1899

On some level, i don’t know why i would expect Facebook to not sell political ad space. Do we expect to networks to do that?

1900

Because social networks and broadcast TV are different mediums and have different impacts. The nature of this has been discussed in this thread already.

PS - if a network said they would run any ad, including those proven false, we might have the same conversation. I don’t think any have crossed that Rubicon though.

Edit - this is apparently a mixed bag. Broadcast networks can not turn down an ad due to its content, by law. Cable networks are not bound to that law, however.

1901

Yeah, you can just watch the ads put out by Trump… They’re all lies. And they run on cable.

False political ads aren’t remotely limited to the internet.

1902

I’ve seen a lot of ads on TV that were obviously ads. On social media, it’s not always clear what is an ad and what’s not.

Also broadcast TV can’t just target say only wealthy white women like SM can.

1903

[Opinion] Aaron Sorkin: An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook isn’t defending free speech, it’s assaulting truth.

1904

I think the big difference, which I am cribbing from Molly Wood on Marketplace Tech, is that Network Ads aren’t targeted. So, it is easy to fact check and be called out on it. On Facebook, with targeted ads, you don’t get to see what the other side is really doing or saying.

If ads weren’t targeted, I wouldn’t feel half as paranoid about it as I do.

1905

👀

1906

Catering to the aging demographic that are using it.

1907

d8a

1908

1909

A whole web page about it…

1910

We have decades of practice (and laws in some cases) to help us immediately pick out the ads from the non-ads on TV. Not sure if this is achievable on the Internet/Facebook.

1911

But former U.S. employees said moderators based in Beijing had the final call on whether flagged videos were approved. The former employees said their attempts to persuade Chinese teams not to block or penalize certain videos were routinely ignored, out of caution about the Chinese government’s restrictions and previous penalties on other ByteDance apps.

But former employees who worked in the company’s U.S. offices as recently as this spring said they were instructed to follow rules set by managers at ByteDance’s Beijing headquarters, such as demoting and removing content related to social and political topics, including those censored by the Chinese government.

1912
1913

I didn’t know Kushner and Don Jr. ever officially worked for Twitter.

1914

Sorta like Rudy works for Donny.

1915

FFS, Facebook.

What’s next? Dox-type info in ads? Adverts for child porn? These tech companies and their reliance on algorithms. Get some fucking human eyeballs on the ads you allow on the platform.

1916

As long as those human eyeballs aren’t mine, LOL. Fuck that.

Can we just nuke Facebook from orbit instead?

1917

I agree that is significant difference. I honestly am conflicted by this. I really don’t want Facebook, or NBC, or CNN or anybody to get in the business of fact checking political speech and deciding what runs and what doesn’t. (I know the networks have done this in the past.) On the other hand the ability of micro target makes is easy for fake claims to stay under the radar. I can easily see the Trump campaign develop a compaign claiming the Democrats want to take away cats from old people showing signs dementia. Targeting 80+ year old women in swing states with more than 2 cats and nobody in the media ever seeing the ad.

1918

Facebook could easily just remove the ability to micro target political ads like that if they wanted.