Facebook changes will prevent 2016 candidates from replicating Obama's social media success


President Obama's 2012 campaign made ample use of the detailed targeting powers of Facebook, raising some $690 million and registering more than a million voters through their custom Facebook app — but his successor won't be able to do the same.
One of the most important features for the campaign was the ability of app users to give the campaign their friends list so the Obama team could "run those friend lists up against the voter file, and make targeted suggestions as to who [supporters] should be sharing stuff with." The app would suggest to users exactly which friends they should target with campaign content — i.e. "Share this video with Susie who lives in Iowa" — the ultimate personal touch in marketing.
If that sounds a little creepy and invasive, don't worry: In the next presidential election, candidates won't have the same capabilities. Facebook no longer allows app makers to harvest entire friend lists; instead, campaigns will only be able to get lists of friends who are already using the app in question. Needless to say, campaign strategists are already searching for a workaround.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
Army commissions tech execs as officer recruits
IN THE SPOTLIGHT Some of the tech industry's most powerful players are answering the call of Uncle Sam
-
'Tariff stacking' is creating problems for businesses
The Explainer Imports from China are the most heavily affected
-
Can MAGA survive a US war on Iran?
Talking Points Trump's wavering sparks debate about 'America First'
-
Disney, Universal sue AI firm over 'plagiarism'
Speed Read The studios say that Midjourney copied characters from their most famous franchises
-
Amazon launches 1st Kuiper internet satellites
Speed Read The battle of billionaires continues in space
-
Test flight of orbital rocket from Europe explodes
Speed Read Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of the Spectrum orbital rocket, which crashed after takeoff
-
Apple pledges $500B in US spending over 4 years
Speed Read This is a win for Trump, who has pushed to move manufacturing back to the US
-
Microsoft unveils quantum computing breakthrough
Speed Read Researchers say this advance could lead to faster and more powerful computers
-
TikTok's fate uncertain as weekend deadline looms
Speed Read The popular app is set to be banned in the U.S. starting Sunday
-
Appeals court kills FCC net neutrality rule
Speed Read A U.S. appeals court blocked Biden's effort to restore net-neutrality rules
-
Judge rejects Elon Musk's $56B pay package again
Speed Read Judge Kathaleen McCormick upheld her rejection of the Tesla CEO's unprecedented compensation deal