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Matt Stoller @matthewstoller
, 8 tweets, 3 min read Read on Twitter
This is straight-up deception from a former Googler. Facebook and Google are both constantly mired in privacy scandals, and both companies have the same business model vis-a-vis data. The only difference is Facebook is in the headlines right now.
Remember when Fitbit accidentally revealed sensitive military information? It's because Fitbit uses Google's Android mobile operating system, and Google forced users to accept location tracking. washingtonpost.com/world/a-map-sh…
No privacy scandals for Google? 2012 FTC press release headline: "Google Will Pay $22.5 Million to Settle FTC Charges it Misrepresented Privacy Assurances to Users of Apple's Safari Internet Browser"
ftc.gov/news-events/pr…
2011 FTC press release headline: "FTC Charges Deceptive Privacy Practices in Googles Rollout of Its Buzz Social Network"
ftc.gov/news-events/pr…
WaPost headline in 2016: "Google facing FTC scrutiny over privacy — yet again" washingtonpost.com/news/the-switc…
The point here isn't about privacy. The point here is that Google and Facebook use violations of privacy to enhance their market power in various key parts of the ad market. It is monetizing relationships that you have with third parties to steal revenue from those third parties.
Facebook is better at the manipulation of your emotional state, Google knows more about your specific thoughts and buying needs. Both use their power over your eyeballs to bully publishers and force everyone to hand them more data about you. It's about *market power*.
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1. Ok, a quick thread on what I think was a very significant ideological fight that happened last week. The dispute was over something known as #PayGo and while it appeared to concern boring government budgeting questions, it is actually about the nature of money and democracy.
2. Money is a very weird thing. It is at heart a commodity that a group agrees is a medium of exchange. What gives money value is both a collective belief it does, and an enforcement trigger, ie taxing authority. Dollars have value bc the U.S. gov't collects taxes in dollars.
3. The value of money is essentially the amount of money in circulation versus how much stuff the economy produces. If you have a bigger economy you need more money to match that increased trade. Money is permission to use resources, the more resources the more money you need.
Read 23 tweets
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It's remarkable how easily we've gotten used to a very strange political dynamic. Donald Trump is President. We've had change elections in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2016, and 2018. We have powerful plutocrats. This is extremely unusual historically. Also Donald Trump is President.
Despite the stories we're sold, plutocrats in America are an unusual phenomenon. The basis of American political economy thinking has pretty much always been ensuring each citizen had a little bit of property so he can be independent, with the definition of citizen in contention.
The notion that laissez-faire capitalism was a basis of 19th century American economy is a fictional history peddled by a series of German-influenced thinkers. Questions of commercial rights, regulation, and resources were deeply contested.
Read 23 tweets
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It's probably be stupid/bad for Trump to do this, but the anguished screams about the norm fairy are worse. Elected leaders should control government policy.
And yes, Trump has the authority to do this. Fed board members have been breaking a very simple law forever.
I'm not a 'low interest rates are the best' type bc I think the in a deregulated financial world we actually deliver high rates to the poor while low rates are used for M&A. But if you're going to say Janet Yellen was The Best Chair Ever you should cheer for Trump firing Powell.
Read 5 tweets

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"Facebook has been reeling from a series of privacy scandals, set off by revelations in March that a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, improperly used Facebook data to build tools that aided President Trump’s 2016 campaign. "

nytimes.com/2018/12/18/tec…
"For years, Facebook gave some of the world’s largest technology companies more intrusive access to users’ personal data than it has disclosed, effectively exempting those business partners from its usual privacy rules."
In the Niagra of betrayal was Cambridge Analytica the one poisonous drop? Or was it so small by comparison that it fell through the cracks?
Read 7 tweets
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I can’t quite believe what I’m reading in this @nytimes investigation: that Facebook had a firm working to discredit its critics, in part by linking them to George Soros. nytimes.com/2018/11/14/tec…
Interesting that as late as 2016 “Facebook had no policy on disinformation or any resources dedicated to searching for it.”
Interesting also: just how furious Zuckerberg was when other tech firms - especially Apple - tried to cash in on Facebook’s troubles. (Understandably imho)
Read 6 tweets
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Morning campers! I’ll be live-tweeting from the European Court of Justice today about @Google’s “Right to be Forgotten” hearing.

What’s the main point? Should Europe (or France’s #privacy regulator) be able to apply its rules over the internet worldwide.

A recap:
La Vanguardia, a Spanish newspaper, published records in the late 1990s detailing the debt delinquencies of Mario Costeja.

About a decade later, Costeja sued, saying that the publication breached his right to privacy.
After a lengthy legal dispute, the case was referred to the ECJ which, in 2014, ruled that individuals had the right to ask that search engines like @Google remove links (but not the underlying webpages) from search results
Read 60 tweets
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Important to understand prior to next.
FISA Title I Summary & Memo Key Points
intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…
intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…
QAnon
intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…
Read 29 tweets
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#Facebook thread:
Ahead of Zuckerberg's Congress testimony, a quick revision guide.
All you need to know about Facebook (and why you should be concerned), brought to you by the Observer/Guardian's investigation into data and democracy...
Hard to believe it was less than a month ago that @carolecadwalla broke the story about GSR harvesting 50m+ Facebook profiles for @CamAnalytica to use in political campaigning:
Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica.. theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/…
Via the first major interview with @CamAnalytica whistleblower @chrisinsilico which explained Facebook had known about the leak for at least 18months and detailed Robert Mercer / Steve Bannon's central roles ‘I made Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/…
Read 26 tweets

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