Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America

by Christopher Wylie

On July 24, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission levied a record $5 billion civil penalty against Facebook, and the same day the Securities and Exchange Commission issued notice of an additional $100 million fine. The regulators found that not only did Facebook fail to protect users’ privacy, the company misled the public and journalists by issuing false statements that it had seen no evidence of wrongdoing when it in fact had. The fine was one of the largest imposed by the U.S. government for any violation. In fact, this was the largest ever fine issued to an American company for violating consumers’ privacy rights, and was twenty times greater than the largest privacy or data security penalty ever imposed worldwide. However, it was nonetheless seen by investors as good news. The news actually increased Facebook’s share value by 3.6 percent, with the market tacitly recognizing that even the law cannot stop the growth of these technology giants.