Publish at October 15 2019 Updated May 07 2025
It was 2018, and much of the world was discovering "Darkpost" and "Cambridge Analytica". Thomas Huchon's testimony on Europe 1 on April 12, 2018 at Média Télé talked about how the use of a marketing technique could influence voters' votes.
At this point, it becomes necessary to ask what a Darkpost is. Kommunity Web sheds some light on this marketing tool. A darkpost is a "publication that does not appear on your timeline and is only visible as an advertisement to people you have targeted" on Facebook.
The aim is to test several posts and see which one works best with the target audience. The difficulty for the receiver of the communication is to identify the source and therefore cross-check it to study its reliability. These publications are also ephemeral. How can we trace a publication that disappears? The voter sees and then no longer sees. It's difficult to measure the effect of a Darkpost on the vote itself, but what about when they multiply? This clearly illustrates the problems of transparency of information and trust that this poses for citizens.
Cambridge Analytica is a communications consultancy and data analysis company whose slogan in 2013 was "Data determines everything we do". Thomas Huchon, speaking on the radio program mentioned above, stresses the importance of the data we leave behind on Facebook. It says a lot about us, about what we like and what we hate. The data analysis model then picks up on our tracks like Tom Thumb with pebbles to better target us.
One of the fundamental questions is how this data is collected. The London-based company has collected between "30 million and 70 million Facebook users' personal data, gathered without their consent", according to Le Monde. Having become a target in spite of himself, the citizen voter sees his traces turned against him. This is how the Walking-Dead fan is read as a potential Trump voter.
This is already a thing of the past. The world in general, and the advertising world in particular, has reacted. Today, according to Cyber Cité, the era of the Dark Post is over, as evidenced by this evocative article headline: "Facebook: the dark post is dead, long live the light post". The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation also provides a safeguard. The fact remains that citizenship education is becoming a strategic factor in building an emancipated electorate.
Once again, the role of the school as a place where students can develop a critical mind is being reinforced. We can see just how necessary it is for teachers to educate students about the media and information, and to encourage external and internal criticism of documents. How can I trust information that disappears or cannot be identified? What does it say about me and my traces on the web? This question, which arises at school for students, also arises for each and every one of us.
We live in a systemic world, where players interact with each other. Education is a lifelong conversation for many. For the health of our democracies, it is necessary to create a link based on the transparency of information. Being part of society, living democracy, means learning how to lose an election and forging a bond of trust in our institutions and their representatives. Otherwise, the door is wide open to populism.
Illustration: TheDigitalArtist - Pixabay
Sources
Facebook: "The more we know about you, the more we can predict your behavior",
Médias Télé, Europe 1, April 12, 2018
https://www.europe1.fr/medias-tele/facebook-plus-on-en-sait-sur-vous-plus-on-peut-predire-votre-comportement-3624800
Everything you need to know about Facebook's dark posts, Kommunity Web, September 2015
https://www.komunity-web.com/tout-ce-que-vous-devez-savoir-sur-les-dark-post-de-facebook
What you need to know about Cambridge Analytica, the company at the heart of the Facebook scandal,
William Audureau, Le Monde, March 22, 2018
https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2018/03/22/ce-qu-il-faut-savoir-sur-cambridge-analytica-la-societe-au-c-ur-du-scandale-facebook_5274804_4408996.html
Facebook: the dark post is dead, long live the light post, Garett Sloane, CyberCité, October 2017
https://www.cybercite.fr/fin-facebook-dark-post.html
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