In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump‘s campaign amassed a vast set of voter data on nearly 200 million Americans.
That staggering amount of data, comprised of over 5,000 files adding up to nearly 5 terabytes, has leaked, offering yet another piece of the puzzle in Trump’s surprising victory.
An investigation conducted by British news program Channel 4 News found that 3.5 million Black Americans were classified by the campaign as “Deterrence”, or voters they wanted to stay home on election day.
The “Deterrence” project is being likened to voter suppression by critics, who also want Facebook to reveal the targeting data that was used to show tailored ads intended to influence people not to vote.
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The data shows Black Americans were disproportionately marked for “Deterrence”. In Georgia, Black people made up 61% of the category despite constituting only 32% of the population. Similar imbalances were found in North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Jamal Watkins, vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said: “The thing that’s shocking slash troubling about this is that there’s this category of suppression. That ‘Deterrence’ part. So, we use data – similar to voter file data – but it’s to motivate, persuade and encourage folks to participate. We don’t use the data to say who can we deter and keep at home. That just seems, fundamentally, it’s a shift from the notion of democracy.
“It’s not ‘may the best candidate win’ at that point it’s ‘may the best well-funded machine suppress voters and keep them at home thereby rigging the election so that someone can win’.”
He added: “I don’t believe Facebook has fully disclosed their role, and fully disclosed the types of ads that were run, who was involved and literally how they may have been embedded in, say, the Trump campaign to make this all come to life.
“Facebook is a very profitable platform. It reaches billions of folks every day. It doesn’t need this kind of money. If it were to monitor and check these suppressive ads and say this is not the platform for this type of misinformation disinformation suppression tactics, Mark Zuckerberg would still live well, and eat well.”
Larry
Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg) does not “need” this type of money? Who wrote this? It has never been about need, it is pure want. No amount is too much.
southernscot
Never mind who wrote it. Who proof read it? ‘ An investigation conducted by British news program Channel 4 News found that 3.5 Black Americans were classified by the campaign as “Deterrence”, or voters they wanted to stay home on election day.’ are we missing a % sign or is it millions. Really makes a difference to wither there is a story here or not, don’t you think ?
southernscot
Ah so it was millions then! That makes more sense.
G-Man
I was wondering the same thing!
Liquid Silver
Where did they find half an American? 🙂
Proofread, proofread…
Cam
Republicans are racist and want to suppress Black voters?
No surprise there.
vinnieboiblue
That’s okay. Blacks know a pandering cracker when they see it.
JromeGervais09
What I don’t understand about Zuckerberg is his pandering to t-rump and his admin. Did Zuckerberg forget his Jewish background and where his ancestors came from in Europe? He is kissing a fascist’s ass. That seems to be an oxymoron to me. Larry is right, he does not care about his background nor freedom, because Mark Z, is just plain greedy and a lot of money still is not enough.
Kangol2
Greed.
Kangol2
The sky is blue, pine trees are green, water is wet, and Don the Con is a lying, treasonous, tax cheating, homophobe-enabling White supremacist. He barely slipped into office on 78,000 or so votes in three states despite losing to Hillary Clinton by over 2.8 million popular votes, so he’s going to try to suppress as many votes by Black people and every other group not likely to vote for his corrupt, broke @ss. And that’s on top of help from Putin, various coup-like plans, and on and on. He can’t leave the White House and be in a court docket soon enough!
michel_banen
I just hope the USA voters are wiser this time and do not re-elect this orange-utan.