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I have a family member who was in national politics in an EU country. I spent a lot of time talking about the role of Facebook in the political process with him

I have a family member who was in national politics in an EU country. I spent a lot of time talking about the role of Facebook in the political process with him. Some takeaways: 1. Facebook is essential in their country to have a chance getting elected; especially so if (due to your policy stances) you rely on the younger portions of the electorate for your votes. AFAIK in the US this is not entirely the case, since Twitter provides strong competition in this space, but in our (EU) country your options are Facebook and Instagram. 2. This is particularly annoying situation for the politicians themselves, since they need to engage social media specialists and optimise their political presence to "engage" on these platforms. Apparently this means mostly short, casual videos. This takes up a lot of time which is not going to serious policy based discussions and more in-depth write ups. So in some sense it directly contributes (involuntarily in the case of my relative) to a trivialisation of politics and turning it more entertainment oriented. I hate to see what happens when the Tik-Tok generation starts voting... 3. Aggressive politics also do really well. My relative had a post with some strong criticism of another public figure that was (IIRC) their most popular post by far. 4. The geo-political implications are troubling. Democracy is fragile enough (our country saw its top politician buy up all the top newspapers), without the political process being strongly influenced by a private company in a foreign power block. No offence to our honoured American allies of course...

encryptluks2 5y ago
> Facebook is essential in their country to have a chance getting elected; especially so if (due to your policy stances) you rely on the younger portions of the electorate for your votes This is why we are all doomed
locallost 5y ago
I guess it depends. A counter example would be the kind of grassroots organization Mozemo from Croatia whose candidate recently was elected the mayor of Zagreb, and they hold almost the majority in the city hall (which is difficult for a single party as there are many parties).They also did well in multiple cities. I checked their Twitter a while back, and they only had about 6k followers. On Facebook, they have 50k likes, but this is in general not a lot since they were a major regional story. I wouldn't be surprised if half of those likes came from outside the country. I don't think their good result is really powered by social media. So I don't think communicating with voters is a solved problem, and I don't think Facebook / social media is the only channel you have. It's important maybe, but I'm not sure if it's definitely "essential".
pjc50 5y ago
> Democracy is fragile enough (our country saw its top politician buy up all the top newspapers), without the political process being strongly influenced by a private company in a foreign power block This is more important a point than just Facebook; it's all media consolidation. British newspapers have been afflicted by this for years. The Telegraph and Spectator are famously owned by Sark tax exiles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Frederick_Barclay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Frederick_Barclay Rupert Murdoch owns the Daily Mail, the Sun, Fox news, Sky news, and before it was destroyed by its level of criminality exceeding acceptable levels, the News Of The World. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacking_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacki... The Independent is owned by Baron Lebedev: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeny_Lebedev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeny_Lebedev , son of the Russian oligarch and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev, and a Saudi oligarch https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40762906 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40762906 (apparently not connected with the Saudi royal family)
- te_chris 5y ago
  Murdoch doesn't own the Mail, but another oligrach does - Lord Rothermere.
- dageshi 5y ago
  The daily mail has never been owned by Murdoch I don't think and so far as I recall comcast currently owns Sky News not Murdoch.
  - hnbad 5y ago
    He owns The Sun and The Times in the UK as well as various other media outlets, mostly in Australia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_C... The Daily Mail, Metro and several other papers are owned by another fellow named Rothermore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mail_and_General_Trust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mail_and_General_Trust Murdoch did own a controlling share of the Sky Group until 2018 when it became a subsidiary of Comcast. I guess "Murdoch owns Sky News" is one of those facts you learn about and then forget that they can change over time, like I distinctly "know" there are 6 billion humans on Earth although the current number is closer to 8.

encryptluks2 5y ago

> Facebook is essential in their country to have a chance getting elected; especially so if (due to your policy stances) you rely on the younger portions of the electorate for your votes This is why we are all doomed

locallost 5y ago

I guess it depends. A counter example would be the kind of grassroots organization Mozemo from Croatia whose candidate recently was elected the mayor of Zagreb, and they hold almost the majority in the city hall (which is difficult for a single party as there are many parties).They also did well in multiple cities. I checked their Twitter a while back, and they only had about 6k followers. On Facebook, they have 50k likes, but this is in general not a lot since they were a major regional story. I wouldn't be surprised if half of those likes came from outside the country. I don't think their good result is really powered by social media. So I don't think communicating with voters is a solved problem, and I don't think Facebook / social media is the only channel you have. It's important maybe, but I'm not sure if it's definitely "essential".

pjc50 5y ago

> Democracy is fragile enough (our country saw its top politician buy up all the top newspapers), without the political process being strongly influenced by a private company in a foreign power block This is more important a point than just Facebook; it's all media consolidation. British newspapers have been afflicted by this for years. The Telegraph and Spectator are famously owned by Sark tax exiles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Frederick_Barclay https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Frederick_Barclay Rupert Murdoch owns the Daily Mail, the Sun, Fox news, Sky news, and before it was destroyed by its level of criminality exceeding acceptable levels, the News Of The World. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacking_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacki... The Independent is owned by Baron Lebedev: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeny_Lebedev https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeny_Lebedev , son of the Russian oligarch and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev, and a Saudi oligarch https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40762906 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40762906 (apparently not connected with the Saudi royal family)

te_chris 5y ago
Murdoch doesn't own the Mail, but another oligrach does - Lord Rothermere.
dageshi 5y ago
The daily mail has never been owned by Murdoch I don't think and so far as I recall comcast currently owns Sky News not Murdoch.
- hnbad 5y ago
  He owns The Sun and The Times in the UK as well as various other media outlets, mostly in Australia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_C... The Daily Mail, Metro and several other papers are owned by another fellow named Rothermore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mail_and_General_Trust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mail_and_General_Trust Murdoch did own a controlling share of the Sky Group until 2018 when it became a subsidiary of Comcast. I guess "Murdoch owns Sky News" is one of those facts you learn about and then forget that they can change over time, like I distinctly "know" there are 6 billion humans on Earth although the current number is closer to 8.