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You keep calling it a conspiracy theory without providing any evidence that it is. It's a known fact that Obama was praised for targeted political advertising:

You keep calling it a conspiracy theory without providing any evidence that it is. It's a known fact that Obama was praised for targeted political advertising: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/17/obama-digital-data-machine-facebook-election https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/17/obama-digital-... It's also a fact that these very left leaning platforms are now removing the ability to do exactly what Obama was praised for. You've not disputed either of those, just called the people pointing them out childish conspiracy theorists.

tomnipotent 7y ago
> You keep calling it a conspiracy theory without providing any evidence that it is That's not how it works. You need to provide actual evidence to back up your conspiracy, other than "Obama did it once" and "I have a gut feeling". How does Obama being praised for his campaign have ANYTHING to do with the motivations of staff and employees at these companies making these decisions today? > ability to do exactly what Obama was praised for Cambridge Analytica?
- malvosenior 7y ago
  If the staff of these companies was actually concerned about this issue, they wouldn't have allowed Obama to do this. It's clearly not an issue with the technique, but who is employing it. > Have you been living under a rock? Cambridge Analytica? Like I said, Obama did exactly that (from the article I posted): > "Consciously or otherwise, the individual volunteer will be injecting all the information they store publicly on their Facebook page – home location, date of birth, interests and, crucially, network of friends – directly into the central Obama database."
  - tomnipotent 7y ago
    No one in 2012 knew how out-of-control the combination of social media advertising combined with politics could be, and it's absolutely disingenuous to expect people to predict the future because you have the benefit of hindsight. Obama's campaigned happened to be the 1st, and it was newsworthy. Then the next cycle happened, Facebook had more than doubled in size and this time around the combination was abused - enter Cambridge Analytica and Russia. Now the tech companies have spent days in front of the Senate & House in DC, and somehow we're surprised they've decided now of all times to call it quits? During one of the hottest political contests in recent history? What's more likely - tech giants colluded to stiff Trump and the right, or they all decided not to be a player in something so political and rather lose out on inconsequential revenues?
Nasrudith 7y ago
To be fair they aren't entirely comparable even if they are both talked about as targetting. The Obama campaign was more about organizing as opposed to underhanded actions like abusing loose permissions. The emphasis of reporting on the targetting as opposed to the worse moral dodginess confuses me even from a cynical "assume jealousy from old media" perspective. I only have vague guesses of incompetence for not emphasizing the even worse parts or not being their target audience.
- malvosenior 7y ago
  Aren't they almost exactly the same though? From the article: > "Consciously or otherwise, the individual volunteer will be injecting all the information they store publicly on their Facebook page – home location, date of birth, interests and, crucially, network of friends – directly into the central Obama database. That's literally the thing people are upset that Cambridge Analytica did.

tomnipotent 7y ago

> You keep calling it a conspiracy theory without providing any evidence that it is That's not how it works. You need to provide actual evidence to back up your conspiracy, other than "Obama did it once" and "I have a gut feeling". How does Obama being praised for his campaign have ANYTHING to do with the motivations of staff and employees at these companies making these decisions today? > ability to do exactly what Obama was praised for Cambridge Analytica?

malvosenior 7y ago
If the staff of these companies was actually concerned about this issue, they wouldn't have allowed Obama to do this. It's clearly not an issue with the technique, but who is employing it. > Have you been living under a rock? Cambridge Analytica? Like I said, Obama did exactly that (from the article I posted): > "Consciously or otherwise, the individual volunteer will be injecting all the information they store publicly on their Facebook page – home location, date of birth, interests and, crucially, network of friends – directly into the central Obama database."
- tomnipotent 7y ago
  No one in 2012 knew how out-of-control the combination of social media advertising combined with politics could be, and it's absolutely disingenuous to expect people to predict the future because you have the benefit of hindsight. Obama's campaigned happened to be the 1st, and it was newsworthy. Then the next cycle happened, Facebook had more than doubled in size and this time around the combination was abused - enter Cambridge Analytica and Russia. Now the tech companies have spent days in front of the Senate & House in DC, and somehow we're surprised they've decided now of all times to call it quits? During one of the hottest political contests in recent history? What's more likely - tech giants colluded to stiff Trump and the right, or they all decided not to be a player in something so political and rather lose out on inconsequential revenues?

Nasrudith 7y ago

To be fair they aren't entirely comparable even if they are both talked about as targetting. The Obama campaign was more about organizing as opposed to underhanded actions like abusing loose permissions. The emphasis of reporting on the targetting as opposed to the worse moral dodginess confuses me even from a cynical "assume jealousy from old media" perspective. I only have vague guesses of incompetence for not emphasizing the even worse parts or not being their target audience.

malvosenior 7y ago
Aren't they almost exactly the same though? From the article: > "Consciously or otherwise, the individual volunteer will be injecting all the information they store publicly on their Facebook page – home location, date of birth, interests and, crucially, network of friends – directly into the central Obama database. That's literally the thing people are upset that Cambridge Analytica did.