Why Did President Obama Post About DACA On Facebook?

While I’m glad President Obama addressed DACA, I am very concerned that he posted his response on Facebook. Facebook is a privately owned platform. The company chooses who sees the post in their feeds without explaining to anyone why or how it makes that decision. It is also a platform responsible (though we yet don’t exactly know how responsible) for targeted voter suppression campaigns run on the last election. President Obama has a web site. Why did he not first post his statement there? He could have easily had that post cross-posted to various other platforms like medium, twitter and yes, Facebook, if his concern was reaching the most people.

Privatizing our public space, not to mention handing over data about our political positions and stances to a private company, are incredibly relevant to DACA and immigrants safety. President Obama asked for Dreamers data while President. This data can now be used to target them by the current administration. Now President Obama’s helping Facebook get data, traffic and prestige by posting his support of DACA only on Facebook.

Did Obama mean to endorse a private company? Using political statements to make money for private companies is one of the corrupt traits of the current guy in the White House. President Obama won the White House with a very savvy digital team. Call one of ‘em up please Mr. President. The open Internet, at least for now, still works. Please use it.

Originally published at Heather Gold/ObamaFacebook.