In the latest season of House of Cards, Frank Underwood discovers the Republican
presidential nominee he's running against is using a lot more than his chiseled good looks to charm his way to the top of the polls. His real secret to success -- spoiler alert, you know the drill -- is an inside connection to a fictional, Google-esque search engine. The hilariously named Pollyhop has been handing over data on its users' search histories, allowing him to better target potential voters and mold himself into the most desirable candidate. It's far from the most over-the-top or blood-soaked scene in the series, but it's disturbing nonetheless for one huge reason: it's entirely plausible.
What's stopping a real-life Silicon Valley giant -- say, Facebook -- from swinging an election for a particular candidate? Let's say Mark Zuckerberg woke up tomorrow and decided to prevent Donald Trump from landing in the White House. With an estimated 1 billion users logging into Facebook every day to scroll through their News Feeds, it could be as simple as tweaking the algorithm to display content that's favorable to Hillary Clinton, while stoking disdain for Trump or filtering out his campaign coverage altogether. Or maybe something more impactful, like triggering a button that directly skews voter turnout. Well, that button already exists.
The media's sway over public opinion, especially in the heat of a presidential election, is certainly not unprecedented. But Facebook is a monolith unlike any that's ever existed before. Its power extends beyond merely influencing what we think or how we feel (which, by the way, it definitely does). Facebook's proven to have a direct, measurable effect on what we do. In fact, if it really wanted to tilt the election, it could just strategically manipulate who turns out to vote and where -- something it's 100% capable of. https://www.thrillist.com/tech/nation/how-facebook-could-rig-the-election/tech
