On February 17th, Billionaire investor and democratic ally George Soros penned a letter to the Financial Times calling for Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg's ousters. In Soros' short but pointed note, he accuses Facebook's CEO and COO of engaging in a "mutual assistance arrangement" with Donald Trump in order to help him get re-elected. Soros' suggested cure for this issue is for governments to regulate social media platforms, and for Facebook to abstain from approving any political ads until after the November 4th elections.
Irrespective of the fact that Sheryl Sandberg is a known Democrat (Zuckerberg's political views are more cloaked), this raises a larger issue regarding the ability of Facebook and Google to influence or curate the ads on their sites. With the bulk of global advertising at scale taking place on two platforms, the risk of Facebook or Google's corporate views shaping a given narrative is only increasing.
It is no secret that George Soros has an agenda, as well as a history of using his money and influence to shape public affairs. Yet, even if his accusation is entirely baseless, they highlight an issue that on the back of Russia's alleged influencing of the 2016 election will only become more and more critical as November nears.
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