Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads

#41

Post by stale2002 » Thu, Jul 26, 2018, 7:53 PM UTC

dane-pgp wrote: post #28

to_bpr wrote: post #16

It's disappointing, but not surprising, that the focus seems to be entirely on the "wrong" side of the "desired" outcome. At this point it amounts to fighting very hard to find any reason to undo a democratically determined result.

If just 1% of the population of the UK changed their voting intention (from Remain to Leave) because of illegally bought or misleading advertising, then undoing that effect would mean that Remain would have won. Invoking the "democratically determined result" is begging the question, since we don't really know whether the result would have been the same if the Leave campaign hadn't broken the rules: https://www.thegu…

Well, it was a non binding resolution.

It is the politicians who made the REAL decision to trigger brexit.

There is nothing to reverse. You can't cancel a non binding resolution.

Complain to the politicians who made the decision if you don't like what they did. And the politicians were very much voted in democratically.

People can vote them out if they don't like their decisions.

Re: Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads

#42

Post by noncoml » Thu, Jul 26, 2018, 7:54 PM UTC

RubenSandwich wrote: post #22

kodablah wrote: post #3

Starting reading an article on some info handed over, ended up reading a politicized article. Can someone link me the source this article is using for the new news? I'm having a hard time finding it in the inline links of the text. EDIT: Via [0], I found the docs at [1]. Tech Crunch is a shameful, op-ed joke of a site. 0 - https://twitter.com/DamianCollins/status/1022437025667014656 1 - https://www.parliament.uk/docu…

Wow, quite a few of these are very xenophobic. Very much playing off of an anti Middle East sentiment. I'd specifically like to highlight these ads in this document: https://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/cultu... . 2924.jpg 2966.jpg 2968.jpg

They do know that UK could have vetoed the entrance of Turkey, Macedonia, etc in EU...

Re: Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads

#43

Post by drak0n1c » Thu, Jul 26, 2018, 7:54 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #18

billysielu wrote: post #8

What about Remain Campaign ads?

The Remain campaigns weren't found to be in violation of election law.

Remain campaigners were found to have violated laws as well, and they were fined.

http://www.cityam.com/277767/electoral-commission-has-fined-...

Re: Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads

#44

Post by gmueckl » Thu, Jul 26, 2018, 7:54 PM UTC

kodablah wrote: post #3

Starting reading an article on some info handed over, ended up reading a politicized article. Can someone link me the source this article is using for the new news? I'm having a hard time finding it in the inline links of the text. EDIT: Via [0], I found the docs at [1]. Tech Crunch is a shameful, op-ed joke of a site. 0 - https://twitter.com/DamianCollins/status/1022437025667014656 1 - https://www.parliament.uk/docu…

Hm... Care to point out the bias? They write about some of the most blatant examples of manipulative lying ads that only carefully picked groups of people got to see before the referendum. What else should they have reported on the topic of the contents of the released data? They didn't even pick some of most tasteless/fearmongering/lying ads that were run.

Re: Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads

#45

Post by matthewmacleod » Thu, Jul 26, 2018, 7:56 PM UTC

morsma wrote: post #34

What about the effect Obama had, when he supported UK remaining in the EU? How many percent did his endorsement move?

It is not and should not be illegal for anybody to make their views on political issues known.

It’s much more questionable when we start to look at organised funding and lobbying. We have those rules specifically to prevent elections being bought with cash.

Re: Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads

#46

Post by untog » Thu, Jul 26, 2018, 7:57 PM UTC

drak0n1c wrote: post #43

untog wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Remain campaigns weren't found to be in violation of election law.

Remain campaigners were found to have violated laws as well, and they were fined. http://www.cityam.com/277767/electoral-commission-has-fined-...

I stand corrected.

But still, "massively overspending" and "failing to report correct levels of spending correctly" are quite different rule breaches. It's not difficult to see why Leave ads are being examined and Remain ones aren't.

Re: Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads

#47

Post by derriz » Thu, Jul 26, 2018, 7:57 PM UTC

This isn't the only shenanigans surrounding the leave campaign. Here's another example of dodgy Leave Campaign funding - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-44624299 - where the DUP, a Northern Irish party, was given $600,000 to campaign for Leave by a shell company and spent most of it on advertisements in media that wasn't even available in Northern Ireland.

But it's not surprising really. There has been a persistent anti-EU propaganda campaign running in the UK for years if not decades. I really like this site - https://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/euromyths-a-z-index/ - as it contains links to the original "fake news" stories along with references which refute them.

Re: Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads

#48

Post by matthewmacleod » Thu, Jul 26, 2018, 7:57 PM UTC

stale2002 wrote: post #41

dane-pgp wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If just 1% of the population of the UK changed their voting intention (from Remain to Leave) because of illegally bought or misleading advertising, then undoing that effect would mean that Remain would have won. Invoking the "democratically determined result" is begging the question, since we don't really know whether the result would have been the same if the Leave campaign hadn't broken the rules: https://www.thegu…

Well, it was a non binding resolution. It is the politicians who made the REAL decision to trigger brexit. There is nothing to reverse. You can't cancel a non binding resolution. Complain to the politicians who made the decision if you don't like what they did. And the politicians were very much voted in democratically. People can vote them out if they don't like their decisions.

Seems like a wonderful idea, but unfortunately the UK now has both major political parties firmly and irrevocably commited to enforcing the referendum result (whatever that is).

Re: Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads

#49

Post by AnimalMuppet » Thu, Jul 26, 2018, 7:59 PM UTC

ummonk wrote: post #25

LinuxBender wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like 20.02% currently. [1] [1] - https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/FB

Still only a fifth...

But when you're down to the bottom of the fifth...

Sorry, I'll get my coat...

Re: Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads

#50

Post by clort » Thu, Jul 26, 2018, 8:04 PM UTC

morsma wrote: post #34

What about the effect Obama had, when he supported UK remaining in the EU? How many percent did his endorsement move?

AFAIK Obama didn't break the law so his contribution is not under question

I think your questions could be seen as whataboutism[0], but as an answer I do know somebody who was furious that Obama was "telling us what to do" and subsequently voted leave. I don't know anybody who voted remain but was obviously swayed by Obama. Sample size is small but thats what I know.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism