Digital Content

2016 election + Digital media

Key intersections with digital media

Clinton Emails

Trump + Twitter

WikiLeaks

March 2016 released emails from Clinton private email server
July 2016 released private emails about Clinton from the DNC from a hacker tied to Russia
October 2016 released private emails from aide John Podesta

Fake News - Domestic

Fake News + Facebook ads tied to Russia

3000 Ads purchased by Russian-backed firm ~$100,000

Link to 2017 NY Times article covering Facebook + sponsored posts

“America, we have a problem,” said Representative Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who sits on the House committee. “We basically have the brightest minds of our tech community here and Russia was able to weaponize your platforms to divide us, to dupe us and to discredit democracy.”

Research by Jonathon Albright trying to determine total reach of Russian-backed ads + posts via Columbia University TOW center

From NY Times article 10/5/2017

“This is cultural hacking,” said Jonathan Albright, research director at Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism. “They are using systems that were already set up by these platforms to increase engagement. They’re feeding outrage — and it’s easy to do, because outrage and emotion is how people share.”

All of the pages were shut down by Facebook in recent weeks, as the company conducts an internal review of Russian penetration of its social network. But content and engagement metrics for hundreds of posts were captured by CrowdTangle, a common social analytics tool, and gathered by Mr. Albright.

Cambridge Analytica - UK Big Data Firm

Trump Campaign paid $5.9 million - $5 million for ad buys
Also worked for Trump Super PAC
Wired article outlining Trump Campaign's report of Cambridge Analytica Relationship

Both Parscale and Oczkowski have said repeatedly that the Trump campaign did not use psychographic targeting. Questions also have swirled about how Cambridge accumulated the data. Liberal voters in particular worried that their data had been harvested without their knowledge and used to elect Trump. But according to both Parscale and Oczkowski, the campaign didn’t use Cambridge’s trove of data, opting instead for the RNC’s data file.

Recently been reported that CEO Alexander Nix reached out to WikiLeaks for info on Clinton Emails

Facebook as an Advertising and Revenue Generating Platform (Legitimate)

Used Facebook to generate majority of $250M of online fundraising
Spent $90M on Parscale's Firm, most used on Ad buys

From Wired article on Trump Campaign use of Facebook

"Facebook and Twitter were the reason we won this thing," he says. "Twitter for Mr. Trump. And Facebook for fundraising."...

Coby's team took full advantage of the ability to perform massive tests with its ads. On any given day, Coby says, the campaign was running 40,000 to 50,000 variants of its ads, testing how they performed in different formats, with subtitles and without, and static versus video, among other small differences. On the day of the third presidential debate in October, the team ran 175,000 variations. Coby calls this approach "A/B testing on steroids." The more variations the team was able to produce, Coby says, the higher the likelihood that its ads would actually be served to Facebook users.

Clinton spent more than $200 million on television ads in the final months of the election while Trump spent less than half that. Because Trump wasn’t spending as much on television all along, it seemed like his team wasn't investing in changing anyone’s minds. But they were: they were just doing it online.