Currently in Congress

Chapter 11 focuses on Congress and what goes on behind the scenes that the typical American doesn’t know a whole lot about. Right now in Congress, there is a huge negotiation over an issue going on with Facebook. It is the social media network’s biggest scandal in its 14+ years of existence. Mark Zuckerberg, in front of Congress, will be grilled with questions on what is going on with his company and what he looks to do to change it.

Here is a basic summary of the issue. Facebook has taken the information that its users insert into the website and give it to a company Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica’s description on the internet is as follows. “Cambridge Analytica is a British political consulting firm which combines data mining, data brokerage, and data analysis with strategic communication for the electoral process.” As Facebook would see the types of things that users liked, shared, or commented about, the data they received would feed to Cambridge Analytica. This doesn’t seem like the biggest deal, but guess what? This firm was hired by Trump’s 2016 election campaign. This means that the Trump campaign gained access to private information of over 50 million Facebook users. Cambridge Analytica was then able to target users, based on their likes, with digital advertisements that could suede them to vote Republican.

The issue now becomes how to fix this and what steps need to take place. In Zuckerberg’s session with Congress, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, a Democrat, brought up a point made by Facebook’s COO. She said that if Facebook users don’t want their personal information to be used in the company’s advertising, they may have to pay Facebook.

A public fear is that Congress does not understand technology and its effects all too well so they will decide on implementing laws that will seriously damage the experience of internet users, but that decision is still up in the air.

Video from session in Congress: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/10/mark-zuckerberg-there-will-always-be-a-version-of-facebook-that-is-free.html

Greeting Mr. Zuckerberg on Tuesday are dozens of cardboard cutouts of his own image wearing “fix fakebook.” in front of the U.S. Capitol Building.

7 Responses to "Currently in Congress"

James Hulbert says:

April 10, 2018 at 9:47 pm

Timothy,

This has been such an intriguing development that I have been following very closely since the details were released. This all just adds so much more complication to the 2016 Election and whether it was a fair election, an essential component of popular sovereignty. Even though Zuckerberg is taking the blame and not deflecting any of it, it obviously does not excuse any of the companies’ weak privacy software. According to Dylan Byers, a senior writer for CNN, the senate hearing was quite unproductive because the majority of the senators asking questions had no idea how Facebook even worked. It is hard to contemplate how our government can be so impacted by a foreign hacking and the highest ranking government officials cannot even begin to fathom what is at stake. Just as you said, it is about how we fix this and it seems that we are even further from fixing this than anyone had hoped. In my opinion, it is okay for our internet experience to be compromised if that means that our government can run how a democracy is built to run. Facebook is not up and coming, it is a dying social media platform that millennials are using less and less. Good job Tim, keep it up!
Jacob Weis says:

April 10, 2018 at 10:01 pm

Timothy Miller,

Excellent post I must say. You raised some interesting points that I did not know about. The fact that any information that we put on the internet can be taken and used for purposes that we do not intend for is unsettling. Security technologist Bruce Schneider says, “walking around with a cellphone is essentially carrying a tracking device 24/7”. I would have to agree with this. The ability to track criminals records such as recent locations, text messages, and calls makes for an easy investigation.Positives and negatives come from this technological era but some would say that the negatives outweigh the positives.
Virginia Myers says:

April 11, 2018 at 9:33 am

Dear Timothy,

Your highly relevant post has made me step back and evaluate our democracy. First off, it is clear that Trump’s administration gaining access to the private information of over 50M Facebook users and using that to his advantage goes against the condition of popular sovereignty of free and fair elections. This is because, as you mentioned, Cambridge Analytica targeted users based on their likes with digital advertisements that could suede them to vote Republican and free and fair elections means that there is no coercion of voters. Secondly, it also goes against the condition of access to high-quality information since there was biased information or misleading interpretations about the Clinton foundation and her emails, limiting people from forming authentic and rational attitudes about public policies and political leaders. A recent study by Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society found that propaganda, in various forms, played a huge role in the 2016 campaign. Along with many others speculating, I wonder if Trump would be president today if Facebook didn’t exist.

You mentioned Congress’s inability to make a conclusion or decide on an action plan at the moment because they do not understand the technology. The way our government and country is set up allows for errors like this to happen in our elections. Yes, people are still figuring out how the Internet plays a role in the political socialization of people, but the government still missed this major element of Trump’s campaign. However, I will say that although these errors can and did occur, Congress exists to make things right and they will aim to do so over the next few days with Zuckerberg in the courtroom.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/facebooks-role-in-trumps-win-is-clear-no-matter-what-mark-zuckerberg-says/2017/09/07/b5006c1c-93c7-11e7-89fa-bb822a46da5b_story.html?utm_term=.a1900c9b0d8d

https://www.wired.com/story/mark-zuckerberg-congress-day-one/
Carlin O'Neill says:

April 11, 2018 at 1:30 pm

Thanks for the post, Timothy.

I think that this case is particularly interesting because as you say, Congress is contemplating laws that would damage the interests and experiences of internet users, but this would be in violation of the government’s central role, which is to protect its people. I think that the government should definitely intervene and question Facebook’s leadership and the actions of Cambridge Analytica, but if the Congress is not well informed on the technology involved as you state then how could they possibly pass legislation that would be most effective in protecting the people’s interests? A government’s main objective is to work in protection of and for the people and their liberties. If Congress decides to pass legislation that would damage the internet experiences of millions of Americans, it can be said it is not performing in line with its governmental role. If the public fears Congress will enact laws that are going to be damaging because of its lack of technological understanding, then one can hope that public opinion will reach the ears of representatives so that legislation can be passed that will both protect the information of internet users but not hinder their internet experiences.
Hannah Grow says:

April 11, 2018 at 2:09 pm

Dear Timothy,

Thank you for interesting post. This is a topic that I find especially important to our generation and I am sure it has a lot of people reconsidering their use of Facebook after this information has come to light. I find it frustrating that Congress came into the hearing without the proper knowledge to effectively and fairly analyze the situation. A lack of complete knowledge and understanding of something that is so directly and universally affecting our democracy seems like our politicians are not upholding their duty to represent and do what is best for their constituents.

Your post brings up a larger question regarding the laws that govern technology. As technology exponentially improves and our politicians spend more time raising money as opposed to getting things done, or find themselves at a standstill as a result of a partisan divide, it seems like technology is moving faster than our courts can keep up with. The danger with this is made evident with this most recent case, millions of Americans having their personal information used without their consent, in a way that is heavily affecting our democracy. It is the responsibility of our politicians to ensure the protection and representation of their constituents and unfortunately we see here the negative effects of their inability to have a whole understanding of the topics that are most directly and significantly impacting the people they are intended to represent.
Joanna Briand says:

April 11, 2018 at 3:49 pm

After reading a few articles about this today, I thought it was interesting how differently Europe is handling this situation than the United States is. In the US, policymakers have traditionally been reluctant to regulate technology, which makes it more complicated to clamp down on Facebook and other big tech in the way that Europe has. Multiple experts in technology have said that regulating Facebook, in particular, is a complicated balancing act since it now faces two different scandals regarding Russian “fake news” and user privacy”. I am interested to see how the government will act in the future since regulating technology is something relatively new and delicate. As for the settlement that was made, it is at least promising that Facebook is now required to give consumers a clear notice before sharing their information.
Austin Marsilia says:

April 11, 2018 at 11:40 pm

Timothy,
This has been an interested event to watch unfold. However, it is not the first of its kind. The government has been utilizing private companies to gather data on voters since the digital age. This can be traced back to the Snowden scandal where he leaked documents suggesting that the government had been utilizing various media and technological platforms to gather data on citizens. His disclosures helped open the public’s eyes to the honesty of government in the 21st century and sparked the age old debate of freedom for security. This scenario seems to have similar traits to the Facebook scandal. Your post is interesting and discusses a concern that many citizens in the digital age possess. However, I would have liked to see a comparison to similar events to the one discussed in your post. Both scenarios beg the question of, “how much personal information should the government have access to?” In my opinion, I do not think the government should have access to any personal information without a warrant. The outcome of this scandal will be interesting to watch unfold and I believe that it will either result in a step forward for protection of privacy in the digital age or a large step backward, further blurring the line.

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