6 ms·

They hold the power to change an elections. No politicians like that.

by ToFab123 6y ago

bryanrasmussen 6y ago
unless you are changing them in the direction wanted.
- Mountain_Skies 6y ago
  Short term, yes, but what guarantee does any political group have that the tech companies won't turn on them at some point? Facebook in particular has an ever graying userbase, which means they're naturally going to continue to lean more and more conservative.
  - basch 6y ago
    >Facebook in particular has an ever graying userbase I don't buy it. Facebook has always been an adult network. It started as something that kept kids out. They opened up, but they dont need them. Eventually, when people get older they sign up for it. It't not sexy, its utilitarian. Their biggest risk to their business is more addictive products, not their customer age. People can get addicted at any age. TiKTok, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube are still more commoner<>celebrity networks, while Facebook is a WhitePages and now a YellowPages too.
    - detaro 6y ago
      From what I see, it's less important with young adults now than it was a few years ago, and it started as something only for young adults that spread upwards through the age groups. It could be reaching a stable point though, true.
      - basch 6y ago
        The whole "facebook isnt cool anymore" thing has been going on for a decade now. Linkedin isnt cool. The WhitePages arent cool. Plenty of other properties, like twitch, discord, twitter, carve out their niche. Snapchat was going to be the facebook killer, people got bored with snapchat. But facebook keeps growing. Now TikTok is looking like a threat. But no matter what everybodys favorite place to hangout is, they also have a facebook. And companies keep throwing money into facebook ads. https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly...
  - yeetman21 6y ago
    Politicians only think short term
sidlls 6y ago
They do? What evidence is there to suggest this?
- Mindwipe 6y ago
  Pretty poor evidence generally, mostly on the say so of snake oil salesmen trying to convince political campaigns to pay them handsomely to do so with extremely uncertain results. I note the conspiracy theory that Cambridge Analytica threw the Brexit referendum via Facebook has essentially completely collapsed over the last month or so. CA certainly wanted their clients to think that such a thing was possible. They were fantasists, for money.
  - jen20 6y ago
    > theory that Cambridge Analytica threw the Brexit referendum via Facebook has essentially completely collapsed over the last month or so. You have to have a pretty warped view on proceedings for this to be the case.
    - Mindwipe 6y ago
      You really don't. I am certainly not trying to argue that Brexit is a good thing. But the CA narrative has completely fallen apart. https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2020/10/how-cambridge-analytica-scandal-unravelled https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2020/... https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/2847/documents/27859/default/ https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/2847/documents... The ICO spent three years investigating CA, and the report is very clear that the findings were that they had no effect.

They hold the power to change an elections. No politicians like that.

bryanrasmussen 6y ago

unless you are changing them in the direction wanted.

Mountain_Skies 6y ago
Short term, yes, but what guarantee does any political group have that the tech companies won't turn on them at some point? Facebook in particular has an ever graying userbase, which means they're naturally going to continue to lean more and more conservative.
- basch 6y ago
  >Facebook in particular has an ever graying userbase I don't buy it. Facebook has always been an adult network. It started as something that kept kids out. They opened up, but they dont need them. Eventually, when people get older they sign up for it. It't not sexy, its utilitarian. Their biggest risk to their business is more addictive products, not their customer age. People can get addicted at any age. TiKTok, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube are still more commoner<>celebrity networks, while Facebook is a WhitePages and now a YellowPages too.
  - detaro 6y ago
    From what I see, it's less important with young adults now than it was a few years ago, and it started as something only for young adults that spread upwards through the age groups. It could be reaching a stable point though, true.
    - basch 6y ago
      The whole "facebook isnt cool anymore" thing has been going on for a decade now. Linkedin isnt cool. The WhitePages arent cool. Plenty of other properties, like twitch, discord, twitter, carve out their niche. Snapchat was going to be the facebook killer, people got bored with snapchat. But facebook keeps growing. Now TikTok is looking like a threat. But no matter what everybodys favorite place to hangout is, they also have a facebook. And companies keep throwing money into facebook ads. https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly...
- yeetman21 6y ago
  Politicians only think short term

sidlls 6y ago

They do? What evidence is there to suggest this?

Mindwipe 6y ago
Pretty poor evidence generally, mostly on the say so of snake oil salesmen trying to convince political campaigns to pay them handsomely to do so with extremely uncertain results. I note the conspiracy theory that Cambridge Analytica threw the Brexit referendum via Facebook has essentially completely collapsed over the last month or so. CA certainly wanted their clients to think that such a thing was possible. They were fantasists, for money.
- jen20 6y ago
  > theory that Cambridge Analytica threw the Brexit referendum via Facebook has essentially completely collapsed over the last month or so. You have to have a pretty warped view on proceedings for this to be the case.
  - Mindwipe 6y ago
    You really don't. I am certainly not trying to argue that Brexit is a good thing. But the CA narrative has completely fallen apart. https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2020/10/how-cambridge-analytica-scandal-unravelled https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2020/... https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/2847/documents/27859/default/ https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/2847/documents... The ICO spent three years investigating CA, and the report is very clear that the findings were that they had no effect.