1. Bonfire Of Double Standards -- Facebook Edition
IBD today lays out how deceitful and hypocritical MSM and Democrats have become on just about anything having to do with Trump. Let us review the brouhaha over use of Facebook data by Trump campaign.
IBD today lays out how deceitful and hypocritical MSM and Democrats have become on just about anything having to do with Trump. Let us review the brouhaha over use of Facebook data by Trump campaign.
2. First let us be clear about one thing. Facebook richly deserves criticism. Clearly, its data-protection policies have been slipshod, by design, and for a long time. Facebook deserve nothing but opprobrium for exploiting consumer info without consent.
3. Trump campaign used Cambridge Analytica during the primaries, it didn't use the information during the general election campaign, relying instead on voter data provided by the Republican National Committee, according to CBS News.
4. In 2012, as many as 190 million users had at least some of their Facebook data vacuumed up by the Obama campaign — without their knowledge or consent. This Facebook treasure trove gave Obama an unprecedented ability to reach out to non-supporters.
5. More important, this gave Obama campaign ability to deliver carefully targeted campaign messages disguised as messages from friends to millions of Facebook users. The campaign readily admitted that this subtle deception was key to their Facebook strategy.
6. The effort was called a "game-changer" in the 2012 election, and the Obama campaign boasted that it was "the most groundbreaking piece of technology developed for the campaign."
7. Keep in mind that the Trump campaign neither solicited the data nor used the data in the general election campaign.
Obama, in contrast, was collecting live data on active users right up until Election Day, and at a scale that dwarfed anything the Trump campaign could access.
Obama, in contrast, was collecting live data on active users right up until Election Day, and at a scale that dwarfed anything the Trump campaign could access.
8. There is one other big difference: how these revelations were received by pundits and the press. In 2012, Obama was wildly celebrated in news stories for his mastery of Big Data, and his genius at mining it to get out the vote.
9. We were told then about how the Obama campaign "won the race for voter data," and how it "connected with young voters." His data analytics gurus were treated as heroes.
10. When Obama exploited Facebook users to help win re-election, it was an act of political genius. When Trump attempted something similar, with unclear results, it's a travesty of democracy and further evidence that somehow he stole the election. That's MSM for you.
The END
The END
And this.
1. Taming of Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg was celebrated by MSM for data-enabling Hillary Clinton's campaign, but the mere thought of Trump campaign having exploited the same data moves Zuckerberg to say, "I actually am not sure we shouldn't be regulated."
Zuckerberg was celebrated by MSM for data-enabling Hillary Clinton's campaign, but the mere thought of Trump campaign having exploited the same data moves Zuckerberg to say, "I actually am not sure we shouldn't be regulated."
2. You know what? Facebook users can regulate Facebook far more effectively than government ever could. Make no mistake. Govt regulation will somehow always end up ensuring Facebook, and all other social media, become even more left leaning.
3. The mere fact that even Mark Zuckerberg thinks people can only be saved from their own foolish choices through govt regulation is precisely what's wrong with the leftist mindset. News flash! No amount of regulation can save people from their own stupidity.
4. Corporate malfeasance must be severely punished. And by all means Facebook should be investigated for "breach of contract" if it allowed consumer info it collected to be exploited in an unauthorized manner without user consent.
5. But that is not regulation. That is enforcing existing contract laws. Anyone concerned about privacy can and should get off Facebook, or at least never share any personal info which they don't want getting into the wrong hands.
6. Furthermore, I don't believe for a second that users are dummies. Facebook users are just as smart in using Facebook as they are in real life interactions outside of Facebook.
7. Only a statist moron (including Mark Zuckerberg if he thinks this way) thinks Facebook users can be led by the nose to do something against their will by a set of "algorithms." Algorithms can help with targeting messages but they don't control minds.
8. People who can be made to do things against their will through clever targeting of messages, be it with or without the use of Facebook platform, are sitting ducks for all kinds of political cons, and no amount of regulation can save them from being conned one way or another.
9. There is a frenzy of media misinformation about the power of social media which is both self-serving (MSM would much rather have exclusive control over how users get and use information) and deeply insulting.
10. The only genuine issue in all of this is about young minds, as yet unprepared to process the onslaught of what social media enables, but that is a very complicated topic for another time.
11. Other than that, I doubt very much that any amount of algorithmic, or robotic, tinkering on social media can have much of an effect on an election. Obama didn't win because of Facebook, and Hillary didn't lose because of Facebook. Stop venerating false gods of inert data.
12. Just ask yourself one simple question to dispense with the subterfuge about the power of social media to influence elections:
When was the last time you changed your vote just because of something you read or saw on social media?
As with you, so with everyone else.
The END
When was the last time you changed your vote just because of something you read or saw on social media?
As with you, so with everyone else.
The END
