Election 2017: A letter to my neighbours
Do you use Facebook?
In three weeks time, we go to the polls to vote in this snap election. Between now and then, you will likely be personally targeted with political advertising whilst you’re on Facebook.
When I say ‘personally’, I mean using information about you that knows you better than your own family.
You might think I’m joking or making it up. I wish I was!
Personal-targeting on Facebook can mean you — and only you — will see political adverts designed to influence the way you vote without you being aware of it.
Personally-targeted Facebook ads were used by the Leave campaigns during the EU referendum. They were used in America during last year’s elections. Ahead of the French elections, Facebook deleted 30,000 fake accounts. Ahead of our election, it has deleted thousands more… but there’s no way for those of us outside FB to double-check how effective they’ve been.
Don’t believe me? Google ‘Facebook election micro-targeting’ and check it out for yourself (or check out the links at the bottom of this page)!
There is something you can do!
There’s an on-line version of this letter here: https://medium.com/@wildwalkerwoman/election-2017-a-letter-to-my-neighbours-8b1030f0994b
· it has a link to Who Targets Me? which you can use on Facebook to find out if you are being targeted and, more importantly, who is targeting you.
· it has links to evidence of all the other things I’m saying
I don’t like being manipulated without my knowledge!
You may not like it either, which is why I thought you’d want to know.
More information :
Who targets me? — find out which political parties are using Facebook to target you
Facebook and Election 2017
Facebook could tell us how Russia interfered in our elections. Why won’t it?
How to stop Facebook undermining democracy
The “dark ads” election: How are political parties targeting you on Facebook?
Facebook employs ex-political aides to help campaigns target voters
EU referendum
The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked
Big data and micro-targeting
The Data That Turned the World Upside Down
‘…before long, he was able to evaluate a person better than the average work colleague, merely on the basis of ten Facebook “likes.” Seventy “likes” were enough to outdo what a person’s friends knew, 150 what their parents knew, and 300 “likes” what their partner knew. More “likes” could even surpass what a person thought they knew about themselves.’
Is anything being done about this?
Evidence Of Russian Hybrid Threat Sent To NATO, UK and EU Parliaments and FBI < warning: this is a forensically complex & very deep rabbit hole
