weekly articles

Facebook nears two billion monthly users (69)

This article assesses Facebooks growth in users and highlights how most of these new users coming from outside of Europe and North America. According to the article, a quarter of the worlds population now uses Facebook every month. This hints at the impact of globalisation,because more and more users seem to be using social media sites such as Facebook on a daily basis. However, Facebook has come under pressure in recent weeks over its handling of hate speech, child abuse and self-harm on the social network, and has responded to this by announcing that it was hiring 3,000 extra people to moderate content on the site. Mr Zuckerberg is planning to use this growth in size of its user base as an opportunity to expand the site's role, moving into TV, health care and politics. According to the article, the company grew its revenue from advertising, which accounts for almost all of Facebook's income by 51%. However, this is to slow down due to the fact that Facebook is hitting a limit on the number of ads it can squeeze onto users' pages without being a nuisance. 

I find the fact that a quarter of the worlds population uses Facebook fascinating, and this demonstrates the capabilities of a social media site to have influence over a vast amount of the population. 

Facebook employs ex-political aides to help campaigns target voters (70)

This article discusses how Facebook has given jobs to former senior Conservative and Labour campaign officials to help build up its influence as a political tool. These include a former Downing Street adviser to David Cameron, a former aide to Ed Balls and a social media expert who worked with the Conservatives’ election strategist Lynton Crosby. The new officials have inside knowledge of how the major parties’ general election campaigns are likely to work, which will be utilised by Facebook. According to the article campaign strategists for both Donald Trump and the EU referendum believe that reaching voters on Facebook is key for success in the elections. Both Labour and the Conservatives have teams dedicated to targeted Facebook advertising and are thought to be preparing to pay Facebook £1 million.

• During the 2015 general election campaign, the Conservatives spent more than £1m on Facebook advertising

I believe this highlights the growing link between politics and social media, as demonstrated by Facebooks attempts to influence politics and play a role in elections.