Topic: Cambridge Analytica

[Wilmo]

I thought it might be a good idea to have a dedicated thread set up for this. I think it'll turn out to be one of the biggest stories of the year, if not the biggest. Last night was a bit crazy, with Britain's Information Officer seeking a warrant to raid CA's offices, $40bn being wiped off Facebook's share price for their involvement (the last time I checked), and with a group of Facebook representatives being asked to stand down from inside CA's offices in the dead of night. https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla <<< this twitter account, from the main journalist behind these investigations, gives a good commentary.

It will be interesting to see how things develop, especially with the Guardian and Channel 4 having apparently 3 more exclusives to publish and air. There's another tonight, to follow the revelations from the last couple of days, and it's focused on Trump and his involvement with the company.

It seems that the scope of this company goes beyond social media and into the realms of blackmail, bribery and sexual exploitation. Apparently they have had a hand in over 200 elections around the world and it turns out that this hasn't been limited to, as previously reported, social media. As such, I think this needs its own topic as it encompasses more than just social media, Trump or Brexit. I've noticed quite a few posts lost to the ether in each of those respective threads and so perhaps it would be handy to have a thread on its own.

Here's some background for the uninitiated:

A solid introduction from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43465968

More detail from the Guardian about the investigation broadcast last night:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/19/cambridge-analytica-execs-boast-dirty-tricks-honey-traps-elections

A decent video summary if you fancy:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/video/2018/mar/19/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-cambridge-analytica-expose-video-explainer

Some questions to get the ball rolling:

How far does this go? It's unlikely that CA are the only group of their kind - how long have our democracies been infected with this level of organised, private intervention and can they be fixed?

What does this mean for social media? Will there be widespread skepticism or will nothing change? Might this be the opportunity needed for governments to impose regulation?

If votes have been influenced by CA or organisations like them, can the results be overturned? Should they be overturned?

What does all of this say about us, and about free will?

[Sudden Death Draft Loser]

Well done for starting this thread.

How far does this go? It's unlikely that CA are the only group of their kind - how long have our democracies been infected with this level of organised, private intervention and can they be fixed? - a long way.

What does this mean for social media? Will there be widespread skepticism or will nothing change? Might this be the opportunity needed for governments to impose regulation? - there will initially be an outcry, lots of skepticism, and then it will all disappear as the dumb masses can't live without gifs of cats. 

If votes have been influenced by CA or organisations like them, can the results be overturned? Should they be overturned? - of course there should be re-runs of all affected elections.

What does all of this say about us, and about free will? - we only think we have freedom

Another question - how long will this thread last before it's deemed some sort of conspiracy theory, because of course our sacred democracies are beyond corruption.

[PhilV]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43474760

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has been called on by a parliamentary committee to give evidence about the use of personal data by Cambridge Analytica.

[rafathegaffa83]

Thanks for starting this

Copied from the social media thread. Some parties interested in talking to Zuckerberg/Facebook over this

Guy Verhofstadt@guyverhofstadt
When is Mark Zuckerberg going to explain what happened with our data? The data breach is an absolute scandal. The European Parliament must start an investigation. I will keep you updated about our progress.

Mark Di Stefano @MarkDiStef
Official now: UK Commons committee writes to Mark Zuckerberg asking him to get on a plane and front an inquiry in London.

ABC News@ABC
"It's time" for Mark Zuckerberg and other top Facebook officials "to come and testify," says Sen. Warner, top Democrat on the Senate Intel Committee.
http://abcn.ws/2GJMJ9E

Washington Post@washingtonpost
FTC opens investigation into Facebook after Cambridge Analytica scrapes millions of users' personal information

[Wilmo]

Well done for starting this thread.



Another question - how long will this thread last before it's deemed some sort of conspiracy theory, because of course our sacred democracies are beyond corruption.

Cheers mate. I have to say I probably share some of your pessimism judging by your responses, but I do hold some hope that this will become a turning point in people's attitudes and our government's actions. The potential is there.

To answer your question though, I can't see why it would be locked as long as people discuss the steady stream of available evidence rather than delving into loose speculation as often happens on the internet, something which we can all be guilty of from time to time! There's a huge amount to discuss drawing from what we know, and what we are learning - I don't think people will have to look too far to have things to talk about.

[rafathegaffa83]

Ted Cruz's presidential campaigb also implicated now.

The Cruz campaign paid Cambridge Analytica $5.8 million between July 2015 and June 2016 for services that included "voter ID targeting," "voter modeling" and "survey research/donor modeling," according to the campaign's FEC reports.

The last payment was made a month after he suspended his campaign on May 3. 

Cruz's leadership PAC, the Jobs Growth and Freedom Fund, paid the firm another $133,000 in October 2014, for a total of $5.94 million.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/03/19/ted-cruz-fire-cambridge-analytica-scandal-firm-targeted-voters-data-50m-facebook-users

[Giono]

Ted Cruz's presidential campaigb also implicated now.

I hope this blast takes out a few anti-democratic weasels.

Mercer was one of Cruz’s biggest backers too.

[Red-Soldier]

Well done for starting this thread.  I was thinking about starting it as it's a huge huge story and it's implications are far reaching.

[Red-Soldier]

Another question - how long will this thread last before it's deemed some sort of conspiracy theory, because of course our sacred democracies are beyond corruption.

This is a good question, hopefully, it wont get locked.

[mallin9]

Can someone direct me to a resource, or explain as if to a small child.........the mechanism's by which Govt agencies in UK and USA (seemingly the 2 most affected by CA's crimes) can force Mark Zuckerberg to answer for Facebook?  A level below Zuck:  the Fbook COO, in news stories I read last night, came off very poorly- forcing out Stamos, the information security director, because Stamos wanted to alert authorities about the dangers/impact of spying on citizens of sovereign democracies without their knowledge or consent.

I'm curious if Zuckerberg sends some PR lackey, or someone like the COO, to plead ignorance in front of Parliament and US Congress......what tools they have to then push back?  Does anyone have an inkling of whether Facebook could be looking at criminal charges, for conspiracy to cover-up a crime at the least?  Should I pace myself??

Lastly, do we think Steve Bannon goes to jail behind this?  Or is he, at least on paper, insulated?

At first blush this seems like a professional ratfcking company- one which Bannon pimped out, Mercer paid for, and Mark Z and his minions knew about and did sweet f'all about......

[Giono]

One detail that goes under the radar in thecAuS because of all the other ramifications is that it is agsinst the law to have foreigners work on campaigns from what I understand. CA is basically Brits and Canadians (like the whistleblower).

[12C]

https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla

She has been threatened by CA with legal action. Russia has been more sinister with its threats. Some of the attacks on her have been very pointed, but the likes of Arron Banks and other assorted Brexit crowd have been recently been deleting tweets boasting about their CA connections.
Well worth a read

[conman]

in 30mins (7pm), Channel 4 will be broadcasting the 3rd installment of their Cambridge Analytica investigation.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/channel-4-news/episode-guide

[Wilmo]

in 30mins (7pm), Channel 4 will be broadcasting the 3rd installment of their Cambridge Analytica investigation.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/channel-4-news/episode-guide

Apparently they're broadcasting two more. Is it cynical of me to think they're saving the hardest hitting til last - Brexit?

[cdav]

https://www.channel4.com/news/exposed-undercover-secrets-of-donald-trump-data-firm-cambridge-analytica

Exposed: Undercover secrets of Trump’s data firm
An investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran ‘all’ of President Trump’s digital campaign – and may have broken election law. Executives were secretly filmed saying they leave ‘no paper trail’.

Edit: someone thrown under the bus

https://ca-commercial.com/news/statement-board-directors

The Board of Cambridge Analytica has announced today that it has suspended CEO Alexander Nix with immediate effect, pending a full, independent investigation.

[Wilmo]

Cambridge Analytica execs boast of role in getting Trump elected

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/20/cambridge-analytica-execs-boast-of-role-in-getting-trump-elected

Senior executives from the firm at the heart of Facebook’s data breach boasted of playing a key role in bringing Donald Drumpf to power and said they used “unattributable and untrackable” advertising to support their clients in elections, according to an undercover expose.

In secretly recorded conversations, Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, Alexander Nix, claimed he had met Trump “many times”, while another senior member of staff said the firm was behind the “defeat crooked Hillary” advertising campaign.

“We just put information into the bloodstream of the internet and then watch it grow, give it a little push every now and again over time to watch it take shape,” said the executive. “And so this stuff infiltrates the online community, but with no branding, so it’s unattributable, untrackable.”

Caught on camera by an undercover team from Channel 4 News, Nix was also dismissive of Democrats on the House intelligence committee, who had questioned him over Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.

Senior managers then appeared to suggest that in their work for US clients, there was planned division of work between official campaigns and unaffiliated “political action groups”.

That could be considered coordination – which is not allowed under US election law. The firm has denied any wrongdoing.

Cambridge Analytica said it had a firewall policy in place, signed by all staff and strictly enforced.

The disclosures are the latest to hit Cambridge Analytica, which has been under mounting pressure since Sunday, when the Observer reported the company had unauthorised access to tens of millions of Facebook profiles – and used them to build a political targeting system.

In Tuesday’s second instalment of an undercover investigation by Channel 4 News in association with the Observer, Nix said he had a close working relationship with Trump and claimed Cambridge Analytica was pivotal to his successful campaign.

“We did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting. We ran all the digital campaign, the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy,” he told reporters who were posing as potential clients from Sri Lanka.

The company’s head of data, Alex Tayler, added: “When you think about the fact that Donald Drumpf lost the popular vote by 3m votes but won the electoral college vote that’s down to the data and the research.

“You did your rallies in the right locations, you moved more people out in those key swing states on election day. That’s how he won the election.”

Another executive, Mark Turnbull, managing director of Cambridge Analytica’s political division, was recorded saying: “He won by 40,000 votes in three states. The margins were tiny.”

Turnbull took credit for one of the most well known and controversial campaigns of the last presidential campaign, organised by the political action group Make America Number 1.

“The brand was ‘Defeat Crooked Hillary’. You’ll remember this of course?” he told the undercover reporter. “The zeros, the OO of crooked were a pair of handcuffs ... We made hundreds of different kinds of creative, and we put it online.”

Turnbull said the company sometimes used “proxy organisations”, including charities and activist groups, to help disseminate the messages – and keep the company’s involvement in the background.

When the undercover reporter expressed worries that American authorities might seize on details of a dirty campaign, Nix said the US had no jurisdiction over Cambridge Analytica, even though the company is American and is registered in Delaware.

“I’m absolutely convinced that they have no jurisdiction,” he told the purported client. “So if US authorities came asking for information, they would simply refuse to collaborate. “We’ll say: none of your business.”

Turnbull added. “We don’t talk about our clients.”

Speaking to Channel 4 News before seeing the undercover film, Hillary Clinton said: “There was a new kind of campaign that was being run on the other side, that nobody had ever faced before. Because it wasn’t just all about me. It was about how to suppress voters who were inclined to vote for me … when you have a massive propaganda effort to prevent people from thinking straight, because they’re being flooded with false information.”

In the report, Nix also implied that it was possible to mislead authorities by omission, discussing his appearance in front of the House intelligence committee, for its inquiry into possible Russian election meddling.

The Republicans only asked three questions, which took five minutes, he told the reporter. And while the Democrats spent two hours questioning him, he claimed they were so far out of their depths that he didn’t mind responding.

“We have no secrets. They’re politicians, they’re not technical. They don’t understand how it works,” he said, when asked about whether he was forced to testify.

He went on to describe how political candidates are manipulated.

“They don’t understand because the candidate never, is never involved. He’s told what to do by the campaign team.” The reporter asks if that means the candidate is just a puppet, and Nix replies simply: “Always.”

In another exchange, Tayler describes an apparently planned division of spending on the campaign trail, with the candidate organising “positive” messages, with negative attack ads left to the super Pacs, which may engage in unlimited political spending independently of the campaigns.

“As part of it, sometimes you have to separate it from the political campaign itself ... campaigns are normally subject to limits about how much money they can raise. Whereas outside groups can raise an unlimited amount.”

“So the campaign will use their finite resources for things like persuasion and mobilisation and then they leave the ‘air war’ they call it, like the negative attack ads to other affiliated groups.”

This raises questions over whether Cambridge Analytica blurred the boundaries between official campaign groups, which have spending limits, and unaffiliated political action groups or super Pacs.

The latter can spend as much as they want but must not coordinate with the candidate they support.

The Campaign Legal Center has accused Cambridge Analytica over allegations of illegal coordination of this nature.

It has filed evidence with the FEC alleging that the super Pac Make America Number 1 made illegal contributions to Trump’s campaign, “engaging in unlawful coordinated spending by using the common vendor Cambridge Analytica”.

Cambridge Analytica said it had never claimed to have won the election for Donald Drumpf.

“This is patently absurd. We are proud of the work we did on that campaign, and have spoken in many public forums about what we consider to be our contribution to the campaign.”

It said there was no evidence of coordination between the Make America Number 1 super Pac and the Trump campaign. The company said it was not under investigation.

It has accused the Channel 4 News undercover investigation of grossly misrepresenting how the company conducts its business.

However, speaking to the BBC on Monday, Nix said he had “huge amounts of regret that we undertook this meeting and spoke with a certain amount of hyperbole”.

[cdav]

Its blatently going to be Brexit in the final expose, all the links are there- Cambridge Analytica, Bannon, alternative funding parties for ads (leave.eu, grassroots out, etc), the emotional targeted messages, negative campaigning.

[HarryLabrador]

Its blatently going to be Brexit in the final expose, all the links are there- Cambridge Analytica, Bannon, alternative funding parties for ads (leave.eu, grassroots out, etc), the emotional targeted messages, negative campaigning.

Interesting article by the Guardian May 2017. Was looking for links with Frottage and CA and Bannon. Here it is:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy

The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked

A shadowy global operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign influenced the result of the EU referendum. As Britain heads to the polls again, is our electoral process still fit for purpose?

by Carole Cadwalladr

Sun 7 May 2017 09.00 BST  Last modified on Fri 16 Mar 2018 10.12 GMT 
 
This article is the subject of legal complaints on behalf of Cambridge Analytica LLC and SCL Elections Limited......

[rafathegaffa83]

Cambridge Analytica execs boast of role in getting Trump elected

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/20/cambridge-analytica-execs-boast-of-role-in-getting-trump-elected

The arrogance and sense of infallability is unbelievable

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Interesting article by the Guardian May 2017. Was looking for links with Frottage and CA and Bannon. Here it is:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy

The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked

A shadowy global operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign influenced the result of the EU referendum. As Britain heads to the polls again, is our electoral process still fit for purpose?

by Carole Cadwalladr

Sun 7 May 2017 09.00 BST  Last modified on Fri 16 Mar 2018 10.12 GMT 
 
This article is the subject of legal complaints on behalf of Cambridge Analytica LLC and SCL Elections Limited......

And they have fucked that right up by binning Nix,his whole argument was that he was trying to flush out the undercover guy and just being outrageous.

There surely has to be a good case for another referendum.

[Phil M]

Fantastic journalism and investigative research.

This is jaw dropping stuff in many ways. 

[cdav]

And they have fucked that right up by binning Nix,his whole argument was that he was trying to flush out the undercover guy and just being outrageous.

There surely has to be a good case for another referendum.

Interesting from the main journalist:

@carolecadwalla: Look. This is in Cambridge Analytica's own words (from when it was trying to sue us). It's a shell company with no employees. What exactly has Alexander Nix been suspended from??? https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/976193236996902918/photo/1

@carolecadwalla: This is an important point that @guardian's legal superbrain, @ladywell23 has had to grapple with over months. Cambridge Analytica exists only on paper. Alexander Nix is CEO of SCL Elections. From which he hasn't been suspended.

@carolecadwalla: Alexander Nix has been suspended from a shell company that has no employees and no assets. If you think this ends here, think again.

Meanwhile, just create a new shell company:

@carolecadwalla: Meanwhile, there's a new kid in town. Emerdata.
With all the same directors...

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10911848 https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/976199917915033601

[Red-Soldier]

Fantastic journalism and investigative research.

This is jaw dropping stuff in many ways.

It is.  I dispute your second sentence somewhat, I'm not very surprised at all by these "revelations."  Look at the people involved, they are absolute crooks of the highest order.

[ShakaHislop]

Cambridge Analytica's Kenya election role 'must be investigated'

A full investigation must be carried out into a UK consultancy firm which helped take Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta to victory, the main opposition coalition has told the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-43471707


Cambridge Analytica: Facebook 'being investigated by FTC'

The US Federal Trade Commission is reported to be investigating Facebook after allegations that 50 million users' private information was misused by a political consultancy firm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43476594

[Wilmo]

And they have fucked that right up by binning Nix,his whole argument was that he was trying to flush out the undercover guy and just being outrageous.

There surely has to be a good case for another referendum.

Two more programmes left. They didn't announce what tomorrow's would be yet, which leads me to believe it's about Brexit. I'd imagine it all gets tied up on the last episode by focusing on Putin.

[Phil M]

It is.  I dispute your second sentence somewhat, I'm not very surprised at all by these "revelations."  Look at the people involved, they are absolute crooks of the highest order.

You may not be surprised but the investigation has made 'C.A' a well known name/organisation within 48 hours. Prior to that, I and I imagine the vast majority of people would have had no clue who they are or what do or have indeed done.

[ShakaHislop]

Cambridge Analytica: Facebook 'being investigated by FTC'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43476594

At issue for the company -- and at the heart of the FTC probe -- is a settlement they reached with the agency in November 2011, ending an investigation that Facebook deceived users about the privacy protections they are afforded on the site.

Among other requirements, the resulting consent decree mandated that Facebook must notify users and obtain their permission before data about them is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established. It also subjected Facebook to 20 years of privacy checkups to ensure its compliance.

Recently, though, former FTC officials have said that Facebook’s entanglement with Cambridge Analytica may have violated the company's legal agreement with the federal watchdog agency. Whistleblowers in recent days contend that Cambridge Analytica collected information about users and their friends under a since-ceased policy governing third-party apps on Facebook – then kept that data even after Facebook asked that it be deleted.

About 270,000 users downloaded Cambridge Analytica's app. But the firm was able to obtain personal information about their friends, who likely had no knowledge that their data was being collected. Roughly 50 million people may have been affected.

If the FTC ultimately finds that Facebook broke that agreement, it could fine the company $40,000 for each violation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/03/20/ftc-opens-investigation-into-facebook-after-cambridge-analytica-scrapes-millions-of-users-personal-information/?utm_term=.27d6b29fa931

[So… Howard Philips]

You may not be surprised but the investigation has made 'C.A' a well known name/organisation within 48 hours. Prior to that, I and I imagine the vast majority of people would have had no clue who they are or what do or have indeed done.

I must admit I was surprised that the Information Commissioner gave them advanced notice that they were seeking a warrant.

I'm pretty sure CA will be glad of that notice to start the cleaning operation.

[WhereAngelsPlay]

You may not be surprised but the investigation has made 'C.A' a well known name/organisation within 48 hours. Prior to that, I and I imagine the vast majority of people would have had no clue who they are or what do or have indeed done.

They were bragging last year & Nix even went on CH4 News and explained how they used the mined data.

[ShakaHislop]

I must admit I was surprised that the Information Commissioner gave them advanced notice that they were seeking a warrant.

I'm pretty sure CA will be glad of that notice to start the cleaning operation.

I don't know if you've watched tonight's Channel 4 video (it's in the Trump thread) but Nix said Cambridge Analytica used an email program that self-deleted emails 2 hours after they're read, so they might not be much left to cleanse.

[So… Howard Philips]

I don't know if you've watched tonight's Channel 4 video (it's in the Trump thread) but Nix said Cambridge Analytica used an email program that self-deleted emails 2 hours after they're read, so they might not be much left to cleanse.

Ha. Just read a novel featuring self deleting emails.

But it's more the data they "harvested" from Face book which is the killer. If it is personal data (and how can you target individuals without personal data) obtained without the consent of the individuals then there are clear breaches of Data Protection law.

This is a lot more sinister than some Bulgarian hackers stealing passwords but tricking people to participate in a survey so that access is made available to their FB accounts and then, like a mestasizing cancer, access to their friends and then on to their friends could be a game changer.

Hope to see CA, the smug Gits at FB and the politicians who've profited crash and burn.

[Lush is the best medicine...]

Interesting from the main journalist:

@carolecadwalla: Look. This is in Cambridge Analytica's own words (from when it was trying to sue us). It's a shell company with no employees. What exactly has Alexander Nix been suspended from??? https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/976193236996902918/photo/1

@carolecadwalla: This is an important point that @guardian's legal superbrain, @ladywell23 has had to grapple with over months. Cambridge Analytica exists only on paper. Alexander Nix is CEO of SCL Elections. From which he hasn't been suspended.

@carolecadwalla: Alexander Nix has been suspended from a shell company that has no employees and no assets. If you think this ends here, think again.

Meanwhile, just create a new shell company:

@carolecadwalla: Meanwhile, there's a new kid in town. Emerdata.
With all the same directors...

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10911848 https://twitter.com/carolecadwalla/status/976199917915033601

hopefully this gets a lot of attention in the press

[ghost1359]

Well done for starting this thread.  I was thinking about starting it as it's a huge huge story and it's implications are far reaching.

I work in a related field and I honestly think a lot of people don't realize just how big a story this is. To my mind this is one of the biggest news stories of the last 30 years.

[ghost1359]

I must admit I was surprised that the Information Commissioner gave them advanced notice that they were seeking a warrant.

This has come up a lot and I'm not really sure how relevant it is, CA were aware they'd been caught in a sting, Nix had already sat down with the BBC the afternoon prior to C4's expose. Nix is on record stating that evidence has been destroyed already, not to mention Chris Wylie supposedly has a lot of hard evidence that can corroborate his story...

If they were going to be burning servers and shredding paperwork they'd have done it long before the IC said they were obtaining a warrant.

[ghost1359]

But it's more the data they "harvested" from Face book which is the killer. If it is personal data (and how can you target individuals without personal data) obtained without the consent of the individuals then there are clear breaches of Data Protection law.

It is, they mined personal messages and they're in clear breach of the data protection act

[ghost1359]

It is.  I dispute your second sentence somewhat, I'm not very surprised at all by these "revelations."  Look at the people involved, they are absolute crooks of the highest order.

The surprise isn't that this is happening, it's been happening in one form or another as long as elections have been happening. The surprise is that there are so many active key political figures so close to it. Not to mention how candid these thick fucks have been. If you're going to directly involve yourselves in what is essentially political espionage it might be an idea to bug sweep before laying it out to a potential client.

That's what's astonishing. It is elitist arrogance of the most delicious kind. These pricks were so certain they weren't going to get caught they've been jetting around the world for the best part of 3 years telling everyone how they did it, they have robbed themselves and their associates of any kind of plausible deniability.

Donald Trump made Steve Bannon, one of the founders of the company, his chief advisor ffs. That alone gives you the measure of them.

[ShakaHislop]

Zuckerberg and his COO didn't show up to an internal Facebook meeting about the issue.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-mark-zuckerberg-awol-from-facebooks-data-leak-damage-control-session

[ghost1359]

Zuckerberg and his COO didn't show up to an internal Facebook meeting about the issue.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-mark-zuckerberg-awol-from-facebooks-data-leak-damage-control-session

From what I've read it wasn't a specific meeting about CA, it was a standard regular meeting that neither Mark Zuckerberg nor Sheryl Sandberg ever attend. Besides, given the amount of phone calls both of them will be taking right now I'll be very surprised if we see either of them anywhere other than in a Lawyer's office for at least the next month.

Zuckerberg in particular will be receiving so many calls and emails I'll be somewhat surprised if his several phones haven't all melted.

[Corkboy]

I work in a related field and I honestly think a lot of people don't realize just how big a story this is. To my mind this is one of the biggest news stories of the last 30 years.

Why? Haven't elections always been about "selecting" messages for some people to hear, based on whatever, religion, social class, profession. How is all this not just the same thing keeping up with new social tools?

[ghost1359]

Why? Haven't elections always been about "selecting" messages for some people to hear, based on whatever, religion, social class, profession. How is all this not just the same thing keeping up with new social tools?

Because this was a lot more insidious. They built up psychological profiles of potential voters (using information they would legally never have been allowed access to for this very reason) and built echo chambers around people they deemed to be susceptible to specific messages. They built fake blogs and websites filled with disinformation and then closed the walls around people. They also disseminated this information out to 'influencers' and utilized bots.  Your online experience is like a hall of mirrors, it's entirely curated by what you're interacting with, so if you can close someone in like that it's extremely likely that you'll set them down a path which will mean they will organically come into contact with other sources that intersect with the information you're drip feeding them.

i.e if you're consistently exposed to right wing propaganda, the likelihood increases that you will interact with that propaganda or subconsciously absorb it, the more you interact with it the more that influences your search results. The more it influences what accounts are suggested for you to follow on twitter for example, or instagram, what videos are suggested watches for you on Youtube, Netflix. Everything.

They have ruthlessly exploited Facebook but Facebook would have been well aware at the time and could have stopped it, but they did nothing.