Facebook is making available to US Presidential Candidates a new tool that allows them to track your political comments and Facebook likes to create a list of potential supporters. The tool also allows the candidates to upload their own voter file so they can locate those voters on the social media network and solicit them. The tool is being billed as “reaching the right people at the right place with the right message.” In other words, candidates are specifically looking for voters who would come and support them and their cause. The candidates could also target ads at specific Facebook users based on their political concerns, such as energy, climate change etc.
While the tools provided to candidates by Facebook could be helpful in recognizing potential supporters, it could also mean the candidates can identify people who may not support them. The potential for abuse of the tool is there and we currently don’t know if candidates are collecting data on everyone. While Facebook does have privacy settings, they may not be effective in this case if you’re unaware you’re being tracked by a certain campaign. That could be problematic to some Facebook users.
What do you think of Facebook new tools for Presidential candidates? Invasion of privacy? Or helpful tool? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
[button link=”http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/facebook-profile-may-tracked-presidential-campaigns/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: PBS[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
Comments are closed.