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Comment by galieos_ghost | Hacker News Reader

What's amazing to me is how the media can stir the public into a fever pitch with such ease. I've told people about FB and Google data collection for years and nobody cared, at least not until the talking heads told them to care.

What FB does is innocuous compared to the CIA vault7 leaks, and yet the media shoved that down the memory hole. The real question is why is this being pushed now when literally of this has been public info for years?

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It's just part of the media machine. FB is currently the "bad guy" so any media agency who can push the narrative is rewarded with more user attention. This has a huge snowball effect and will result in FB getting hammered into the ground until a more interesting antagonist comes around.

Another interesting "bad guy" right now is Russia -- justified or not, notice how media outlets are trying their hardest to find any Russian links whatsoever to every bit of political news, even things completely unrelated. For instance, try searching for "cambridge analytica russia" and look at the number of results.

> I've told people about FB and Google data collection for years and nobody cared, at least not until the talking heads told them to care.

> What FB does is innocuous compared to the CIA vault7 leaks, and yet the media shoved that down the memory hole.

But it's Facebook controlling your mind! They know what you like and can manipulate you with that! \s

> The real question is why is this being pushed now when literally of this has been public info for years?

I have a theory it's the recent shift in Newsfeed reducing news and increasing friend's posts. It was reported earlier that there were tensions between Zukerberg and Murdoch over ad revenue [1]. Wouldn't surprise me if other media magnates feel the same way.

[1]: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/12/facebook-rupert-murdoch-thre...

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