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The civil investigative demand, which was provided by the attorney general's office and can be viewed here, comes a week after a group of 37 state attorneys general sent a letter asking for answers on how user data was shared with third party groups such as Cambridge Analytica. Hawley decided to follow-up on the letter with the subpoena to give Facebook a "legal consequence for failing to respond" by May 29, his office said.
The probe aims to determine whether Facebook exercised "appropriate care and protection over private consumer data" and whether the site's terms and conditions "accurately and adequately explained how consumers' data would be used."
It specifically asks for all communications between Facebook and Carol Davidsen, Obama's director of digital integration and media analytics, and for communications with "any employee, volunteer, independent contractor, or agent of the campaign Obama for America relating to the sharing of Facebook User Information." Also requested are any calendar entries reflecting meetings between the Obama campaign and Facebook.
Hawley also asks for a list of every campaign and political action committee Facebook has provided user information to since January 1, 2012. Facebook is also asked to identify all types of user data that have been collected and when it began collecting each type.
we're talking 6 years ago, and statute of limitations is about to expire anyway.
originally posted by: MteWamp
Maybe it's just me, but I find the idea that "Facebook" influenced an election laughable.
originally posted by: odzeandennz
a reply to: Boadicea
Whataboutism at it's finest.
I suspect that in the end, we will find that Cambridge Analytica's efforts were just a drop in the barrel compared to that of Obama.
originally posted by: MteWamp
Maybe it's just me, but I find the idea that "Facebook" influenced an election laughable.
originally posted by: MteWamp
Maybe it's just me, but I find the idea that "Facebook" influenced an election laughable.
Brad Parscale: Facebook, we did 'em on Twitter, Google search, other platforms. Facebook was the 500-pound gorilla, 80 percent of the budget kind of thing.
Facebook's advertising technology helped President Obama in 2012, but today Facebook offers something far more precise and sophisticated. While the president recently tweeted that "Facebook was always anti-Trump," Parscale relied heavily on the company, particularly on its cutting-edge targeting tools.
Lesley Stahl: One of the best things Facebook did for you, I heard, was penetrate the rural vote. Is that correct?
Brad Parscale: Yeah. So Facebook now lets you get to places and places possibly that you would never go with TV ads. Now, I can find, you know, 15 people in the Florida Panhandle that I would never buy a TV commercial for. And, we took opportunities that I think the other side didn't.
Lesley Stahl: Like what?
Brad Parscale: Well, we had our-- their staff embedded inside our offices.
Lesley Stahl: What?
Brad Parscale: Yeah, Facebook employees would show up for work every day in our offices.
Brad Parscale: Google employees, and Twitter employees.
Lesley Stahl: They were embedded in your campaign?
Brad Parscale: I mean, like, they were there multiple days a week, three, four days a week, two days week, five days a week --
Brad Parscale: Yeah, I want 'em sittin' right next to us --
Lesley Stahl: How do you know they weren't Trojan Horses?
Brad Parscale: 'Cause I'd ask 'em to be Republicans, and I'd -- we'd talk to 'em.
Lesley Stahl: Oh, you only wanted Republicans?
Brad Parscale: I wanted people who support Donald Trump from their companies.
Lesley Stahl: And that's what you got?
Brad Parscale: Yeah. They already have divisions set up that way.
Lesley Stahl: What do you mean?
Brad Parscale: They already have groups of people in their political divisions that are Republican and Democrat.
Brad Parscale: We were making hundreds of thousands of 'em.
Lesley Stahl: You make 100,000 ads.
Brad Parscale: Programmatically. In one day. In one day.
Lesley Stahl: So 100,000 different ads every day?
Brad Parscale: Average day 50-60 thousands ads.
This was all automated.
Brad Parscale: Changing language, words, colors, changing things because certain people like a green button better than a blue button. Some people like the word "donate" or "contribute."
Lesley Stahl: So how would you know ... let's say I like a green button. How do you know I'd only like a green button?
Brad Parscale: Because I'd give you the red, blue buttons, you never click on 'em.
Parscale showed us how they tested: by sending out multiple versions of the same ad with only subtle differences.
Brad Parscale: Here we have an American flag, here we have a face of Hillary. Different colors, the blues, different messages above.
Lesley Stahl: So you'd send two identical ads with different colors?
Brad Parscale: Maybe thousands.
Lesley Stahl: You'd send THOUSAND of ads with different colors?
More to the point, Cambridge Analytica is not, was not and never will be president of the most powerful nation in the world, as Obama was before, during and after the 2012 election. Whatever damage they may inflict is nothing compared to the power and command of the POTUS.
Only to those who play that game... it's become quite the convenient circle jerk within the partisan echo chambers.
For the rest of us, we don't make excuses based upon who did it; we care about the what and the how and want it to stop.
How do you manage to ignore piles of information about Trump and his 2016 campaign to focus on Obama and his 2012 campaign...
...where you have no real information...
...AND while utterly ignoring Trump...
...conclude that Obama did something worse?
On top of everything else, show absolutely no concern for the current Trump campaign.
Well then you better take off your Trump blinders because right now you're ignoring mounds of evidence about Trump and his campaign and choosing to focus on what you feel about Obama.