Biden's path to the White House could hit a dead end on Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg's autocratic nature and fear of anti-trust legislation might see him plump for Trump in the race for president

• Q&A with Facebook whistleblower Yael Eisenstat
• Q&A with early Facebook investor Roger McNamee
• Carole Cadwalladr: If you're not terrified about Facebook, you haven't been paying attention

Way back in June, I wrote a column under the headline: One man stands between Joe Biden and the US presidency - Mark Zuckerberg". Trump, flailing against the pandemic at the time, was trailing Biden in the polls, just as at the same point in 2016 he had been trailing Hillary Clinton. And yet we know what happened that November: Trump's team made inspired use of Facebook's targeting engine to suppress Democratic turnout in key states - and it worked. What is perhaps less well known is that Facebook offered to embed" employees for free in the campaign offices of both candidates to help them use the platform effectively. Clinton's campaign refused the offer. Trump's crowd accepted, and Facebook employees helped his campaign craft the messages that may have clinched the election.

So here we are in 2020, 100 days from the presidential election. Trump is still trailing Biden. But his base support has remained solid. So the point I made in June still stands: if he is to win a second term, Facebook will be his only hope - which is why his campaign is betting the ranch on it. And if Facebook were suddenly to decide that it would not allow its platform to be used by either campaign in the period from now until 3 November, Trump would be a one-term president, free to spend even more time with his golf buggy - and perhaps his lawyers.