How Facebook Is Influencing Who Will Win the Next Election

An anonymous reader sends this excerpt from Forbes: [Facebook] announced yesterday that it was shutting down a feature that the Obama campaign used in 2012 to register over a million voters. During the election supporters shared access to their list of Facebook friends list with the campaign through an app. Researchers have found that while people view often political messages with skepticism, they are more receptive and trusting when the information is coming from somebody they know. The feature was credited with boosting Obama’s get-out-the-vote efforts which were crucial to his victory, but Facebook has decided to disable this ability in order to (rightfully) protect users from third-party apps collecting too much of their information.

The company insists that it favors no particular ideology and that its efforts are “neutral.” The first part is likely true, but the second is not possible. The company’s algorithms take into account a proprietary mix of our own biases, connections, and interests combined with Facebook’s business priorities; that is the farthest thing from neutral. Facebook says it just want to encourage “civic participation,” but politically mobilizing the subsection of people that are on their network is not without its own impacts.

Comments

Re:Elections are Popularity Contests

[Shakrai]

So your complaint is that the current guy hasn't catered to your pet issues? Welcome to the fucking club dude.

Don't vote for him or his party if that's how you feel. Just don't try and claim with a straight face that there's no difference between the two major parties. There are significant differences on issues large and small. If neither one of them caters to your pet issue(s) you're welcome to vote for someone who does.

He's still bombing other countries and wants to send some troupes in.

That might have something to do with the American citizens that keep getting their heads cut off. If you think there's any President that would behave any differently you're sadly mistaken. If anything I don't think he's going far enough with those sickos; go watch this, if you can stomach it. Watch how they shoot bound and helpless people as nonchalantly as you would step on a spider. That organization is as close to pure evil as I've seen in my lifetime and if our President had the balls to actually do what needs to be done I would be the first one lining up to go over there and help kill them.