This move will increase scrutiny on the ICYMI algorithm. Does it pick up tweets on one side of the aisle more than the other? Do people know how the algorithm works, and can they game it to increase distribution of their political tweets?
Twitter to ban political advertising
381–390 of 1001 posts
Re: Twitter to ban political advertising
#382I'm skeptical AF. How do you determine what's "political"? To use AOCs example, would ads supporting the Green New Deal be considered "political" or "environmental advocacy"? How about ads supporting Black Lives Matter or illegal aliens or ads against ICE?
Targeted to a particular audience even the, on the surface, non-political ads can become strongly political.
If Mueller's investigation is to be believed, that's mostly what "election interference" efforts did: they trolled the left with propaganda from the right, and, the same time trolled the right with propaganda from the left, portraying both sides as unhinged idiots to each other.
No need to be super creative or anything, just stir shit up and sow discord. Do this long enough and heavily enough and you'll permanently damage the United States.
Re: Twitter to ban political advertising
#383Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does it? What if the government decides the earth is the center of the universe and imprisons the scientist who has observable proof that it isn’t? What’s if the government decides “encryption with backdoor is unsafe” is a false statement and suppresses all speech that says otherwise?
Slippery slope arguments like this are stupid because a government determined to be a bad actor isn't going to let a constitution stop them. Russia has a constitution, heck, Soviet Russia did. The reality of having laws against broadcasting lies is that they will be applied sensibly if the rest of the system is sensible - and if it is not, you have worse problems.
Government can't just "decide to be a bad actor", the system wouldn't let it. If they could do it, they all would do it a long time ago (and many have indeed tried, from Watergate to now Trump). Bad actors need to be able to control the regulatory bodies and media first before they can consolidate their absolute power - and the power to censor anyone is one of the necessary steps to get there.
Re: Twitter to ban political advertising
#384Whenever these topics come up, the comment section is full of people advocating for no limits based solely on slipper slope arguments: who is going to determine what is politcal? Who is going to determine what is true? But we all life with boundaries and we cope just fine. Why should this street in front of my house have a 35 MPH speed limit? What is special about 35? Why not 36? Why not 34? Who is to say that one is…
There are places where there are no speed limits. The autobahn for one.
Arguing against 'the optimal boundary is impossible argument' assumes you agree with his base axioms, that things like money are more important than the exploration of other principles. These are not slippery slope arguments, but the very base of politics itself. Why have any rule.
Re: Twitter to ban political advertising
#385What defines a political ad? For example are prolife ads political, even if they mention no laws or politics? What about ads that do not mention politics but are targeted to influence policy? Seems like an ambiguous category except for outright promoting particular candidates and laws.
This level of pedantry drives me up the wall. Not everything needs to be invented from first principles. Profile ads are banned, yes, because they involve teh candidates. Policy ads are banned because they again involve politics. We can start anywhere ! Let's say 'nothing from any entity that receives money from a political party'. Or 'anything mentioning election candidates'. Or 'anything with certain keywords in it…
People not thinking things through, which, yes, means working them out from first principles, are why we have so many stupid and broken laws, policies, regulations, etc.
> Yep, exactly the kinds of dickheads you don't want polluting our information streams with their bullshit. Out with all of them!
I'm sure you'll be shocked and outraged when a story lands in a few months because someone you like is protesting this policy.
Re: Twitter to ban political advertising
#386What defines a political ad? For example are prolife ads political, even if they mention no laws or politics? What about ads that do not mention politics but are targeted to influence policy? Seems like an ambiguous category except for outright promoting particular candidates and laws.
It's not that hard. The UK (and I believe most of Europe) has heavily regulated political advertising. Politicians can't advertise on billboards here, and TV slots are strictly regulated (and time-limited). I'm not entirely sure what criteria are used, but it seems to work reasonably well.
That doesn't mean they're doing it fairly. It just means that people have accepted that certain voices are silenced.
Re: Twitter to ban political advertising
#387Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Which I cannot read in any way but “f-you, Facebook.” He was even more explicit: > For instance, it‘s not credible for us to say: “We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well...they can say whatever they want! ”
I'm skeptical of this. Is a private charity promoting an LGBT fundraiser a political ad? What about Fox News pushing an ad about how other news is fake. Or MSNBC pushing an ad about Russia collusion? Was the now infamous Gillette woke ad political? It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.
This problem has been addressed in conventional media for a long time, nothing new here.
Re: Twitter to ban political advertising
#388Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Political advertising" may be limited to advertising that is bought for by political campaigns and PACs, which they have a previously defined policy for: https://business.twitter.com/en/help/ads-policies/restricted... > The policy varies across markets but generally applies to ads that advocate for or against a candidate or political party, or ads by candidates and/or entities registered with their respective electo…
This is wrong. He also said issue ads would be blocked.
Perhaps the better link should be this one, which defines "political content", and covers both "political campaigning and issue advocacy advertising"
https://business.twitter.com/en/help/ads-policies/restricted...
Re: Twitter to ban political advertising
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
CNN rejecting Trump ads is akin to Fox rejecting Warren ads given how they are politically aligned. Facebook is trying to be neutral here and let people (and journalists who will write on such ads) decide vs. trying to come in with their own judgment. This has been happening on TV/Print ads for decades now.
Fox News has rejected Trump ads too: https://time.com/5445246/fox-nbc-facebook-controversial-trum... But go ahead and make this a partisan thing.
If you are under the delusion that print and TV media is duly fact checking all political ads, then you are free to believe what you want.
Re: Twitter to ban political advertising
#390Please, can we all stop saying “but what’s a political ad?”
Surely HN commentators are smart enough to try to answer their question before posting it. Well, did political ads exist before social media? How does that work? Etc etc.