Political data mining company Cambridge Analytica has braggadociously admitted that it used social media giant Facebook to help Donald Trump win The White House. The only problem is the firm not only stole and retained the personal information of 50 million Facebook users without their consent, but it also planted hundreds of “fake news” propaganda stories across Facebook in order to slant public opinion and, in turn, the election in Trump’s favor.
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Cambridge Analytica, which has offices in New York, Washington, and London, is owned by top Trump donor and hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer. Interestingly, the firm’s vice-president was Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign manager, and senior advisor. Needless to say, their intentions were partisan and never pure, since the Mercer/Bannon company gained access to and then used the personal information of unsuspecting Facebook users (and all of their friends) for their own political gain. A whistleblower inside the company has since come forward to tell all!
In 2016, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg went on the defensive, saying it would be “pretty crazy” to believe that “fake news on Facebook…influenced the election in any way.” The social media behemoth also claimed that Cambridge Analytica never obtained any user information without their consent. Now, Zuckerberg is forced to admit that yes, the firm did steal user data and that he has no idea if that information has since been deleted or is still floating on the firm’s servers.
Zuckerberg’s admission has understandably caused general bedlam and outrage among Facebook users over the loss of their privacy. Additionally, US and European lawmakers have since demanded formal hearings, investigations are now underway by the Federal Trade Commission and 2 state attorneys general, and the office of special counsel Robert Mueller is planning to issue inquiries.
To recap, the Trump-connected Cambridge Analytica firm stole the private data of Facebook users, then conspired with Russian operatives to plant fake political stories meant to harm Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump — for the sole purpose of assuring a win for “The Donald.” Needless to say, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to connect the dots here. Or in other words, no one with an ounce of common sense should need any further proof that the Trump camp did, in fact, collude with Russia to affect the 2016 presidential election.
No wonder Robert Mueller is all over this breaking news.
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Last September, Facebook acknowledged that it had uncovered 470 fake accounts that promoted 3,000+ ads pushing Russian propaganda. However, by early October, it was forced to admit that the political propaganda scheme affected more users than they originally realized. Soon thereafter, it raised the estimate to 10 million Americans, then boosted that number to 126 million Americans by month’s end. Eventually, Facebook cowered to Congress and declared that the final tally turned out to be 150 million Americans — a far cry from its original estimate of 470 accounts.
For his part, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has gone into a self-imposed hiding, after realizing that he was a pawn in a Trump and/or Russian scheme to disrupt American democracy.
In response, Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, which Facebook bought for $16 billion, is now speaking on behalf of all Facebook users. In light of the scandal, he has created the hashtag #DeleteFacebook to urge people to delete their accounts and reclaim their privacy.
Since the Cambridge Analytica news broke, Facebook stock has dropped 9% in 2 days.
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This is some scary stuff here. From what I heard not only could Cambridge Analytica steal Facebook users information, but they could get all your friends information too. Then they posted stories to change peoples opinions to help Trump. I can’t wait to see what Muller ends up doing with this.