Ever notice that the conversation turns to Russia when any scrutiny is placed on the US factors in the 2016 Election?Especially in the US media, which happens to be fairly incestuous due to media consolidation.
OK, there were some Russians working for Cambridge Analytica, but it is beginning to look like Facebook may be more at issue here. The Guardian has been doing a series on Cambridge Analytica and the Facebook "hack". This is turning out to be like the Democratic e-mail "hack" which was probably more of a leak than a hack.
The real culpability here is with Facebook rather than the Russians, which is pretty much the case with any Russian involvement I've seen. Unless Russians have managed to infiltrate the US to an extent that would make Ol' Joe McCarthy look like an optimist.
Anyway, I turn off when people try to blame the Russians for a situation which is obviously home grown. It's a waste of time to fixate on them when there are easy fixes to the system, but they won't be addressed since the people who run the system are benefiting by this.
As the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, said:“It sounds a dreadful thing to say, but these are things that don’t necessarily need to be true as long as they’re believed.”
See also:
- Brenda the Civil Disobedience Penguin on Cambridge Analytica: the real crime was getting caught from First Dog on the Moon