Facebooks role in Trumps win is clear. No matter what Mark Zuckerberg says.

[JoeStuckInOH]

40. Is it considered a "foreign donation", though?

The interaction of social media giants with political parties as well as the relative ease of access directly into an individual's digital-life is fairly new territory, as far as election regulations may be concerned. 12 years ago Facebook was college-students-only and 8 years ago it wasn't even a shadow of the giant it has become.

Social media sites have thrived off selling information and data mining in the past decade as well as providing ad space intimately targeting audiences via users' data. There's nothing new about that and it's pretty standard practice for large sites like facebook, twitter, amazon and google. In this instance... Facebook's buyer happened to be Russian interests.

So at what point does normal business for websites become "accepting foreign campaign donations"? Should social media sites never be allowed to deal in ad space or user data with foreign entities? Perhaps no dealing with foreign buyers during election years?

To me it's a pretty gray line. What they did was shitty. But even if Facebook, or some other website, knew completely what was happening and what they were involved in, how do you legislate against something else like this happening on a digital landscape that is largely unregulated?

Keep in mind, that DU is a website with extremely specific/partisan political leanings. Like Facebook, DU also sells ad space and disseminates news ... and I feel it's every bit DU's RIGHT to have a say in what sort of advertisements and news stories that are allowed to exist here. Are actions like what Facebook is capable of simply the price we must pay for a free and open internet?