Facebook is determining users’ political affiliations by analyzing personal details and tracking individuals’ activities.
Facebook is categorizing people and their accounts on a linear spectrum, with very liberal and very conservative on either end.
“You have this preference because we think it may be relevant to you based on what you do on Facebook,” according to the text box that appears when placing the cursor over the “US Politics” section.
The social media conglomerate deciphers, or estimates, political leaning based on what pages are given the official “like” stamp of approval. For instance, liking the page for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will signal to Facebook that a user is most likely liberal.
If a user does not like a certain politician’s official page, then Facebook discerns individual political preference by examining the other pages that specific user likes and the collective or majority political leanings of the other users who like that same page.
Liking Leonardo DiCaprio’s official Facebook page, for instance, will presumably signal that the person is a liberal, since a large majority of his likes come from fellow liberals who approve of his work on global warming. Conversely, liking Clint Eastwood’s page would most likely indicate that a person is a conservative, since Eastwood is an adamant advocate for gun rights and isn’t shy about criticizing liberals.
To find out how Facebook classifies users, click here, scroll down to “Interests,” click the “Lifestyle and Culture” tab, and then search for a box titled “US Politics” (this may require clicking “See More” at the bottom of the section).
Facebook tailors advertisements to people who are more likely to appreciate the content and be interested in the service or product purveyed. This appeals to advertisers who pay substantial amounts of money for targeted advertising.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, for example, pays Facebook to show its advertisements to accounts on Facebook designated as politically moderate, according to The New York Times.
Facebook got in trouble for meddling with what content is displayed, after a former journalist who was employed at the tech company said that news curators “regularly blocked conservatives stories from trending.” (RELATED: Zuckerberg HACKED, Password Literally Consisted Of Two Letters)
After this allegation was made, Facebook told the Daily Caller News Foundation that they “take allegations of bias very seriously” and that “Facebook is a platform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum.”
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