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Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#131

Post by tester34 »

foldr wrote: post #67
ManlyBread wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully at some point someone notices that politics are a huge turn-off for many people. I live in Poland and EA decided they need me to see a statement for BLM in one of their games. What's the value of that? I have zero influence over the things happening in US and it's not like the topic is not all over the internet anyway. If it weren't for the fact that I play that game with friends I would just uninstall it c…

>What's the value of that? I have zero influence over the things happening in US BLM isn't only relevant to the US. It's not as if Poland doesn't have any issues with racism. I actually think this has been one of the positive effects of the high profile of BLM. Too many European countries have been content to tell themselves that racism is an American problem which they don't have.

>BLM isn't only relevant to the US. It's not as if Poland doesn't have any issues with racism.

As somebody not from the USA I differentiate BLM and fighting with racism, those are not the same and that's why I'd rather not see those BLMs ads.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#132

Post by forgingahead »

I wish there was a broader filter in Facebook that would allow me to filter by specific terms. So then any post, story, like, etc that would be surfaced into the newsfeed would have to pass through this filter first. If any of the flagged words are found, just block it from my view.

There is still a great deal of positive discovery that happens via Facebook, and they should be letting people customise their noise filters as much as possible so that they can get to the good stuff.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#133

Post by dan-robertson »

macspoofing wrote: post #109

It's a good feature from an individual perspective. It's not a good feature if you don't like cultural bubbles forming. Democrats will block Republican ads, Republicans will block Democrat ads - will that lead to a better world when Republicans can't reach Democrat voters or vice versa? I find this focus (attack?) on political advertising on social media platforms by traditional media companies to be self-serving and…

One difference is that there’s less transparency with digital ads. They can be targeted at much smaller groups of people so you may see quite different ads from your neighbour. It seems much harder to talk to other people about the ads as you are less likely to be seeing the same things, and it seems much harder for their to be a public debate when one side may not even know the arguments being made by the other

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#134

Post by macspoofing »

blueatlas wrote: post #126
macspoofing wrote: post #109

It's a good feature from an individual perspective. It's not a good feature if you don't like cultural bubbles forming. Democrats will block Republican ads, Republicans will block Democrat ads - will that lead to a better world when Republicans can't reach Democrat voters or vice versa? I find this focus (attack?) on political advertising on social media platforms by traditional media companies to be self-serving and…

You are saying this as if those ads state facts and stick to the issues. Politics in the US is a mess. Party politics makes absolutely no sense to me. My trust in what they have to say, particularly on social media, is nil. Those ads will be turned off. I have never have, nor never will, vote along party lines. I am, proudly, unaffiliated.

>Politics in the US is a mess.

Why would you want it any other way? Democracy is messy.

>You are saying this as if those ads state facts and stick to the issues

I'm not saying that at all, but I will say this, political discourse is never about facts and policy. Same with activism. Do you think activists stick to facts and data to prove their case? Almost never. Do you think any housing activists that push 'rent control' as a partial solution to homelessness, care that 'rent control' as a policy has been objectively an abject failure and doesn't actually solve the issue at hand? Politics are emotion-driven and things like 'emotional trust' will outweigh any policy or fact-based discussion.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#135

Post by BiteCode_dev »

prepend wrote: post #121
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't it be simpler to just use ublock origin?

I haven’t figured out how to run ublock on my phone.

On android, one can use facebook in the firefox mobile browser instead of the app. Firefox mobile does allow ublock origin, and it's trivial to add a home shortcut to any web app.

This has other advantages: facebook web site can't ask for a 1000 permissions or to be updated regularly, won't run in the background eating memory and battery and this will limit the disk space it can eat.

You're paying the price with a less integrated UI, yet given the pros, it may be worth it.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#136

Post by ses1984 »

macspoofing wrote: post #134
blueatlas wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are saying this as if those ads state facts and stick to the issues. Politics in the US is a mess. Party politics makes absolutely no sense to me. My trust in what they have to say, particularly on social media, is nil. Those ads will be turned off. I have never have, nor never will, vote along party lines. I am, proudly, unaffiliated.

>Politics in the US is a mess. Why would you want it any other way? Democracy is messy. >You are saying this as if those ads state facts and stick to the issues I'm not saying that at all, but I will say this, political discourse is never about facts and policy. Same with activism. Do you think activists stick to facts and data to prove their case? Almost never. Do you think any housing activists that push 'rent cont…

>Why would you want it any other way? Democracy is messy.

Sounds an awful lot like giving up to me.

>Do you think activists stick to facts and data to prove their case? Almost never.

There's a difference between "appeal to emotion" and spewing outright lies.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#137

Post by esperent »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #135
prepend wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven’t figured out how to run ublock on my phone.

On android, one can use facebook in the firefox mobile browser instead of the app. Firefox mobile does allow ublock origin, and it's trivial to add a home shortcut to any web app. This has other advantages: facebook web site can't ask for a 1000 permissions or to be updated regularly, won't run in the background eating memory and battery and this will limit the disk space it can eat. You're paying the price with a le…

Or use brave browser. Or use an Android app called Virtual Hosts that allows you to use a custom hosts file to block ads.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#138

Post by Cthulhu_ »

macspoofing wrote: post #109

It's a good feature from an individual perspective. It's not a good feature if you don't like cultural bubbles forming. Democrats will block Republican ads, Republicans will block Democrat ads - will that lead to a better world when Republicans can't reach Democrat voters or vice versa? I find this focus (attack?) on political advertising on social media platforms by traditional media companies to be self-serving and…

The problem isn't the cultural bubbles; the problem is that there are apparently only two bubbles, which quickly boils down to "you're with us or you're against us". This is not a technological problem or a filter bubble problem, but a core issue with how US politics is currently organized.

With sweeping political reform, you can have dozens of parties active, each representing a much more fine-grained selection of the US population.

That way, one can be extreme-right and vote for the KKK party instead of the current Republicans which may be too mild for their liking; they'll be represented in the government (and outed for being a racist) and feel like their vote counts, but their influence will be marginalized.

There'll be a room for a Democrats-like party headed by Clinton and/or Biden, and another one more liberal / socialist headed by Sanders. It gives more space for more nuanced policies, and it gives more room for different opinions (whereas the current one is with us or against us, and if you're not cool enough your candidacy has no chance).

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#140

Post by BiteCode_dev »

esperent wrote: post #137
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On android, one can use facebook in the firefox mobile browser instead of the app. Firefox mobile does allow ublock origin, and it's trivial to add a home shortcut to any web app. This has other advantages: facebook web site can't ask for a 1000 permissions or to be updated regularly, won't run in the background eating memory and battery and this will limit the disk space it can eat. You're paying the price with a le…

Or use brave browser. Or use an Android app called Virtual Hosts that allows you to use a custom hosts file to block ads.

Exactly. Basically, let's not expect any GAFAM to have our interest in mind and just do it ourself.
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