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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCambridge Analytica whistleblower on Facebook fine
Christopher Wylie 🏳️🌈
@chrisinsilico
Just to sum up. 1) Facebook broke the law. 2) Cambridge Analytica broke the law. 3) Vote Leave broke the law. 4) LeaveEU broke the law. 5) Brexit and Trump were both won through breaking the law. 6) Facebook let it all happen and covered it up.
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AlexSFCA
(6,137 posts)Is facebook powerful enough to change outcome of the elections? I think its only one of the tools they used. Whats good about the law if its not enforced. Our intelligence community failed us in the US and UK. Such illegal activities and deliberate fake news/conspiracies should have been stopped back then.
suprcali
(108 posts)It was a combination of things but facebook continues to pocket millions while people are left to pay for their indifference. This fine is nothing as they continue to data mine users.
FaceCrook also lied about sharing your data and they continue to do it.
Profit!
AlexSFCA
(6,137 posts)I used to share some important political/news stuff on facebook until I got schooled by a friend I dont get my news from facebook. Since then facebook is strictly for family, life events only, never any news related material. And I encourage everyone to not post anything of that nature no matter how tempting it can be. This is going to get increasingly important going into Novemeber. If you see your friends post news related material on facebook - please ask them to stop.
suprcali
(108 posts)You may not do it but that's not stopping others. And you need not talk politics. They just need to know what you like, your interests, people you know, and other information to make their money. You are the product. Then they harvest that so they can target you better with ads. That's what russia did. And because facecrook is looking at their bottom line, they give your information to others and pretend they don't.
They are like too big to fail.
Here's another report that came out July 10 and posted here. They just recently revealed giving a russian internet giant special treatment. And no one knows what the russians did with the data.
genxlib
(5,507 posts)I am going to say yes.
It was not their intent. They simply provided a business model that was open to abuse and the evil bastards took advantage of it.
There were fake news sites, Russian bots, conspiracy theories, wedge issues, etc. But all of that would have been ineffectual if there was not a tool to deliver it all right into the brain of the voters.
When you don't follow politics, your social media feed is the primary place where you get your opinions formed. When your friends and family are constantly outraged, it effects you. It is especially bad when liberals turned on each other because those social media feeds were even more effective at getting past any BS meters that might filter out people you would ordinarily disagree with.
The worst part about it is that we could not even know what was happening. In a traditional misinformation campaign, the advertisements are public so at least we have the opportunity to understand the message and refute it. But with facebook, the messages were personalized to the degree that we could not even know what individuals were being exposed to.
I think we have vastly underestimated the effect this had on the election. The GOP and the Russians provided the drug but Facebook was the hypodermic that injected it right into the brain of almost every voter.
BigmanPigman
(51,432 posts)Cha
(295,925 posts)I so appreciate him!
And yes, of course, those are not all of the reasons.
Christopher Wylie 🏳️🌈
@chrisinsilico
Just to sum up. 1) Facebook broke the law. 2) Cambridge Analytica broke the law. 3) Vote Leave broke the law. 4) LeaveEU broke the law. 5) Brexit and Trump were both won through breaking the law. 6) Facebook let it all happen and covered it up.