It does matter, look at who is in power after democratic elections where FB aided and abetted foreign nations to lie and deceive voters.
You should also consider that you are not viewing reality correctly.
How do you go about connecting ads viewed to votes, or even poling data? Of those views how many users engaged with the content?
From my perspective, it has all of the hallmarks of a moral panic, right down to the calls to "think of the children."
Do you have a citation for this? It seems like a failure in the free market if organizations spend $55 billion [1] on Facebook advertisements with no benefit.
==From my perspective, it has all of the hallmarks of a moral panic, right down to the calls to "think of the children."==
What data is that perspective based on or is it just your gut feeling (aka bias)?
[1] https://martechtoday.com/despite-ongoing-criticism-facebook-...
Look, I'm not say that FB ads are totally useless in general, just that there's some burden of proof when you claim they swayed an election.
> What data is that perspective based on or is it just your gut feeling (aka bias)?
People have literally used the phrase "think of the children," or some variation.
Second, campaigns are not driven like companies.