Facebook can aid ideologues
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg says his social network is a politically agnostic tool for its more than 2 billion users, but the company is no bystander in global politics.
What Zuckerberg hasn’t said is that his company works with political parties and leaders, including those who use the platform to stifle opposition, sometimes with the aid of “troll armies” that spread misinformation and extremist ideologies.
The initiative is run by a little-known Facebook global
government and politics team that’s neutral in that it works with nearly anyone seeking or securing power.
The unit is led from Washington by Katie Harbath, a former Republican digital strategist who worked on former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign. Since Facebook hired Harbath three years later, her team has traveled the globe helping political clients use the company’s powerful digital tools.
In some of the world’s biggest democracies — from India and Brazil to Germany and the U.K. — the unit’s employees have become de facto campaign workers.
And once a candidate is elected, the company in some instances goes on to train government employees or provide technical assistance for live streaming video at official state events.
Even before Facebook was forced to explain its role in U.S. election meddling — portrayed by its executives as a largely passive affair
involving Russian-funded ads — the company’s direct and growing role catering to political campaigns raised concerns inside the socialmedia giant.
“It’s not Facebook’s job, in my opinion, to be so close to any election campaign,” said Elizabeth Linder, who started and ran the Facebook politics unit’s Europe, Middle East and Africa efforts until 2016.
Linder had originally been excited about the company’s potential to be “extraordinarily useful for the world’s leaders — but also the global citizenry.”
She said she decided to leave the company in part because she grew uncomfortable with what she saw as increased emphasis on electioneering and campaigns.
In the U.S., the unit embedded employees in Trump’s campaign. (Hillary Clinton’s camp declined a similar offer.)
In India, the company helped develop the online presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who now has more Facebook followers than any other world leader.
In the Philippines, it trained the campaign of Rodrigo Duterte, who is
known for encouraging extrajudicial killings, in how to most effectively use the platform.
And in Germany, it helped the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party win its first Bundestag seats, according to campaign workers.
By all accounts, Facebook has been an indispensable tool of civic engagement. Candidates and elected officials from mayor to prime minister use the platform to communicate directly with their constituents. Grassroots groups such as Black Lives Matter rely on it to organize.
The company says it offers the same tools and services to all candidates and governments regardless of political affiliation, and even to civilsociety groups that might have a lesser voice. Facebook says it provides advice on how best to use its tools, not strategic advice about what to say.
“We’re proud to work with the thousands of elected officials around the world who use Facebook as a way to communicate directly with their constituents, interact with voters, and hear about the issues important in their
community,” Harbath said in an emailed statement.
She said the company is investing in artificial intelligence and other ways to better police hate speech and threats.
Power and social media converge by design at Facebook. The company has long worked to crush its smaller rival, Twitter, in a race to be the platform of choice for the world’s so-called influencers, whether politicians, cricket stars or Kardashians. Their posts will, in theory, draw followers to Facebook more frequently, resulting in higher traffic for advertisers and better data about what attracts users.
Politicians running for office can be lucrative ad buyers. For those who spend enough, Facebook offers customized services to help them build effective campaigns, the same way it would Unilever or Coca-Cola ahead of a product launch.
At meetings with political campaigns, members of Harbath’s team sit alongside Facebook advertising sales employees who help monetize the often-viral attention stirred up by elections and politics. They train politicians and leaders how to set up a campaign page and get it authenticated with a blue verification check mark, how to best use video to engage viewers, and how to target ads to critical voting blocs.
Once those candidates are elected, their relationship with Facebook can help extend the company’s reach into government in meaningful ways, such as being well positioned to push against regulations.
The optics of directly aiding campaigns or those in power might create the impression among users that Facebook is taking sides. In April, Vietnamese officials bragged that Facebook would build a dedicated channel to prioritize takedown requests for content that offended authorities. The company generally routes requests from governments through a separate channel and takes the content down if it violates community standards. If it violates local law, it will be unavailable only in the relevant country.
“They’re too cozy with power,” said Mark Crispin Miller, a media and culture professor at New York University.