Facebook’s internal politics unit has some questionable bedfellows
The social media giant’s global government and politics unit is designed to help political clients around the world best use its tools to help win elections, Bloomberg reports in an interesting feature on the internal group. But the unit has some questionable bedfellows, as Bloomberg notes:
In the U.S., the unit embedded employees in Trump’s campaign. (Hillary Clinton’s camp declined a similar offer.) In India, the company helped develop the online presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who now has more Facebook followers than any other world leader. In the Philippines, it trained the campaign of Rodrigo Duterte, known for encouraging extrajudicial killings, in how to most effectively use the platform. And in Germany it helped the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party (AfD) win its first Bundestag seats, according to campaign staff.
For Facebook’s part, the social media giant says it does not advise politicians and leaders on strategy, merely how to use the site’s tools, and the company told Bloomberg it offers those same tools to all candidates and governments, regardless of political affiliation.
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