Forget 2016.
Back then, Democrats came up with a bizarre conspiracy theory blaming Facebook and the Russians for Hillary’s loss. They then spent the next four years pressuring Facebook to censor conservatives. Facebook proceeded incrementally, but then right before the election pushed the red button.
Now Democrats are learning to love Facebook again.
Former Facebook board member Jeff Zients is co-chairing Biden’s transition team. Another former board member is an adviser. Two others — one who was a Facebook director and another who was a company lobbyist — have taken leadership roles. And Biden himself has a friendly relationship with a top Facebook executive, former U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
The people are in place who could serve as go-betweens with their former employer, maybe finding a middle ground. In addition to Zients, the transition’s general counsel, Jessica Hertz, was most recently a director at Facebook where she helped the company navigate the FTC’s investigation on data privacy and Cambridge Analytica.
Former Facebook lobbyist Louisa Terrell is heading up the transition’s congressional relations. Austin Lin, a program manager at Facebook from 2017 to 2018, is on the 4-person agency review team tasked with the Executive Office of the President. And Erskine Bowles — who spent eight years on Facebook’s board — has been advising the transition team.
Democrats will learn to love Big Data. As long as it serves their interests.
And Biden himself has not been soft on Facebook during the campaign. “I’ve never been a fan of Facebook, as you probably know. I’ve never been a big Zuckerberg fan,” the Democratic candidate told The New York Times editorial board in January. “I think he’s a real problem.”
A big problem = didn’t give me enough money.
Pretty sure that problem is going to be solved. Hunter could probably use another board seat.
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