Hard Slap Across The Facebook

It is becoming clear that social media heavyweight Facebook put it’s imposing social media thumb heavily on the scale of 2012 Presidential Election. It’s also clear Facebook meddled in the election voluntarily because Mark Zuckerberg was a supporter of President Barack Obama and wanted him to be reelected. In fact sources are telling me Facebook knowingly opened up a ‘backdoor’ of sorts in 2011 and then tipped off Obama For America minions to invite them inside. Once they were inside the data jackpot, the team using the expertise of Cambridge Analytica began to rifle through the profiles of more than 50 million Facebook users. Their information was examined, magnified, dissected, reviewed and run through an assortment of algorithms so that the maximum amount of value could be squeezed from each unsuspecting soul. This went on for months as President Barack Obama honed his message and focused on particular segments of the voting public to deliver the cues his team hoped would deliver votes and ultimately victory. It worked.

The machine was so well oiled by Election Day that his easy victory over Mitt Romney was heralded as a triumph of cutting edge technology. Those on all sides applauded Obama For America for putting together a campaign that went deeper into the electorate than any in history. The problem is the campaign may have broken the rules and everyone involved may have broken the law on the way to the victory party. You see Cambridge was on board and above board in it’s work for OFA but Facebook was the shadow heavyweight. Facebook secretly gave Cambridge access to the raw materials it needed to fire up its engines and power through the election cycle in a way that had never been done before.

In fact when other tech firms began to realize what was going on, they began to try to collect data through user profile apps too. However, Zuckerberg and his crew were getting nervous at that point and shut it all down. Sorry the Obama For America app is closed, thank you for stopping by. By then it didn’t matter of course because Obama was 2-years into his second term and cruising along without concern about questions being asked about how his team really pulled it off.

According to a former member of the Facebook team, Carol Davidsen, Facebook gave OFA direct access to the user profiles of millions of it users. Now we’re learning that it may have been much worse and carried on much longer. We are now finding out Facebook tracked phone calls and messages through it’s mobile app on Smartphones. In fact there isn’t any telling just how far that Facebook Fox travelled down the rat hole to get the goods on you and me.

There are other possibly larger concerns as well.

Here’s the big jam for Obama and Facebook; getting in-kind contributions for “anything of value” must be reported under Federal Election Laws. For example, if a company gave a mailing list to a candidate it must be reported because it has real value in an election. What Facebook provided at no charge was worth far more than a mailing list and could likely soar into the millions, possibly billions of dollars. Remember information is the new currency and the Obama team was able to capitalize on the personal information of more than 50 million Americans in the heat of a Presidential Election. They got insider access and information that allowed Obama For America to mine the data of millions of us and didn’t pay a dime; nor did the Obama Campaign report the work done by Facebook on it’s behalf at no charge.

The big difference between what Obama For America did and what the Trump Campaign did are quite straightforward and quite simple. The Trump Campaign reported it’s work with Cambridge and reported the amounts paid the company in the required spending reports provided to the Federal Elections Commission.

Whether or not Cambridge Analytica came by the information it shared with the Trump Campaign about Facebook users honestly really does not matter because the Trump campaign met its obligation to report the spending and therefore did not violate the ban on in-kind contributions from corporate partners or in the case of Zuckerberg and Obama, corporate friends

This all brings us to some very important questions; if Mark Zuckerberg was so ready and willing to help Barack Obama fend off Mitt Romney was he equally prepared to weigh in to help Hillary Clinton? Was Mark Zuckerberg paid for what he did to help Barack Obama win in 2012? Did both Facebook and Obama For America violate Federal Election Laws? That is a searing question.

Think about this, we’ve been told for a year and a half that the Russians meddled in the 2016 Election. It appears there is some truth to that but no evidence it had any actual impact on the outcome. There is a Special Counsel investigating whether or not the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to gain an upper hand to come out ahead and beat Hillary Clinton. So far there isn’t any meat on those bones.

However, who do you think would have been in a better position to help Hillary Clinton, the Russians or Facebook? It is becoming obvious that the real meddling, the real crimes and the real collusion may have begun between the social media titan Facebook and it’s chosen candidate, Barack Obama. The last question today is, did that collusion and unreported in-kind support also extend to Hillary Clinton?

Meanwhile Facebook stock is crashing and #deletefacebook is going viral. It seems that when people see actual evidence of cheating and criminal behavior they will take action.