Facebook works directly with politicians and this is extremely worrying

Here's something terrifying.

Zuckerberg’s social network is a politically agnostic tool for its more than 2 billion users, he has said. But Facebook, it turns out, is no bystander in global politics. What he hasn’t said is that his company actively works with political parties and leaders including those who use the platform to stifle opposition—sometimes with the aid of “troll armies” that spread misinformation and extremist ideologies.

In the U.S., the unit embedded employees in Drumpf’s campaign. (Hillary Clinton’s camp declined a similar offer.) In India, the company helped develop the online presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who now has more Facebook followers than any other world leader. In the Philippines, it trained the campaign of Rodrigo Duterte, known for encouraging extrajudicial killings, in how to most effectively use the platform. And in Germany it helped the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party (AfD) win its first Bundestag seats, according to campaign staff.

Facebook has embedded itself in some of the globe’s most controversial political movements while resisting transparency. Since 2011, it has asked the U.S. Federal Election Commission for blanket exemptions from political advertising disclosure rules that could have helped it avoid the current crisis over Russian ad spending ahead of the 2016 election, Bloomberg reported in October. After a Congressional inquiry into Russian election meddling, Facebook has pledged to be more transparent about ad buyers and said it’s open to regulation.

Of course, propaganda is nothing new; neither is learning rhetoric from a sophist. What is new is the ability for a company to harvest vast amounts of personal data on the global populace and disperse that to interested political parties. It's always been possible for someone to deliver you a tailored message best designed to persuade you of their political agenda. But in the past, this required great effort, and so propaganda was limited to more generic messages designed to have mass appeal. Everyone could see what everyone else was seeing. The modern form is far more opaque and individually tailored on a previously impossible industrial scale.

Has social media ruined the world ? No. It isn't the primary cause of any major political crises; it would be incredibly naive to think it has that much influence. Sadly those problems run much deeper. Is it wrecking critical thinking skills and wrapping everyone in filter bubbles ? Again, no - contrary to popular opinion, most people do actually tend to interact with different human beings in the real world more than they do online. But is social media - particularly in the profit-motivated guise of Facebook - a factor in all the state of the world, and a threat to become more dangerous if left unchecked ? You betcha.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-21/inside-the-facebook-team-helping-regimes-that-reach-out-and-crack-down