Facebook Redux: I wrote this 10 Years Ago! It has just Gotten Worse.

Facebook gets $200 million from the Russians, says Bloomberg. Specifically Bloomberg states:

"Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social-networking service, received an investment from Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies that values the company at $10 billion, more than Starbucks Inc. or Safeway Inc.... Digital Sky will buy $200 million in preferred stock, gaining a 1.96 percent stake in the company, Palo Alto, California-based Facebook said today in a statement"
Let me tell a story about my Russian subsidiary and investors. You see I started one of my companies in Russia with "you know who". Frankly they were great people, managed the political scene, made money, worked well with others, and generally made things work well. I knew when things were going astray because when they said "nyet problemi" it meant all hell has broken loose, they were great for understatement.

We wanted to build a fiber to Moscow and one of the routes was through Belarus. One of my bankers. a Brit, was with me at a meeting in which one of our "senior partners" was present, a "retired" Government "security type". When the banker expressed concern about the political stability and resulting safety of the fiber through Belarus the individual in question slammed his fist down and said in no uncertain terms that he would insure "our" network with tanks. Remember Georgia, perhaps Ukraine. When the banker and I left he asked how he would write this up for his due diligence, I deferred comment.

Now to Facebook. It is a fantastic personality profiling device. If one wants to seek out possible compromisable people what better place to do so other than on Facebook, just analyze their inner-most verbiage. It is an intelligence goldmine. Thus why would the US allow such an investment in what may very well be a strategic asset or a potential strategic threat.

Facebook as currently used provides the innermost examination and analysis of any human willing to expose themselves to the world. It also develops linkages. Any smart analyst can take that information and process it to develop profiles of accessible "groups" which many be manipulated for whatever reason. Thus any entity "owning" a considerable share, even in their own minds alone, can possibly exert such influence. You would not even have to recruit any future terrorist, you just have to check your data base, and perhaps inject "moles" to nudge the group. The thought is terrifying!