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Twitter to ban political advertising

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Re: Twitter to ban political advertising

#243

From what I recall Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez questioned Zuckerberg, she questioned along the anecdote of: If I purchase ads on Facebook saying Republicans support the Green New Deal (but they don't), will Facebook take the ads down? I often see these clean, easily provable anecdotes from those who support some kind of suppression of speech. I worry though: often the truthfulness of real world statements are difficu…

Someone tried to put up that ad and Facebook took it down. But wasn't it "just" deceptive clickbait advertising for a political position against Facebook? https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-facebook/fac...

Here is the full video of the "Conservatives for a Green New Deal" ad by the Really Online Lefty League PAC:

https://youtu.be/cvRbZJXTE5E

Re: Twitter to ban political advertising

#244
post #74

Bravo. That whole thread is smart, well-reasoned, and puts democracy above profits. Good for them. I particularly like his last point: > A final note. This isn’t about free expression. This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle. It’s worth stepping back in order to address. Whic…

> This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle

Let's just keep in mind that Trump spent way less on the election in total than Clinton did.

Re: Twitter to ban political advertising

#245
post #74

Bravo. That whole thread is smart, well-reasoned, and puts democracy above profits. Good for them. I particularly like his last point: > A final note. This isn’t about free expression. This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle. It’s worth stepping back in order to address. Whic…

> And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle. [...] This issue is NOT about freedom of expression...it’s about freedom to pay for expression (and freedom to pay for having others see your expression), and I don’t think that’s inherently a good thing. It’s certainly not what the first amendment is about.

Doesn't the same argument also apply to ads in radio, TV, newspapers, mass mailing, email campaigns, and paying a guy to hand out brochures? Would you agree that it is equally bad to allow political ads in all these contexts? Genuinely curious here if the principle is meant to be applied consistently, or if the internet is different somehow.

Re: Twitter to ban political advertising

#246
post #221

For the people who think this is a good idea, would you also be in support of a constitutional amendment to ban political advertising?

Absolutely.

In many European countries, including France where I'm from, there are never any political ads until an election season (which could either be tradition or regulation). During election season political ads are tightly regulated to prevent someone with a higher ad budget from swarming the "airwaves" with the kinds of disinformation/propaganda that is so prevalent on U.S. television networks and other media.

Political ads (and statistical coverage of early poll results) is also banned in the days before a major election to diminish the impact of manipulation/disinformation campaigns (discouraging voters because they assume their vote won't matter).

Re: Twitter to ban political advertising

#247
This is a cop out solution. We don't want to be a part of this debate and neither have the capital to be - so we will just not show any political ads. Social media is just like television in some ways - it is a channel for users/businesses to magnify their voice via ads.

Re: Twitter to ban political advertising

#248

From what I recall Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez questioned Zuckerberg, she questioned along the anecdote of: If I purchase ads on Facebook saying Republicans support the Green New Deal (but they don't), will Facebook take the ads down? I often see these clean, easily provable anecdotes from those who support some kind of suppression of speech. I worry though: often the truthfulness of real world statements are difficu…

Are political propaganda and deliberate lies the type of speech the Founding Fathers were trying to protect?

The issue is who gets to be the arbiter of what counts as "political propaganda and deliberate lies"?

The founding fathers thought that if government was given such power it would be abused to stifle speech that fell outside of those categories so the only way to protect speech was to protect it all.

I tend to think that if this is true for government, it's probably true for large corporations as well.

Re: Twitter to ban political advertising

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Furthermore, deliberate lies are (legally) not legitimate speech. That is not correct: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/does-th... > Under U.S. law, many falsehoods—even some deliberate lies—receive the full protection of the First Amendment. That is true even though “there is no constitutional value in false statements of fact,” as Justice Lewis Powell Jr. wrote for the Supreme Court in 1974. N…

That needs amending, IMO.

And who is going to decide what is the truth? Ministry of truth?

Re: Twitter to ban political advertising

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't have a problem with expanding that to include social issues. You bought a ticket to see a game, not a billboard. This is a problem I have with modern social movements, when they fail to get audiences in public spaces they seek out captive audiences or to be disruptive as possible to completely unrelated places. Hold your rally in a park or march down main street or a pedestrian way or in front of some plac…

"Please do not bother me with you trying to not get killed by the state anymore."

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