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>If a Less than a million dollars of Facebook ads shown to a few thousand people can determine who becomes president in the US, then there is a much bigger prob

>If a Less than a million dollars of Facebook ads shown to a few thousand people can determine who becomes president in the US, then there is a much bigger problem. Do we know that that’s all that happened? Or is this just the tip of the ice berg. >Anything short of of making these tools available to everyone would position Facebook as an agent/agency of the US Government. Facebook is an American company. So is Apple and Google. Even if they are not legally bound to serve the interests of the country, their employees are overwhelmingly American and probably patriotic and so we have to expect that when push comes to shove the interests of the US will come first.

DeusExMachina 9y ago
> we have to expect that How is that a moral justification? Even if we might expect it, it does not make the fact any better.
OoTheNigerian 9y ago
>"Facebook is an American company. So is Apple and Google. Even if they are not legally bound to serve the interests of the country, their employees are overwhelmingly American and probably patriotic and so we have to expect that when push comes to shove the interests of the US will come first." 85% of Facebook users are outside the United States. Taking the position of "when push comes to shove, we work for the US government" is probably not the best way to be seen. There is nothing stopping them to be equally transparent for everyone while keeping the laws of every jurisdiction in which they operate.
- smsm42 9y ago
  > we work for the US government It isn't even "US government". It is a part of US government that is gripped by paranoia-of-the-day and wants to grab powers Constitution does not give then, because paranoia is excellent grounds for power-grabbing.
n_time 9y ago
Facebook has over 2 billion users. If they want to stay relevant in the global scheme would be taking a risk by giving preferential treatment to American authorities. Especially given Germany's power in the EU and the rising European hostility towards digital platforms. There's a lot of folks to advertise to on this side of the pond, and we're having elections to ;) Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly...

DeusExMachina 9y ago

> we have to expect that How is that a moral justification? Even if we might expect it, it does not make the fact any better.

OoTheNigerian 9y ago

>"Facebook is an American company. So is Apple and Google. Even if they are not legally bound to serve the interests of the country, their employees are overwhelmingly American and probably patriotic and so we have to expect that when push comes to shove the interests of the US will come first." 85% of Facebook users are outside the United States. Taking the position of "when push comes to shove, we work for the US government" is probably not the best way to be seen. There is nothing stopping them to be equally transparent for everyone while keeping the laws of every jurisdiction in which they operate.

smsm42 9y ago
> we work for the US government It isn't even "US government". It is a part of US government that is gripped by paranoia-of-the-day and wants to grab powers Constitution does not give then, because paranoia is excellent grounds for power-grabbing.

n_time 9y ago

Facebook has over 2 billion users. If they want to stay relevant in the global scheme would be taking a risk by giving preferential treatment to American authorities. Especially given Germany's power in the EU and the rising European hostility towards digital platforms. There's a lot of folks to advertise to on this side of the pond, and we're having elections to ;) Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly...