Blame political operatives, not social media
Many people are outraged at the unfolding story of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica sharing user data and working with political operatives to manipulate the public and elections. Just as many are calling for government oversight of social media companies and what types of political ads they allow. That some of these firms were extremely careless with, or intentionally misused, user data is clear. The much bigger problem, however, is actually the manipulative nature of politics.
Political operatives manipulating the public have a long history. In ancient Rome, politicians distracted the public by offering free bread and circuses, and today politicians manipulate the public by promising many “free” (i.e., taxpayer financed) things.
Politicians also trick the public using fear. Five-hundred years ago, Machiavelli wrote The Prince to advise rulers on how to confuse the public into looking to them as a solution. In Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, rulers blamed businessmen and bankers for most of the problems that they created.
Facebook and Cambridge Analytica should not have harvested vast amounts of data and put them in the hands of operatives. But we should never be surprised when politicians appeal to human weaknesses or emotions.
If political manipulation is such a longstanding problem, getting politicians more involved is not the answer. In Brave New World, published in 1932, Aldous Huxley predicted a future where people are routinely manipulated by psychological techniques and technology. As a solution to such problems we don’t want to give more control to the political operatives.
Facebook has several dozen potentially viable competitors that use opensource technology. Let the market speak. We should be looking for private solutions where people get to control what is done with their data. In the meantime I will be spending less time giving my personal data to Mark Zuckerberg and more time reading Aldous Huxley.
Edward Stringham is an economist at Trinity College.