A well renowned news agency in the U.S., unraveled the way the 2016 elections were rigged with social media, mainly Facebook. There has been strong evidence pointing towards the fact the U.S., elections were influenced leading to Donald Trump’s shocking victory.
Learn everything you need to know about how user data from Facebook was used to favor Trump below.
Who acquired the Facebook data to rig the elections?
A political data firm called Cambridge Analytica was hired by President Trump’s 2016 election campaign. The company based in the U.K., acquired the information of more than 50 million Facebook users. The firm identified personalities of American voters to influence their behavior.
How did Cambridge Analytica gain access to this data?
In 2014, researchers asked Facebook users to take a personality survey and download an app. They took private information from these profiles. This was initially allowed by Facebook but now these surveys have been banned. The Cambridge University’s Psychometrics Center developed this technique for academic purposes.
The Center was approached by Cambridge Analytica asking to use this app but the Center declined. However, Aleksandr Kogan a Russian American psychology professor from the University was willing to help.
In 2014, Kogan built his own app and started harvesting information for the political data firm. The professor gave the firm access to over 50 million raw profiles according to a data expert who oversaw the harvesting process. Out of the 50 million people, only 270,000 users participated in the survey. The users were told the data harvested was to be used for academic purposes.
What type of data was harvested by the Russian American Professor?
The data contained details on the users’ identity, likes and frameworks. The plan was to map personality traits with the likes on Facebook. This, in turn, helped the firm to target audiences with appropriate digital ads.
Is Facebook to be held responsible for this data breach?
Facebook directly denied what Cambridge did was a data breach. In fact, Facebook allows researchers to access user data but only for academic purposes. The social media is strictly against selling this information to any data brokers, ad networks or even advertising agencies. Facebook states what Professor Kogan did was against the company’s rules and principles.
However, no news agency has managed to get a word out of Mr. Kogan about these allegations. He stated a nondisclosure agreement with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica was keeping him from speaking.
What does Cambridge Analytica have to say?
Initially, when the firm was questioned they outright denied the allegations but later changed their story. The political firm recently revealed it had acquired the data from Mr. Kogan but was unaware of how the professor gained access to the data. The firm said it realized where the data came from two years ago and deleted the set of raw files provided by Mr. Kogan. But according to The New York Times, there are still multiple copies of this data and the Times had a recent view of the raw data.
Social media has over time taken over most of the people’s lives. We live and learn through social media on a daily basis. This gives social media the power to manipulate the way we think and do things. Facebook, for example, ensures you give in all the details of your life from where you were born to the company you serve.
Mr. Kogan easily managed to access data of 50 million users from just 270,000 users’ support. The ongoing investigation in the U.S., about whether the 2016 elections were rigged has managed to get significant information indicating the Russians played a role in Donald Trump’s victory.
A bigger question can be asked, if the U.S., elections were so easily rigged through social media then were other elections planned as well. This news opens up a pandora’s box to the dark side of social media and its effect on the political world.
