International Law

A Facebook reality check

Bits argues that Facebook is yet to have any real impact on US politics:

Sunday?s ?60 Minutes? feature on Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, hit all the logical bases: privacy, business model, the Beacon miscues and his youth. Only one section struck me as oddly off: the brief section on politics.

Lesley Stahl said:

It used to be, first you went on ?Face The Nation? if you were a candidate. Then you went on Letterman. Now it seems the candidates have to be on Facebook.

This seems to be overstating the role of social networks in the campaign so far. It?s true, of course, that every campaign needs to be everywhere people congregate: in front of televisions, driving past suburban lawns, on social networking sites.

But if you think of where the Internet has made an impact this year, it has not been on the networking sites. Ron Paul has raised a lot of money online. Video of key moments in the campaign is recirculated on YouTube and many other sites. And the candidates? own Web sites are full of information, video clips and all manner of ?messaging.? Indeed, there is little correlation between Facebook support and real-world support. If there was, Mr. Paul would be the front-runner.

Read more here.

Full post as published by Freedom to Differ on January 15, 2008 (boomark / email).