As the controversy surrounding Facebook’s alleged cooperation with outside entities continues to swirl; new information shows former President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign mined the social network’s user data to help reach likely voters, reports Fox News.
Carol Davidsen, Obama’s former Director of Integration and Media Analytics, confirmed the campaign’s use of Facebook’s “social graphs” -illustrations that map users’ varying connections- on Twitter, saying “Facebook was surprised we were able to suck out the whole social graph, but they didn’t stop us once they realized that was what we were doing.”
“They came to office in the days following election recruiting & were very candid that they allowed us to do things they wouldn’t have allowed someone else to do because they were on our side,” she added.
I worked on all of the data integration projects at OFA. This was the only one that felt creepy, even though we played by the rules, and didn’t do anything I felt was ugly, with the data.
— Carol Davidsen (@cld276) March 19, 2018
Facebook was surprised we were able to suck out the whole social graph, but they didn’t stop us once they realized that was what we were doing.
— Carol Davidsen (@cld276) March 19, 2018
Davidsen’s admission comes as Facebook finds itself in hot-water over their policies permitting outside factors to impact the US electoral system.
Earlier this year, the Justice Department indicted 13 Russian nationals for exploiting Facebook in order to sway American voters.
COLLUSION: Trump Says Facebook and 'Fake News' Campaigned for Clinton
Federal investigators are probing whether Russian-backed organizations purchased nearly $50,000 worth of phony Facebook advertisements. According to sources close to the probe, the ads allegedly focused on issues relating to immigration and Clinton’s ongoing FBI investigation.
DEBUNKED: Facebook Admits Users Didn't See Russian Ads Until AFTER Election
The media’s Russia-Trump collusion narrative continued to collapse this week, after Facebook officials told Congressional investigators that nearly half of the 10 million users “exposed” to Russian-backed advertisements didn’t see the material until after the 2016 election.
Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s Vice President of Policy and Communications, told lawmakers that 56% of ads appeared on the social media giant’s webpage after Election Day, with 44% appearing on the site before November.
Facebook recently supplied Congress with approximately 3,000 paid advertisements with links to Russian-backed firms or organizations. The technology giant informed investigators that the ads cost roughly $100,000, and believe they were purchased by Kremlin supported sources to siphon votes away from Hillary Clinton and towards Donald Trump.
“Roughly 25% of the ads were never shown to anyone,” Schrage added. “That’s because advertising auctions are designed so that ads reach people based on relevance, and certain ads may not reach anyone as a result.”
“Most of the ads appear to focus on divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum, touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to immigration to gun rights,” Schrage said. “A number of them appear to encourage people to follow Pages on these issues.”
Doomed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has routinely blamed Facebook –as well as a host of other external factors- for her surprising defeat to Donald Trump last fall. The former Secretary of State claims that Russia, using Facebook, twitter, and other forms of social media, colluded with President Trump to steal the 2016 election.
h/t Daily Caller
