Facebook Disinformation Is a Causal Factor in Trump's Election

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I absolutely think Facebook has been scapegoated for the election of Trump but but it's one of those things where you know there's not about Apple like the challenge I think that Apple's management has is especially less so now. The problem comes when there is valid criticism but you're so conditioned to dismiss criticism that you sort of ignore the valid criticism, he says. He argues they are a causal factor not because of fake news but because of the way they limited gatekeepers and eliminated the power of political parties.

Ben and James discuss Facebook’s current crisis, and why almost everyone misunderstands what the company did wrong: the problem isn’t advertising, it was Facebook’s desire to be a platform.

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Links

James Allworth: What the F*** Was Facebook Thinking — Medium
Ben Thompson: The Facebook Brand — Stratechery
Ben Thompson: Tim Cook’s Unfair and Unrealistic Privacy Speech — Stratechery
Mark Zuckerberg’s Reckoning: ‘This Is a Major Trust Issue’ — The New York Times
Ben Thompson: Mobile Makes Facebook Just an App; That’s Good News — Stratechery
Nicholas Thompson: Mark Zuckerberg Talks to Wired About Facebook’s Privacy Problem — Wired
Ben Thompson: The Voters Decide — Stratechery