Isaac had such an ability, why wouldn't he simply do this instead?

Hack the system to actually change/block the downvotes from reaching 10 million.

It would seem easier and safer than what was done.

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It would appear to be trivially simple (and consequence-free) to hack the Master Feed, whereas the voting system is apparently subject to some kind of system checks. If it's found that the vote-count has been messed with, especially during an apology tour, the penalty is presumably just as serious as losing the vote.

Vendor: I can sell you a set of four, all pre-loaded with 200,000 upvotes.

Grayson: That's... that's great, thanks.

Vendor: They're all odd numbers, with a couple of downvotes included, so it doesn't seem fake.

versus

Grayson: What if people try to corroborate all this information?

Lysella: Don't worry. They won't.

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    Out of World I would also say that the writers are incorporating current events into their story line. This episodes plot is styled along the lines of the Russian influence in the US election. Other episodes have tackled current issues. (Also if they hacked the feed directly there would have been no drama and the episode could have been over in half the time.)
    – Peter M
    Oct 30, 2017 at 11:47
  • @Valorum. Seems reasonable to me. Good point on including the corroboration section.
    – beichst
    Oct 31, 2017 at 2:53
  • @Peter M. Also a good link to the social media side of the Russian angle. That would seem to be a good crossover into the Master Feed vs. the actual voting as well.
    – beichst
    Oct 31, 2017 at 2:53

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