Politico: Angry Democrats pose rising risk for Facebook
Politico reports the obvious: Angry Democrats pose rising risk for Facebook
The latest revelations about Facebook’s conduct during the 2016 presidential campaign are angering a crucial group of the social media giant’s onetime allies — the Democrats who hope to regain control of Capitol Hill in November.
Democratic ire at the company has grown in the wake of President Donald Trump’s victory, amid a steady drip of disclosures about the way Russian operatives had exploited Facebook’s platform to aim politically themed ads, posts and so-called fake news at U.S. voters. But the acrimony is reaching new heights following this weekend’s news reports revealing that Facebook had allowed the Trump campaign’s data consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, to obtain information on more than 50 million Americans.
All that suggests that Congress could be poised to crack down on Facebook if Democrats achieve the giant “blue wave” victory they’re hoping for in the midterm elections, and with it the gavels of key committees. The changing Democratic attitudes could augur a long-term shift in the social network's political prospects in Washington.
Consumer and privacy groups have pleaded for years for checks on massive data-collecting companies like Google, largely in vain. But Facebook is clearly in the Democrats’ sights now.
“The entire platform has gotten away from them, and they mishandle every problem that comes their way,” Philippe Reines, a longtime adviser to Hillary Clinton, told POLITICO on Monday. Reines and others with the Clinton campaign said anger and confusion over Facebook’s role in the election is widespread among Democratic campaign veterans, all the way up to the former nominee herself.
Democrats for years celebrated Facebook as a demonstration of the power of a connected world driven by liberal values. In the Obama era, Democrats and Facebook reveled in each other's reflected glory. It hasn't hurt that people associated with the company have been ready donors to Democrats.
But in a sign of how complete the Democratic metamorphosis is, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, normally an enthusiastic advocate for the U.S. tech industry, wrote to Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg on Monday to demand answers on the latest reports of data leakage.
"I have serious concerns about the role @Facebook played in facilitating and permitting the covert collection and misuse of consumer information by Cambridge Analytica," Wyden tweeted.
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How, pray tell? Even if we do retake both houses of Congress in November, any legislation "to crack down on Facebook" would have to be signed by 45. Do you think he's going to bite the hand that delivered him his margin of victory in 2016, and may be able to do so again in 2020?
In other words, we hear all about their news feeds. Do Facebook users actually know how Mark Zuckerberg has sold them out? Are they soft-peddling this?
I'm not a Facebooker. It's an honest question.
ETA: I ask this because Facebook users have always believed that their ability to communicate behind the wall, in the secret garden, have been protected by Mr. Zuckerberg. I post here on DU because I believe we shouldn't have to hide from ourselves or anyone else.
Do you DU? 
