... to think this should be a huge scandal?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Given it benefits the Tory party and the Labour party is currently as much use as a wet tissue, I doubt much will get done about it, but it terrifies me.

Guardian story about Cambridge Analytica and how they manipulate elections

It's a long read but worth it. Psychological operations carried out on a civilian population, mining data from social media and matching it up with mailing lists so electors can be sent targeted messages to persuade them to vote a particular way. Implicated in Brexit and Trump's victory. No doubt they are already at work preparing for our GE.

No surprise at all, really.

Social media is the biggest data gathering and "mind control" tool ever invented. Most social networks were funded by venture capital from government organisations.

I lived for 10 years in a Communist dictatorship, and to be honest, it often felt like less of a farce than Western democracy.

So should the fact that nearly all national newspapers are owned by right wing billionaires who would lose out with a left government.

It's not just the mail, the express, telegraph, times, sun

The newspaper owners decide who they want to win a GE and have done for the last few decades

Yes, but we know about the ownership of the papers. What we don't currently grasp is who's feeding the fake news into Facebook, and the fact that not everybody is getting the same fake news. It seems (if I understand this correctly) that the type of fake news you see depends very much on what the psyops teams have found out about you from the huge amount of data they have on file. If you're somebody who worries about crime, you get stories about asylum seekers committing crimes, for example.

Omg that's outrageous. I didn't realise it was so targeted.

Most social networks were funded by venture capital from government organisations.

Awesome. Reading this made my day.

I don't think it's ever a surprise to the educated that if you are getting something for free, you are the product.

If remainers and lefties are already lining up excuses for losing democratic processes, it is a sad, sad day.

This really shouldn't come as a shock for anyone who has a grasp about how the web works. Targeted advertising. There is a reason why when once looking at dresses on Asos, my FB feed turned into a mass of sale on dresses at you guessed it...Asos.

This is just much more serious and insidious. It really doesn't surprise me but then again - I am able to think critically about news, news sources and advertising. I think that's key.

A colleague partner works for one of the firms that targets your FB with adverts. They are selected by your browsing history. Oddly when I pop onto MN you can guarantee my FB is chokka with adverts for dating sites. This week I cant move for hard wood sideboards.

I always think the most amusing thing about FB is the amount of information freely given; your name, age, school, education levels, employers, what you like for breakfast, your location drops, your childrens names, where they go to school, what clubs they go to, who your relatives and friends are, what interests you have, what groups you join, what papers you read, where you drink, what you eat - governments would have paid trillions for a data gathering tool like this and it's all given freely.

Priceless really for people to be complaining about it.

If you're somebody who worries about crime, you get stories about asylum seekers committing crimes, for example.

That's very simplistic - you would have to (a) follow some news sources (b) perpetually comment on similar stories. I follow several newspapers and I get all their stories - no bot from social media weeds out the eg education ones and spams my timeline because it is my interest. I occasionally get adverts related to education.

I read about this just after Trump was elected, I'm not surprised, it's probably why loads of people who live through facetwat voted brexit who had never voted before.

That article is truly terrifying. I was twitchy enough about seeing ads on the Guardian website that accurately show something I had described in a Gmail email, without this.

it's probably why loads of people who live through facetwat voted brexit who had never voted before.

You only need one 'activist' on your news feed and if you are gullible or they appeal to your ideology, you start to regurgitate the memes. I block the meme sites and unfollow the very aged relatives who have a penchant for Britain First military memes - you know the 'share if you think they fought and died for a free country' sort of guff.

To be blunt, I've seen similar on this forum - last week someone who allegedly worked in a care home was spouting about all the old people from the war when, sadly, anyone who served in WWII is quite probably dead by now.

This forum is quite the socialist recruiting ground though.