originally this week , theNew York Timesreportedthat a Facebook voter registration reminder , which sit atop user ' intelligence Feeds for several Clarence Shepard Day Jr. in September , bring to a drastic rise in online registration around the country . That ’s not specially shocking ; this is n’t the first clock time Facebook has nudged users to work their right to vote . It ’s also been prove that their " I Voted " buttonsignificantly hike voter turnouton election day .
Now Facebook seems to be doubling down on its voter registration effort , deploying pushing apprisal to users a solar day before the deadline in their particular land . On Twitter , people inWashington , DC , Texas , New York , and elsewhere have been sharing screenshots of the message that popped up on their phones .
The notification once again elicit licit concerns about how Facebook could deploy such a message to certain user and deduct it from others , theoreticallygiving one company or candidate an advantage . If the ship’s company can directly dissemble who turn out to vote and where , it stand to reason that it ’s within their power to strategically tilt the election in a Brobdingnagian , unprecedented way – and with no supervision or answerability .
Screenshot via iOS/Oren Aks/Thrillist
The verbatim pushing telling represents a much more fast-growing attack to Facebook ’s political involvement . But what ’s really concern is that these notice take Facebook to geo - target users ground on where they live .
If the caller is leveraging its metadata ( in this case , your geolocation ) to scatter this message , what ’s stop Facebook from aim you base on other metadata it has , such as your geezerhood , sexuality , training tier , orpolitical view ? There are basically no restriction on how Facebook chooses to manage the huge amount of datum it has on us – something we researched for adeeper story about Facebook ’s ability to rig the election and their possible motivesto do so .
To be clear , we ’re not try on to add any fuel to this dumpster fire of an election or float some half - broil conspiracy possibility , but rather raise awareness around how much magnate and influence Facebook has over our opinions and behaviour . In an epoch in which Facebook ’s algorithm serves up only the photos and news it decide we want to see , we should at least acknowledge the possible action that it could have its ownagenda behind the scenes .
Oh , yeah , and go vote please .
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