Facebook gave information on the political ideologies of its US audience to advertisers

A document obtained by Buzzfeed, allegedly from Facebook, shows analytics of Facebook audiences base based upon their political ideologies. This segmentation was carried out to give advertisers, in this case political campaigners, insights about their target audience. [caption id=“attachment_4148903” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Facebook. Reuters.[/caption] The segmentation was done by Facebook’s Creative Shop in 2016. According to the document, the audience was segmented into five categories. These were ‘Very Liberal’, ‘Liberal’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Conservative’ and ‘Very Conservative’. According to Facebook, these five segments were further segregated on the basis of demographics, psychographics and behavioural signals based on gathered user data. In a report by Buzzfeed, a Facebook spokesperson had said that this segmentation essentially helps small marketers to build their brand. Now talking about large political parties, a democrat political campaigner, told BuzzFeed, that to sway votes in one’s direction requires information which is much deeper and finer than the one provided by Facebook. However, when one does not know their audience, this information becomes useful. He, also, pointed out that this information would be more useful to non-political campaigners. The question then arises is whether political parties be given such data to begin with? When non-political campaigners put forward their ads, the audience is aware that the organisation is a profit-making venture. But when it comes to a political parties, advertisements can helps audiences make an informed choice or sow seeds of division. This is because the stakes are higher. The results will affect a population of millions. Non-political campaigns will have a smaller effect. Secondly, do social networking websites, who are in the business of making profits, need to regulate the kind of data they are giving away. Even though, on one hand, people are responsible for the kind of content they post and consume, social networking sites are becoming a hotbed for hosting anti-social elements. And finally, isn’t it high time that some rules be laid for social media websites? On 1 November, Facebook will be  **testifying** alongside Twitter and Google on the issue of Russian-linked ads  influencing the outcome of the elections that put Donald Trump in power.