Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question is for Mr. Vickery.
In the last U.S. presidential election, which was relatively tight, the candidate who won the popular vote lost, while the candidate who, in some minds, should have come second in the voting managed to win by collecting a majority in the electoral college, perhaps through more targeted advertising.
Last week, the founder of Facebook explained that his company's raison d’être, its business model, is to sell advertising. And Facebook does it very well, being particularly able to target regions, even streets or buildings: if someone lives in building X, they will receive advertising Y.
As an example, I own a Mazda, and, as if by chance, Facebook sends me a Mazda advertisement every day on my Facebook feed. So we see that Facebook targets ads in an extremely effective way. It is likely that American political parties use Facebook to advertise in certain sectors, states, or parts of states where voters are more likely to be supportive and therefore to vote for them.
Do you think that American political parties, both Democrats and Republicans, have done any electoral profiling or used the services of companies that have analyzed the best way to target advertisements or influence Americans in certain states? Would it be possible to conclude that the person or party who was most effective in his Facebook advertising campaign won the U.S. election?