Washington Post
At the heart of Facebook’s rocky public position is the scale of its own power
By the end of the 2014 election, campaigns and political committees had directly spent about $8 million on Facebook advertising, less than half the amount they’d spent on Google. Through September of 2019, that figure neared $46 million, 50 percent more than what Google took in. And that’s only direct spending, excluding spending by political consultants on behalf of candidates or campaigns. In the 2016 campaign alone, Donald Trump’s team spent somewhere around $70 million on Facebook through a digital firm run by Brad Parscale, who is now Trump’s campaign manager.
Trump campaign turns Iran attack into massive Facebook ad blitz, sparking Democratic criticisms (Washington Post)
Submitted by Robbie McBeath on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 16:55Geoffrey Fowler: At CES, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are preaching privacy. Don’t believe the hype. (Washington Post)
Submitted by benton on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 14:27Analysis: Ivanka Trump avoids ruffling feathers in CES speech on retraining blue collar workers (Washington Post)
Submitted by Robbie McBeath on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 13:44Editorial -- California’s privacy law was supposed to spur Congress to act. It flubbed instead. (Washington Post)
Submitted by benton on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 06:42
Don’t Tilt Scales Against President Trump, Facebook Executive Warns
On Dec. 30, Andrew Bosworth, the head of Facebook’s virtual and augmented reality division, wrote on his internal Facebook page that, as a liberal, he found himself wanting to use the social network’s powerful platform against President Donald Trump. But citing the “Lord of the Rings” franchise and the philosopher John Rawls, Mr. Bosworth said that doing so would eventually backfire. “So what stays my hand?
The 2020 election will be the country’s biggest cybersecurity test ever (Washington Post)
Submitted by benton on Tue, 01/07/2020 - 11:22Facebook bans deepfakes, but not 'shallowfakes' (Washington Post)
Submitted by benton on Tue, 01/07/2020 - 06:37Silicon Valley will face new challenges in 2020. Here's what we're watching.
Over the last decade, lawmakers and regulators slowly woke up to the consequences of the tech industry’s unchecked rise in power. In the 2020s, they'll try to take back control. Here are (some) of the top issues the Washington Post will tracking at The Technology 202 in 2020: