Cambridge
Analytica And The Campaign To Destroy Conservatives On Social Media
ByBen Shapiro
@benshapiro
On Sunday, The Guardian (UK) ran a much-ballyhooed
“expose” about the nefarious technological activities of Trump data firm
Cambridge Analytica. That firm was owned by the Mercer family, and former Trump
campaign strategist Steve Bannon had a stake as well; Cambridge Analytica’s
original client in the 2016 election cycle was Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).
According to The Guardian and its source, one Christopher Wylie,
Cambridge used sophisticated data gathering to amass a huge database of
information about potential voters — exactly the same thing the Obama team did
in 2012 and was widely praised for doing. But somehow it’s supremely nefarious
when Trump’s campaign did it in 2016, even if they did nothing illegal.
What, exactly, did Cambridge
do? They supposedly contracted with Global Science Research to issue
a personality quiz; in order for you to take the quiz, you had to give them
access to your Facebook profile. They then cross-referenced personality
tendencies with politics. First, this isn’t particularly shocking or
particularly sophisticated. Second, Cambridge Analytica claims they didn’t use
data from GSR.
Facebook, upon finding out about this non-illegal, rather
common internet activity, promptly suspended Cambridge Analytica. Which makes
sense, since this entire scandal is designed to pressure Facebook into cracking
down on supposed right-wing activity.
This is part of a broader pattern: Democrats, enraged at
Trump’s election, have targeted social media as the supposed nexus in a corrupt
scheme to deny Hillary Clinton the presidency. They tacitly threaten
legislative crackdowns. Then those social media companies, which lean left
anyway, crack down on right-wingers. Voila! Problem solved. It’s no
coincidence that Democratic officials have spent an inordinate amount of time
jabbering about idiotic pro-Trump memes on Facebook, posted by Russians and
seen by virtually no one; it’s no coincidence Democrats keep complaining about
“fake news,” by which they mean “news we don’t agree with.” The goal isn’t to
stop Russian interference, but to push Facebook to stop allowing
non-Democratic-approved content. And Facebook has complied.
This isn’t a secret. Wired ran a cover story about the
political pressure campaign against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
in February. Here’s what that article has to say about Facebook’s perspective:
The stories varied, but most people told the same basic
tale: of a company, and a CEO, whose techno-optimism has been crushed as
they’ve learned the myriad ways their platform can be used for ill. Of an
election that shocked Facebook, even as its fallout put the company under
siege. Of a series of external threats, defensive internal calculations, and
false starts that delayed Facebook’s reckoning with its impact on global
affairs and its users’ minds. And—in the tale’s final chapters—of the company’s
earnest attempt to redeem itself.
This latest story on Cambridge Analytica is just part of
a larger attempt to convince social media companies that the best way to fly
under the radar is to shut down conservative opinions — and the Leftists who
run Silicon Valley are more than likely to embrace that solution, even as they
claim they’re merely attempting political neutrality. It’s not a coincidence
that Facebook’s new algorithms have slammed conservative Facebook traffic. It’s
not a coincidence that YouTube seems to demonetize conservative videos. It’s
not a coincidence that Twitter suspends Steven Crowder but recommends that
others follow Louis Farrakhan.
We’re watching the social media crackdown on the Right
take place in real time. And if conservatives don’t find other outlets for
distributing their message, the supposedly open platforms that they used to
debate, argue, and convince will become political apartheid technology used to
quash their opinions.
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