It's normal for a political campaign to run ads and smear campaigns, but this was different. Facebook, along with many other companies, uses algorithms to monitor what your doing, a devious way to market directly at you. It's why if you click on a Minnesota Twins t-shirt deal you start receiving more offers for Twins gear and t-shirts. Facebook is the largest company doing this, with information on billions of people whether they like it or not. You surrendering your personal data was part of your sign up agreement. For a political campaign to harness this information, using the same personal information mining which shows you coupons for baby things the minute you find out your pregnant, or airfare and hotel recommendations from when you searched a vacation spot, is new. It allowed them to guide voters to behave in a certain way, in this case either voting for Trump, or convincing people to protest the election, because "they were positive Hillary would be FAR worse than Trump" (not even possible). They were able to target specific blocks, in specific districts, in specific states, allowing them to undermine the popular vote winner.
When you factor it all together, from Papadopolous to Roger Stone, to Wikileaks, to Guccifer 2.0, to the meetings with the Russians, to the lies about the meetings with the Russians, to the attacks which successfully drove the Trump fans rabid, to the manufactured hatred between the Clinton and Sanders supporters, to Russian hacking, to the shocking results of November 8th, 2016, you realize the US was played. Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram and the rest of the social media websites were the game board on which Trump's people moved the pieces.
Was Facebook active participants in the greatest heist of all time, or we they only counting their money in the corner, not paying attention while a political organization was picking their customer's information clean? I guarantee we'll never know the truth. If they were working with Trump and the Russians for more than just profit margins, that information is long deleted.
To understand this better, Adam Ruins Everything did an exceptional explanation of the true cost of social media back in December of 2016 (about 2 months too late):
On Wednesday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, realizing his billion dollar baby is in seriously jeopardy, went on spin mode, acting like they were just as violated as their customers, swearing to make sure their user's personal information is better protected from here on out. Mind you, this was after Facebook consistently lied about the extent of Russian and political manipulation during the 2016 campaign, only dropping to their knees when the CA scandal revealed 50 million users had been played like a fiddle. Zuckerberg and Facebook are scared, hence this time I think they'll stop serving us up like a Sunday roast.
Whether or not you close your Facebook account is up to you. I always stayed away from the clear attempts to access my personal information, and ignored the clear political manipulation. If you're like me, you mainly use Facebook to show family and friends photos of the kids. I'll probably keep my page open.
One overlooked outcome of this move by Facebook is how much this is going to damage the ability of Republicans to manipulate voters; not the rabid Republicans who viciously hate all things Democrat, but the rest of us, the people the Republicans have had a shocking amount of success in convincing to stay home and not vote.
When President Obama came into power, Republicans came up with a game plan to get back into power. They only needed to have their base (29 to 33% of the population) show up and vote to secure victory, as long as they could prevent a large swath of America from voting. They started gerrymandering to the extreme, took away voting rights, installed voter ID rules, purged registered voter lists, and created numerous hurdles to prevent people from being able to vote in Democratic areas. On top of that, they started a campaign to convince people they didn't need to vote, that it didn't matter who won any given election. They started with the message 'all politicians are bad, so stay at home as a form of protest. Make a bold statement!' If you didn't vote, the only statement you were making was you were easily manipulated.
The GOP plan worked, and in 2010, 2014 and 2016, one of the reasons they had victories was because so many people stayed home. One hundred and eight million eligible voters stayed home in the 2016 election alone. 2012, with the popularity of Obama, the Democratic Party overruled their plans, showing how a wildly popular Democrat can still offset their massive manipulation. Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote, wasn't as well liked as President Obama.
If Facebook is serious about stopping their personal data collection practices from being used for political manipulation, then the Republican party has a real big problem. NOTHING is a better platform for discouraging Democrats from voting in large numbers than Facebook. Twitter, Instagram, Linked In and other social media sites are not as comprehensive at disenfranchising the public from elections in large numbers. TV, print media and mailers are nowhere near as effective. Without Facebook to convince Democrats to stay home, and with a refreshed and extremely energized Democratic base, the Republicans are looking at a potential blood bath in 2018.
The GOP is trying to find a solution to their problem. Prepare yourself for mysterious "progressive" candidates and Green Party candidates who will attempt to steer your votes away from the endorsed Democratic, like we saw in the Minneapolis City Council race. In Montana, one Green Party candidate has been exposed as a far right bigot. Candidates in sheep's clothing will be a common theme, so be diligent.
To all people who insisted "I won't vote for Hillary in 2016 because she's worse than Trump," you got played. Don't be ashamed of it, own it and realize we all can be manipulated. Vow to never allow it to happen to you again. When someone on social media who seems like they have a lot in common with you tells you they're protesting all Democrats by either voting Righto, voting for a third party candidate with a mysterious background and zero chance at winning, or how they plan on sitting the election out and "you should too," don't believe them. Block them, delete them and realize they're trying to get you to work against your best interests.
If, after 2016, you doubled down on your hatred of Hillary Clinton and truly do believe she would've been worse for America, you're a fool and I can't help you. Go seek professional counseling.
The most important thing for 2018 and 2020 is to get registered, get active and vote. #2018IsEverything! If Trump, the Republicans, Cambridge Analytica and the Russians can't use our social media against us, then maybe we actually do have fighting chance.
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