Facebook: moment of truth?

The leading social network has been under fire some time now. Facebook may yet be too big to break: it has an influential lobbying machine and vast marketing dollars; besides, tech monopolies in the US have generally enjoyed anti-trust immunity. But the tech giant has now more than a few chinks in its armor. The common theme behind Facebook woes is rampant political manipulation through its platform.

As it is well-documented now in the Mueller investigation, “fake news” and “fake activity” ran through Facebook during the 2016 US presidential elections to hurt the prospects of Hillary Clinton. Using stolen profile IDs, Russian individuals impersonated everyday Americans to sow political discord. Despite noticing such activity, Facebook reportedly failed to prevent its occurrence or warn its users.

Subversive tactics included making Facebook groups on sensitive issues like immigration and gun control; purchasing pro-Trump and anti-Hillary digital ads; organising political rallies, sometimes at the same spot, between rival campaigns. After Trump won the election, thanks to a razor-thin margin in three Democratic states, US Intelligence highlighted Facebook’s role in that surprise victory, prompting the Democrats to launch several inquiries.

Now another scandal threatens Facebook’s image, if not its ability to operate as a going concern. Two weeks ago, it was reported that Cambridge Analytica – a political consultancy hired by the Trump campaign – had “harvested” data from 50 million US Facebook profiles for political purposes. In effect, a data breach took place for about a quarter of the US voting population on Facebook. Facebook failed to notify affected users and didn’t take steps to stop use of that data.

Using personality traits gleaned through those profiles, Cambridge Analytica reportedly built an algorithm to predict voting behaviours of US population. This helped it segment the voters into pockets and then micro-target the political messaging. The firm, which reportedly came up with all those catchy slogans used by Trump, was also victoriously involved in the bitterly-fought 2016 Brexit referendum.

Wittingly or unwittingly, Facebook has been the source of two historic political upsets on each sides of the Atlantic. There are now calls for Facebook to be held to account. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, has agreed to testify before US Congress. The UK Parliament summoned Facebook chief for the third time, but got refused again, as his deputy will represent the tech behemoth at Westminster.

This week, the US Federal Trade Commission confirmed it would investigate Facebook for its data breaches. Bad news has been piling up. Facebook valuation has plunged nearly a fifth – about $100 billion – since the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke on March 16. Strict data privacy regulations can stifle Facebook’s growth in active users, which is of immense interest to advertisers. Such concerns have also beaten up other prominent tech stocks like Google and Twitter in last couple of weeks.

Data-privacy advocates and political activists should expect fireworks at those regulatory hearings, but not more. Facebook, with all its failings, is too big to be broken up and will likely get off the hook with earnest promises of putting house in order. But it would be a different matter if users fled in droves, out of concern for their privacy, exactly which the #deletefacebook campaign is trying to achieve. But don’t expect the humanity to desert the tech space just yet.