Facebook to let users turn off political adverts • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#191

Post by creaghpatr » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 1:55 PM UTC

prepend wrote: post #95

Facebook has a really interesting feature that I haven’t seen in Twitter, Google, or others. I can block all ads from a page. Whenever I see a political ad, I can choose “don’t show me any more ads from XXX” and it actually works. This was a godsend during the primary and I wish was available in other platforms. I’m surprised they have this feature and have expected it to go away for years.

It works for regular posts too. I hide all posts from major and minor news sources and eliminates almost all political commentary from my Facebook feed.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#192

Post by Spivak » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 1:56 PM UTC

chii wrote: post #164

wffurr wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to be effective and create change, you need to engage with party politics and push one (or both?) parties in a particular direction. Voting in party primaries and advocating for change within parties, given the state of affairs in US politics, is a better bet for effective change than maintaining a stance of moral purity.

This is absolutely the right stance to take. Nothing will change if you don't do it, and choosing to ignore politics is not going to lead to better politics. You'd just leave the bad actors all the room to act!

You're right but I think it's a mistake to assume that politics should be everyone's "thing." Everyone should vote but not everyone needs to be in the weeds of the political process unless it's something they're passionate about.

And when it comes to the "civic duty" level of participation there's honestly not much that to do. You'll know pretty quick whether you're part of the red, blue, or grey tribe so you can just vote by color and then look up what the local ballot initiatives are and vote on the ones that you have an informed opinion on. With this strategy you're the political equivalent of an index fund investor but you're role is still important since modern politics is a game of taking territory.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#193

Post by vz8 » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 1:57 PM UTC

captainmuon wrote: post #187

I see where they are coming from, but this seems backwards to me. I would like to block all commercial ads, but it seems really important to me that people see political ads. Granted, the current campaigns in the US are messed up and most ads look like propaganda, but this is a narrow view of what politics can be. Because on the other hand, as a political activist I know how incredibly hard it is to get your message…

Everyone in politics has an agenda.

Not everyone in politics is willing to be honest about what that agenda is, and rarely are they held accountable for misinformation used in pursuit of that agenda.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#194

Post by kiba » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 1:57 PM UTC

captainmuon wrote: post #187

I see where they are coming from, but this seems backwards to me. I would like to block all commercial ads, but it seems really important to me that people see political ads. Granted, the current campaigns in the US are messed up and most ads look like propaganda, but this is a narrow view of what politics can be. Because on the other hand, as a political activist I know how incredibly hard it is to get your message…

Exactly why I should listen to spin doctor ads?

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#195

Post by bad_user » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 1:57 PM UTC

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…

Whether it's a good feature for your or not, that's your opinion and choice.

Personally I find Facebook to be unusable and I'm close to deleting my account. I couldn't care less about information bubbles, I basically started unfollowing all acquaintances that frequently post political articles.

I'm really sick of it and given Facebook's feed is screwed anyway, I would like the option of completely filtering out posts on certain topics, such as politics. Alas Facebook doesn't even give the option of censoring words from that stupid timeline.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#196

Post by missedthecue » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 1:57 PM UTC

buybackoff wrote: post #6

john___matrix wrote: post #4

I wonder if it'll be a obscurely named toggle hidden away in a settings sub page somewhere just so they can say they've offered the option. Unlikely of course but it would be nice if they were turned off by default and they offered users the option to turn them on with a disclaimer about how inaccurate and shady many of them are.

Not only hidden away, but one will have to set this option every time the page refreshes, as with time ordering of time line. That latter behavior nullified FB usability for me, not using for 2+ years and happy. Every time when come back just run away scary of the political trash bin it has become.

There are browser extensions for that

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#197

Post by schuyler2d » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 1:58 PM UTC

elicash wrote: post #168

I'm a political advertiser as part of my job and one thing most people don't get is that it's not just ELECTORAL ads that Facebook usually is referring to when they're talking about "political" ads. It's, as mentioned in the article, a shorthand for "Ads About Social Issues, Elections or Politics." So, a few points. First, the obvious, that these things all depend on the extent to which Facebook promotes this "featur…

Indeed -- quite the timely response: Allow people to turn off ads advocating racial justice and equity.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#198

Post by TheRealDunkirk » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 1:59 PM UTC

captainmuon wrote: post #187

I see where they are coming from, but this seems backwards to me. I would like to block all commercial ads, but it seems really important to me that people see political ads. Granted, the current campaigns in the US are messed up and most ads look like propaganda, but this is a narrow view of what politics can be. Because on the other hand, as a political activist I know how incredibly hard it is to get your message…

> ... this seems backwards to me.

Exactly. I wouldn't mind seeing the actual ads, and getting a first-hand impression on what the candidates are campaigning on. What I do NOT want to see -- which is why I quit Facebook -- are the insane and conspiratorial comments and posts ABOUT the political ads.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#199

Post by creaghpatr » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 2:00 PM UTC

ClutchBand wrote: post #46

chippy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the problem with reddit also and twitter - indeed all social media. The main problem is that US political elections "season" runs for 2 years! So out of every 4 years, half of the time is campaigning season so it means that the rest of the worlds social media is polluted with "tons of political crap" 50% of the time. For US folks: look at how other western democracies run their electoral campaigns to help und…

American politics became Americans nightly entertainment, its a saturated behemoth with an insatiable appetite. It will not be long until election campaigns are non-stop. There's simply too much money in this game.

To be fair, there's basically no sports or festivals or other distractions going on right now. Politics and politics-adjacent action are the biggest topic with zero competition.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#200

Post by Spivak » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 2:01 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #93

john___matrix wrote: post #4

I wonder if it'll be a obscurely named toggle hidden away in a settings sub page somewhere just so they can say they've offered the option. Unlikely of course but it would be nice if they were turned off by default and they offered users the option to turn them on with a disclaimer about how inaccurate and shady many of them are.

Facebook is the least of our worries. We need a system where running a successful political campaign does not depend on how much money you bring. Each candidate should have the same budget and so equal amount of exposure.

I don't know how you do this fairly without infringing on non-political candidates right to free speech.

It seems a little nuts that I'm not allowed to endorse my preferred candidate because my endorsement has value and my candidate hit their cap.