Addicts of Facebook and pals are easy prey for manipulative scumbags

[FarCenter]

Addicts of Facebook and pals are easy prey for manipulative scumbags – thanks to tech giants' 'extraordinary reach'

Relying on internet giants' goodwill to stop the spread of misinformation online and prevent the manipulation of netizens has failed, Europe's top data protection watchdog has said, adding that regulators now need to take action.

Giovanni Buttarelli, the European Data Protection Supervisor, emitted this well-timed opinion yesterday on the effects of, and antidotes to, websites microtargeting people using their intimate information.

Rather than show netizens a well-rounded, balanced view of the world, through links, ads and posts in news feeds, social networks and similar sites can feed their addicts a diet of slanted information that taps into their prejudices, fuels their fears, and manipulates their knowledge and feelings to political or commercial ends. All of this is possible using their personal and private information.

And that's just not cricket, says Buttarelli.

Here's a key quote from the watchdog's opinion statement:

A personalised, microtargeted online environment creates ‘filter-bubbles’ where people are exposed to ‘more-of-the-same’ information and encounter fewer opinions, resulting in increased political and ideological polarisation. It increases the pervasiveness and persuasiveness of false stories and conspiracies. Research suggests that the manipulation of people’s newsfeed or search results could influence their voting behaviour.

Running to 31 pages, Buttarelli's missive was not thrown together overnight in response to The Observer's weekend Cambridge Analytica bombshell. It appears to be conveniently timed, with brief references to the latest reports alongside older allegations: many politicians and newspapers seem to have forgotten that CA's data harvesting was first revealed by a Guardian investigation back in 2015.

Thanks to the weekend's revelations, though, an EU document that may have otherwise languished on some hidden website will no doubt now have a greater impact, as policymakers are already coming down hard on Facebook.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/20/facebook_europe_privacy/

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. People like me would make terrible political campaign directors because I truly did not

believe that many people who were undecided could be swayed by such obvious bullshit and lies about Hillary.

[lunasun]

2. "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."

[Iggo]

3. Addicts don't like it when you call them addicts before they call themselves addicts.