Let’s Talk About Facebook. The “data breach” and its fallout have been major news stories. Facebook is scrambling to maintain their relevance in the tech world, and before this story concludes, there may be a power vacuum in that space.
The real story is less interesting than mainstream media would have you believe, but the consequences may turn this into the most important political event of the year.
What Really Happened
The short story is that a company called Cambridge Analytica used Facebook user data to formulate a campaign strategy and target users with specific ads. To some people, this is terrifying. To others, it’s business as usual. The controversy here is really in the details. Perhaps the biggest issue is that Cambridge Analytica did not obtain the data themselves; they bought it.
The company that actually gathered the data is a research group at Cambridge University. Most who are upset feel betrayed because the research group never explained that they might sell collected data.
The media’s outrage is because Cambridge Analytica worked with Donald Trump’s campaign. They work with many campaigns (you know, since they’re a campaign consulting group), but utilizing personal data for Trump is obviously a special kind of evil.
Because they need this to be a scandal, mainstream media has alleged that Cambridge Analytica has violated privacy and campaign laws in what they’ve done. So far, it looks like this probably isn’t the case, but there is a formal investigation underway. If laws were broken, we’ll find out in due time.
What it Means for Facebook
This is the biggest chunk of the story. You see, Facebook was the ultimate tool that was used for these campaign tactics. It’s also notoriously anti-Trump. When you put those together, you get the obvious conclusion that Facebook has to act outraged to cater to the bulk of their base and save face.
Despite that, their own official announcement has been that no data breach occurred and no laws were broken. Even Facebook is telling the truth that all of the data used was voluntarily provided. The app in question told users that their profile information would be collected and potentially shared. They agreed to these terms.
In the face of controversy, Facebook has decided that the breach of trust was when Cambridge researchers gave data access to Cambridge Analytica (even though they sponsored the research effort from the start). At this point, Zuckerberg and other top dogs at Facebook have been asked to testify before Congress, and there’s going to be a full-fledged legal circus about the whole thing.
As far as Facebook is concerned, none of the legal proceedings actually matter. They clearly acted within their user agreements. That hasn’t saved them from fallout. In a week, their stock tumbled more than 16 points for a total loss of around $60 billion. Boycotts are in full force and Facebook is in real danger of tumbling from the pedestal of being a super tech giant. Let’s also remember that this all happened while net neutrality was in full swing. It didn’t seem to protect any of the snowflakes in this instance, did it?
What it Means for Trump
For those of us on the right, the key question is this: does this hurt Trump’s presidency? In a word, no. This has no impact on the legitimacy of his campaign, election or actions as President. There are a few reasons why. For starters, there is no evidence that the Trump campaign had any knowledge of how Cambridge Analytica obtained their data. Trump’s team simply hired a tech firm to help them with social media. That’s it.
Just as important, there is no evidence that Cambridge Analytica’s efforts actually swayed the election. Here’s the catch. Their data collection was run out of Cambridge University. The vast majority of affected users were not U.S. citizens.
Even among those who were, they were comprised of a demographic that is largely and staunchly anti-Trump. While it was reasonable for Trump’s campaign to look for ways to sway those voters, the turnout showed that he failed in that effort. He won the election from campaigning in swing states and promising a better economy. The social media campaign among millennials was insignificant.
Comparing Obama
Even if Cambridge Analytica was the deciding factor in a close election, it wouldn’t matter. Why? Barack Obama. In both of his campaigns, he heavily relied on social media analytics to reach the young vote. It clearly worked.
The biggest difference between Obama’s methods and Trump’s was that Facebook personally handed data to Obama. All of this was well documented and openly praised by mainstream media.
The outrage isn’t that personal data was used to inform targeted ads. After all, Obama was considered a genius for doing so. The outrage is because the wrong person won the election. That’s what this all boils down to. The media has failed in all of their attempts to delegitimize Trump so far.
Even worse, he’s been wildly successful as President. They’ll latch onto any story they can to attack him, even if they have to torch one of their biggest allies in the process. At this point, the left is willing to destroy Facebook and any other major supporter if it could just depose Trump as President. That cannibalism is likely to backfire. Hard.
That was a lot to unpack, so let’s recap. A campaign consulting company used social media to collect data and inform their advertising strategy. The data was collected knowingly and with user consent. But, because it was used in service of Donald Trump, the media and leftists have declared it immoral and illegal.
Their desperation to be as anti-Trump as possible has hurt Facebook, one of the biggest left-wing corporations in the world, to the tune of billions of dollars. One of the most powerful tools of the left is being crippled in an attempt to make the President look bad. It’s ok to laugh. Just make sure we don’t give ground to these idiots in the midterms.
