A 21‑year‑old has confessed to creating a bogus polling operation that pretended to be an independent firm before admitting its surveys were fabricated. He says the stunt was meant to test the media’s willingness to publish unverified numbers.
Fake Polling Firm Topples Media Credibility
Rahil Prakash told the Guardian on Thursday that he launched Median Strategies on his own as a “social experiment” to test whether invented poll numbers could spread through political media without independent verification. He said the experiment aimed to see if fake polls could penetrate the ecosystem easily.
“I wanted to see if fake polls could really penetrate the ecosystem that easily,” Prakash said. “And as it turned out, it could.”
Median released a fabricated poll showing Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ahead of democratic socialist challenger Nithya Raman by 12 points. Bass cited the numbers in a post that she later deleted after the fraud was exposed.
The group also issued a fake survey claiming socialist Francesca Hong led Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary by more than 20 points, and another showing Republican Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo ahead in his re‑election race. Both polls were presented as legitimate research.
Median abruptly pulled all of its polls this week, saying the project was meant to examine how “purported polling information could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification.” The statement framed the effort as a research probe rather than a prank.
Prakash said he was surprised by the speed of uptake. “I did not expect the California political press to pick it up on their own,” he told the Guardian.
Before the scam unraveled, Median’s website described the firm as an “independent polling and research” operation and pledged to rebuild trust in polling. The Guardian traced Prakash through domain registration records linked to the Median Strategies site.
Prakash built the website with artificial intelligence and said he was the sole operator behind the deception. No other individuals have been identified as contributors.
He apologized to the campaigns of Bass, Raman and Hong for the misleading data. The apology was made public in a statement to the press.
The American Association of Political Consultants condemned the stunt, calling fabricated polling “a deception directed at voters, the press, and campaigns that rely on public data to make decisions.” The organization said the fake numbers undermine democratic processes.
Prakash said his motive stemmed partly from frustration with polling errors in the Michigan Senate primary, where surveys overstated Abdul El‑Sayed’s margin of victory. He said the experience highlighted flaws in traditional polling methodologies.
