I wouldn't be surprised if there were national security issues involved as well. Putting Facebook anywhere in the world provides solid communications data on a

I wouldn't be surprised if there were national security issues involved as well. Putting Facebook anywhere in the world provides solid communications data on a broad cross-section of any society in the world. The data is likely to be so good that you can very effectively monitor that nation. TBH, I don't know why companies like Facebook and Google don't manage their own hedgefunds based on aggregate data that they know before anyone else. Currency markets would be an obvious one to participate in.