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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

#391

Post by yosito »

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…

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I've been thinking so often lately, that I'd really just like to know what's happening in my loved ones' lives, and not see everyone airing their amateur political opinions. But I think the reality is that these sorts of things are often a gray area. For example, I don't want to hear everyone's opinion about the riots in America. But my sister lives in Minneapolis and the building next to her house was burned down. I want to know about that. And while generally I don't want to hear heated debates about laws and court decisions, I've got LGBTQ family members and when SCOTUS makes decisions affecting their lives, I want to know about it. But what I do and don't want to know about is not an easy thing to filter. Even my closest friends probably wouldn't be able to accurately filter what I do and don't want to know about. I highly doubt that an algorithm tuned to optimize engagement and profit is really going to be able to accurately filter what I want to know about either. I've resorted to muting anyone who posts anything about politics, and doing things the old fashioned way and calling people to hear what's new in their lives.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#392

Post by _-david-_ »

hairofadog wrote: post #307
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 pro-Democratic party bias in almost all traditional media I often see this presented as a given, but it doesn't ring true to me. Is there some evidence or research I'm missing showing that traditional media is biased toward the Democratic party?

I think what people tend to mean is national media not necessarily local news sources.

ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC tend to favor the Democratic Party. While Fox News tends to favor the Republican Party.

Some of the largest newspapers NYTimes, LA Times, Washington Post, etc tend to favor the Democratic Party. There are a few that tend to support the Republican Party.

When you look at the endorsements by newspapers and magazines you will see that it is overwhelmingly supporting the Democratic Party [0].

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_endorsements_in_the_...

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#394

Post by mmanfrin »

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…

What is political content? Is news about the protests political? Is a statement by the president? Is a new law going in to effect political? Is someone commenting about wearing masks political?

> Text classification is a thing, and there are many other techniques, so it seems possible to recognize political content with some reasonable level of accuracy and show me a lot less of that.

I think you severely underestimate what constitutes classifying something as political.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#395

Post by Spivak »

amelius wrote: post #369
Spivak wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Simple. Suspend the right to loud forms of free speech during political campaigns. Or have an independent panel measure the media exposure of each candidate. Then compensate them accordingly.

Easy, just revoke the most protected form of speech in the country during such times when that speech is most important. I don't think the Supreme Court is going to buy that one.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#396

Post by dragonwriter »

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.

There's an well-sourced Wikipedia article covering the of “Democrat” as an adjective in place of “Democratic”, including its history and Republicans citing their justification for it: https://en.m. wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(epithet)

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#397

Post by t-writescode »

wombat-man wrote: post #389
t-writescode wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

When you said this:

> I'm there for pictures, the shared calendar and the messaging

Reminded me of the aggressive and eventually enforced simplification of the world so that no one would be offended about anything ever (the latter parts of Captain Beatty's speech)

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#398

Post by DenisM »

crazygringo wrote: post #301

This may sound positive (less ads, less disinformation) at first glance, but I think it's actually a terrible and dangerous development. Zuck has seen that he's going to get hate no matter what his political content moderation policy is, so he thinks he can escape that by literally escaping from it: letting users just turn it off. But while he has the legal right to, in the larger societal sense it's dangerously and…

>Enforced silence is the antithesis of a healthy democratic society.

Your right to free speech goes hand-in-hand with my right to ignore your speech, for I which nowadays I need the earplugs. Do you not think I have that right?

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#399

Post by rlt »

dragonwriter wrote: post #289
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…

> Republicans will block Democrat ads - will that lead to a better world when Republicans can't reach Democrat voters or vice versa? The piece indicates that there will be an option off political ads entirely, not to block political ads by partisan affiliation. (The latter is both more complex to even superficially inplement and would be rather ineffective because SuperPAC ads are formally unaffiliated with either pa…

> 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

If true that's petty, but on the other hand, is the Democratic party actually any more "democratic" than the Republican party? (current president's authoritarian tendencies notwithstanding)

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#400

Post by r00fus »

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…

Maybe the best move is simply to not play the game. FB is clearly focusing on their customers, the ad-buyers and influencers.
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