Facebook & Political Ads Targeting

Talk about scummy, Facebook is getting nervous. NYU Researchers @LauraEdelson2 and Damon McCoy were sent a cease and desist letter into their research on how Facebook is targeting political ads. To say the least this is a very hot topic considering all the voter suppression and false information that led to the current Administration.

At a minimum, this question SHOULD be asked and it SHOULD be answered to everyone’s satisfaction. Facebook, IMHO has become a tool for propoganda and manipulation. This alone should be reason for everyone to #deleteFacebook.

This is a disturbing development.

Last Friday, Facebook sent a cease-and-desist letter to two NYU researchers (@LauraEdelson2 and Damon McCoy), demanding that they shut down their research into political ads and disinformation on FB’s platform.https://t.co/ksBVmqV27K

— Alex Abdo (@AlexanderAbdo) October 23, 2020

I know that many people use Facebook as a way to connect with old and new friends, share photos of their kids and life, and connect on many groups. I have a Facebook account too but I’ve stopped posting too much stuff on there after the 2016 election. Facebook is being manipulated by bad actors to get you to think and do things a certain way and it has to too stop. I hope that this research can continue and we expose Facebook for the monster it really is.

How to protect your Privacy on the Internet

There are many ways to do this, some more technical ways and some easy ways. The easiest way is to use FireFox and their Multi-containers. I have containers setup just for Facebook, my Banking, Work, and Fun. This way marketers and Facebook can’t follow you around and collect data on non-Facebook users.

Other ways you can protect your privacy on the Internet is to use plugins such as the Cookie Autodelete plugin and Ublock Origin. That’s about all that folks really need at the moment but you can go full blown hardcore by using NoScript.

No matter what you use to limit your Internet footprint, and you will leave a footprint if you log on, you should try to reduce your use of Social Media like Twitter and Facebook, especially. These platforms and other have been used by Nation States to influence you to vote a certain way or galvanize your beliefs a certain way.

We humans are really simple creatures and if you put three of us together in a room, we’ll all come up with the same consensus over time. Now add in Computers, Algorithms, and Political Ads with catching sayings like “Killiary” or “Lock Her Up” and you can sway millions of people.

Scary.