What’s genius for Obama is scandal when it comes to Trump
Web Publication: The Hill, by Ben Shapiro
Cambridge Analytica is a hot topic right now. In trending news the past few days, the fallout from this companies’ use of Facebook is having a big impact in the political world and directly at Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg lost six billion in stock value yesterday. Today he’s gone into ‘hiding’ while in war room meetings to assess the damage. The empire shows cracks.
There are already hundreds of articles written about this storm. For a more detailed explanation, try this CBS article. For a less technical but intuitive article, I recommend, ‘What’s genius for Obama is scandal when it comes to Trump’. When I first saw this news break Sunday night, my first thoughts were, “so what?” “What’s new?” Between then and now, most news stories portray the story with about the same gravity as a nuke hitting the foundations of the capital. The story in the Hill brings a lot more sane perspective.
This is my breakdown of what happened, in layman terms.
- So somebody is collecting data about you from your Facebook use! Shocking! Has anyone ever stopped to consider that that’s what Facebook exists for and why Mark Zuckerberg can lose six billion dollars in one day and still be one of the richest men in the world? BTW, he can sell or use that data anyway he wants and you won’t bat an eye.
- Psst, FB was put to use during the campaign by selling content positioning to ‘the Russians’ and numerous other foreign interests. Yes, Mark made money off of it. He knew he made money off of it and he only got religion after the election when he was called out for it in spite of positioning Facebook as having been taken advantage of. Yes, he was a ‘victim’. So the Cambridge Analytica story is only a small part of Facebook’s role in the election.
- Cambridge Analytica out Facebooked Facebook! (Big time apparently.)That’s what really has Facebook and the Dems steamed!
- Its only ‘wrong’ when the other team does it. That is eloquently stated in the Hill article.
- Elections are totally driven by massive data analysis and manipulation efforts. Welcome to the modern age. As long as there have been computers, this is how the sausage is made.
Looking forward: Is Facebook a company that has control over user content and can pick and choose who gets to have their message get out? Is Facebook like a utility, just a pipeline that has no culpability for content. Mark wants it both ways. Just sayin.
This opinion is not an endorsement or condemnation of Cambridge Analytica (and the multiple layers of campaign perps that used them. As pointed out in the Hill article, the playing field must be level.