Facebook needs course correction

The exploitation of personal data and manipulation of elections have crossed a very serious line

Over the past several days, it has become apparent that the social media behemoth Facebook has either actively allowed or was a passive partner in the manipulation of personal data for some 50 million citizens of the United States to influence election results. The data mining firm Cambridge Analytica used the information and ‘likes’ to trawl through Facebook data, set online IQ tests and other seemingly innocuous puzzles and quizzes to be able to use algorithmic analysis to gauge personal political preferences. These mined data were then used to target political ads and other political messages to influence and sway the outcomes of the US elections, and there are fears that the process may have undermined other important votes elsewhere.

Clearly, this data mining scandal amounts to a serious assault on the democratic process, is an abrogation of the founding values of Facebook and clearly abuses the personal information shared by members on what has become a giant corporation with little if any regulatory oversight anywhere. This deliberate and wilful intrusion and blatant manipulation certainly breaches data protection laws across Europe and a raft of other nations, and those responsible for this must be held to account.

Already, Members of the United Kingdom parliament are calling for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to testify before a Commons committee to explain what he and Facebook knew — and why the Cambridge Analytica operations were allowed. How many other such firms mine data? What is the extent of data mining? Why is personal data so freely accessible to those with the algorithmic capabilities to unduly influence our lives? Where is the corporate oversight? Where is the protection of personal data? How did a social media site have the ability to gain such unbridled power? And how much has it profited from the deliberate or wilful selling of personal data? These are but some of the questions Zuckerberg and his board need to come clean on — and soon.

The original intent of Facebook was to create a platform where friends could stay in touch. Now, it is an advertising behemoth that has become a news platform, one that has no oversight, no editorial values, no ethics, no control, and one that wilfully manipulates the information of its users, sharing it seemingly willy-nilly with third-party hucksters and marketers with the intent of maximising profits. The social media behemoth used the vast troves of data collected on its two billion users for political manipulation, commercial exploitation and the subversion of news and content. This breach of data amounts to a breach of trust on the part of Facebook.