Leftist Snapchat “Accidentally” Let Democrats Tap Into GOP Voter Data

Leftist Snapchat “Accidentally” Let Democrats Tap Into GOP Voter Data
By Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Beyond censorship and deplatforming, and Snapchat was early to that party with the social media platform announcing that it was deplatforming Trump during the campaign, there’s the basic strategic problem of conservative organizations operating on platforms that are fundamentally hostile to them.

Even when there’s no censorship, stuff happens. Like this “accident”.

A slip-up by social media giant Snap allowed leading Democratic campaigns and party committees to unwittingly tap into a vast repository of Republican voter data to hone their midterm ads, Axios has learned.

Funny how accidents like this only seem to happen.

Snap’s political ad archive shows multiple Democratic and progressive organizations were able to target their ads on the platform using data maintained by the Republican-aligned firm i360.

Its data was used to target Snapchat ads by groups including the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign.

The mixup will nonetheless spur concerns about the way valuable political data is being shared, according to Eric Wilson, a veteran Republican digital strategist.

“i360’s Republican clients and their donors will be surprised to learn that their data is being used to help Democrats, Planned Parenthood and other opponents,” Wilson told Axios. “They should ask if and how their campaign activities were used to enhance the data provided via Snapchat.”

It’s not like Snapchat’s politics have been at all ambiguous.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has a message for critics who cried foul when the company decided to stop promoting President Donald Trump’s posts on Snapchat’s Discover page: Take it up with the Bill of Rights.

“We’ve always said Discover is a closed platform, and we choose the types of content we want to promote on our platform,” Spiegel told CNBC’s Power Lunch on Thursday.

“We want to use our rights to stand up for the things we believe in,” he added.

And prevent others from standing up for the things that they believe in.

Though the platform’s users can continue to follow the president and view his posts, the move still prompted the Trump campaign to accuse Snap of “trying to rig the 2020 election.”

Looks like it’s not done just yet.

Original Article

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