mark zuckerberg

facebookIt was only a matter of time before Facebook really got into trouble. It seems as though the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are now all joining the Department of Justice to gain a better understanding of how Facebook was used by Cambridge Analytica in order to access data from over 71 million Americans.  What we aren’t hearing is how this will affect Donald Trump. I mean, after all, he is the one to have benefitted from this the most, isn’t he?  By adding all these agencies, it suggests that the nature of the investigation is much larger than we had originally anticipated.The Washington Post is citing five people, who will remain anonymous, and is suggesting that the focus of the investigation is on how truthful Facebook has been about its disclosures.  I feel like this is what Saintel Daily has been saying for months.  There is so much we don’t know about what really happened.  Not only that but its unclear for how long this has been going on and to what extent this helped Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election. To bring you up to speed – Facebook never disclosed that it actually discovered what Cambridge Analytica was doing back in 2015.  In fact, it wasn’t until it was reported by the media this year, that they admitted to what happened.  Further, we might not know anything about this, had it not been for Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress. Although, he didn’t reveal much.SECThe Post reports the following:

“The questioning from federal investigators centers on what Facebook knew three years ago and why the company didn’t reveal it at the time to its users or investors, as well as any discrepancies in more recent accounts, among other issues, according to these people.”

The problem that Facebook is going to run into is whether or not the investigation reveals that Facebook lied during their testimonies and disclosures, or that it’s found to be in violation of their 2011 consent decree that was made with the FTC.  What does this mean for Facebook?  Well, nothing good.  Especially because there’s a good chance that they’ve got something to hide.  We should also clarify – the focus here is on Facebook, and not Cambridge Analytica.  Which blows up my Donald Trump theory.  The probe is to understand what prompted Facebook to enable this access in the first place, and then why they chose not to inform the public or the government about it.facebook apologyAnd this isn’t something that is overly clear to me either.  Sure, Facebook was selling user information, so they’re making money, but there has to be something in it more than just improving profits.  Maybe I’m reading too much into it.  Maybe that’s all Facebook wanted from this trade, but if that’s the case, this whole thing is messed up.  And if that is the case, it supports my argument that Facebook should be regulated to some extent or another.  I myself am extremely interested to see how this plays out for Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg.  But either way, it’s not looking good.