Is Facebook´s centralization of power a threat to democracy?
Facebook is a social networking site created by Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes. The site was founded in 2004 and since then, the popularity of using the site has been improved. During the us presidential election in 2016, there has been assumptions that Facebook helped manipulate the campaign. Furthermore, is Facebooks centralization of power a threat to democracy?
The data analysis firm called Cambridge Analytica has been connected to Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign. The firm has been accused of improperly obtaining data on 50 million user profiles threw the social network. Cambridge Analytica touted its ability to predict how people would vote based on their social media profiles and claimed that it helped swing the 2016 election in Trump´s favor.
It all started when researchers in Cambridge University of Psychometric Center gained access to the data of Facebook users threw a personality quiz app called “This is your digital life”. The app required users to grant access to their personal information including “friends” and “likes”. According to Facebook, researchers sold the data to Cambridge Analytica. The information gave the firm the ability to pick at mental or emotional vulnerabilities allowing them to push people to behave in a certain way.
In terms of Facebooks policy this was against the rules. A firm like Cambridge Analytica needs to seek permission before they can get this kind of data, which they did not do. Cambridge Analytica said from the beginning that everything they have done is fair and straight forward but according to Facebook, this data was not obtained properly, and they hold on to the information for longer than they claimed.
Facebook ended up banning Cambridge Analytica from advertising on its platform. In the documentary “The Facebook dilemma”, the explanation for why Facebook did not stop the Cambridge Analysis sooner is because they acted to slow. Either way, both Cambridge Analysis and Facebook helped form the election and manipulate how each Facebook-user would vote.
I believe Facebook can be a threat to democracy, but as long as Facebook and people are conscious of the mistakes that were made in 2016 there is nothing, we- as Facebook-users, can do from manipulation other than spreading awareness.
Sources:
Interesting article Josefine.
SvarSlett