Social media played an important role for the 2016 presidential election. Whether that was a good or bad thing probably depends on who you ask.
In the fallout of Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, many are scrutinizing what kind of influence Facebook and Twitter had on how people took in information, and ultimately, how they voted. It’s an especially important question as more and more people rely on social media to get their news, versus traditional outlets.
Bloomberg has a good analysis of the “echo chambers” on Facebook and the fake news that crept into user feeds. It also noted how Trump used Twitter to start his own news cycles, and the problems Twitter had with trolls.
The election results had one former Twitter engineer, Ben Matasar, asking this question:
For my @twitter alum friends: What did we build?
— Ben Matasar (@matasar) November 9, 2016
Throughout his campaign, Trump was praised for his use of Twitter and social media in general. Speaking on Tuesday night, CNN political analyst Van Jones explained how past presidents have utilized new media, and noted how Trump “understands social media and reality television better than anybody else”:
“When there is a revolution in media — when there is a new media form — a new master usually comes along and shocks everybody. Radio, with FDR. People totally wrote FDR off, and he understood radio better than everybody else and he broke through. JFK, totally written off, but he understood television better than anybody else, and he broke through. Obama, totally written off, but he understood the Internet, and that you could raise money, small donation dollars, viral videos, and he was able to break through. Donald Trump understands social media and reality television better than anybody else, and that’s the era that we are in. Things that you do in social media, like being outrageous and insulting people, doesn’t get you fewer followers on social media, it gets you more. The idea of being the villain. The villain actually is the star in a reality TV show, and he understood this… There is a problem with the Democratic establishment not understanding the media environment that we are in, not understanding where the pain is in the country and taking a lot of stuff for granted.”
Trump has more than 14 million followers on Twitter, while Clinton has just over 10 million. Some say that along with an advantage in overall follower numbers, Trump’s tweets also had more impact. Here’s his most recent tweet, which garnered more than 215,000 retweets and nearly 600,000 likes:
Such a beautiful and important evening! The forgotten man and woman will never be forgotten again. We will all come together as never before
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2016
It will be interesting to see how the social media networks respond to this year’s election. Will Facebook make tweaks to what it shows in your News Feed, and how will it eliminate fake news stories from appearing on the site? Will Twitter enforce more policing of trolls and harassment, before or after a potential acquisition? Will other social media giants like Snapchat play a larger role during future elections?
For now, here’s what leaders at Facebook and Twitter are saying:
We all must hold each other, especially the leaders we put in power, accountable to that truth.
— jack (@jack) November 10, 2016
We are one country, and we have one goal: provide for the common good. We must question anything that gets in the way of that.
— jack (@jack) November 10, 2016
I commit to using the privilege I currently have to always speak this truth to power, and to ensure the common good leads everything we do.
— jack (@jack) November 10, 2016
