Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 510 posts

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#381

Post by dhosek »

lliamander wrote: post #375
amznthrwaway wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but Republicans consistently use the term 'Democrat' instead of 'Democratic' because they don't want to imply that Democrats have a connection to the concept of Democracy. It's a shibboleth; folks who instinctively say "Democrat" are reliably far-right.

I'm not saying you are making things up, but that makes no sense to me. I don't think any Republicans I know are aware of that tactic, use that tactic, or would even think it's effective.

Start paying closer attention. You'll see it all the time from Republican officials and conservative media personalities.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#382

Post by dhosek »

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…

I have never seen a Republican or conservative political ad on Facebook. This hypothetical bubble already exists.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#383

Post by svachalek »

johnpaulkiser wrote: post #360
cwhiz wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can target Facebook ads with surgical precision to manipulate people exactly the way you want. This is exactly what Cambridge Analytica did. You cannot target people with such precision in traditional advertising. I don’t think it’s unfair to say social media advertising and data collection is the biggest risk to democracy that we have ever faced.

Democracy is inherently broken if you think people can be controlled in this way.

The US election system is a much narrower target than "democracy". It's possible to get big results by tipping over a small minority of people.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#384

Post by bananamerica »

adrianmonk wrote: post #373

I'd also love a feature that lets me block non-advertising political content. A lot of people like to use Facebook as a political soapbox. That's not what I want out of it. I want to stay connected to people, hear updates, socialize, etc. Some people push it so far that the solution of unfriending them is easy. But not everybody is so egregious that I want the nuclear option. (For example, relatives who are vocal abo…

Social Fixer is a browser extension that provides filters for Facebook. I used it during elections period and it’s great. My current solution is to not use Facebook at all, and I got say it’s pretty neat :P

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#385

Post by ericsoderstrom »

adrianmonk wrote: post #373

I'd also love a feature that lets me block non-advertising political content. A lot of people like to use Facebook as a political soapbox. That's not what I want out of it. I want to stay connected to people, hear updates, socialize, etc. Some people push it so far that the solution of unfriending them is easy. But not everybody is so egregious that I want the nuclear option. (For example, relatives who are vocal abo…

You can use an ad blocker to filter out html elements that contain keywords or hashtags that are often used in the types of posts you don't want to see. Not a perfect solution, but an ok solution.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#386

Post by kgin »

adrianmonk wrote: post #373

I'd also love a feature that lets me block non-advertising political content. A lot of people like to use Facebook as a political soapbox. That's not what I want out of it. I want to stay connected to people, hear updates, socialize, etc. Some people push it so far that the solution of unfriending them is easy. But not everybody is so egregious that I want the nuclear option. (For example, relatives who are vocal abo…

Absolutely, I want to know what people I care about are up to. I don't want my entire social world to turn into hot takes.

There are important issues, absolutely. But my personal relationships with other humans are not based on their hot takes on those issues.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#387

Post by DenisM »

elicash wrote: post #219
schuyler2d wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is a great point. Will a person who turns these ads off even UNDERSTAND that they're not allowing a Black Lives Matter organization to let them know about upcoming events? How will that be explained to the user? The advertiser might only even be sharing the ads with people set up on a recurring contribution to inform them how to stay involved.

> Will a person who turns these ads off even UNDERSTAND that they're not allowing

Do you not find this approach patronizing?

I'm not jesting, your comments are well-informed and I am better off for having read them. Still I am curious why is it that you do not believe that people can make reasonable choices about content blocking and correctly interpret "sensitive topics that are heavily debated, may influence the outcome of an election or result in/relate to existing or proposed legislation.".

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#388

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#389

Post by wombat-man »

t-writescode wrote: post #379
wombat-man wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel ya, but that's not why I use facebook. I unfollow friends who mostly post political stuff, even though I generally agree with them. I'm there for pictures, the shared calendar and the messaging. I'll check out memeorandum or NYT for news, and will sometimes read political stuff on reddit or twitter. To me, I prefer FB as a way to stay connected with friends. I have many other ways to learn about political topi…

Your response reminds me of Captain Beatty's speech to Montag in Fahrenheit 451: https://mediadwellers.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/beatty-spe...

how so?

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#390

Post by wombat-man »

elicash wrote: post #218
wombat-man wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel ya, but that's not why I use facebook. I unfollow friends who mostly post political stuff, even though I generally agree with them. I'm there for pictures, the shared calendar and the messaging. I'll check out memeorandum or NYT for news, and will sometimes read political stuff on reddit or twitter. To me, I prefer FB as a way to stay connected with friends. I have many other ways to learn about political topi…

I'm sensitive to this, which is why I added those questions to the end. But let me make create a random example. Oil companies will be able to advertise on Facebook and reach everybody. Environmental organizations talking about oil will not. We don't call the oil companies a political or social issue advertiser, but this disparate treatment for what we consider "social issues" is going to have real-world implications…

yes, fair enough. I suppose they had to draw the line somewhere.

I'm kind of surprised they decided to take this route. I'm guessing they are trying to get ahead of future regulation by governments.

Post reply on HN