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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

#401

Post by dang »

mcherm wrote: post #92
m463 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Wouldn't that disproportionately remove only young urban democrats from political advertising? also, how come the news of this change only came from a non-american news source?

> also, how come the news of this change only came from a non-american news source? Well, did you read the first two sentences of the article? > Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg says users will be able to turn off political adverts on the social network in the run-up to the 2020 US election. In a piece written for USA Today newspaper, he also says he hopes to help four million Americans sign up as new voters. The USA To…

The overwhelming reason for things like that is randomness. If you answered 'randomness' every time such a question arises, you'd probably have a better mental model of HN than maybe anybody (us included). But of course that's deeply unsatisfying, so we invent stories instead. Randomness plus cognitive bias equals narrative. I'm not putting you down—we all do this.

I think a moderator took a look at the two articles and felt like the BBC one was a bit more neutral, while the USA Today one was a bit more press-releasey, so didn't change the URL. I haven't looked at either article; I'm just reporting how we tend to consider these things.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#402

Post by lallysingh »

mmanfrin wrote: post #394
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 underestima…

Perhaps put a list of check boxes for political topics and let people choose. Labeling topics by activity in news sources (say, in combination with other known political terms or authors) can help discover the list mechanically.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#403

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#404

Post by cwperkins »

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 would pay money for a feature like this

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#406

Post by cloverich »

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.

Do you inherently disagree that targeted information tuned for uptake via automated, ML driven feedback, is incapable of affecting a persons behavior? If so, do you disagree that information in general is capable of influencing people?

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#407

Post by ardy42 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #396
lliamander wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Your link is broken, so here it is with some quotes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_Party_(epithet):

> The term Democrat Party is an epithet for the Democratic Party of the United States,[2][3][4] used disparagingly by the party's opponents.[5] United Press International reported in August 1984 that the term had been employed "in recent years by some right-wing Republicans" because the party name implied that the Democrats were "the only true adherents of democracy."[6]...

> [Conservative] Political commentator William Safire wrote in 1993 that the Democrat of Democrat Party "does conveniently rhyme with autocrat, plutocrat, and worst of all, bureaucrat".[9]...

> Journalist Ruth Marcus stated that Republicans likely only continue to employ the term because Democrats dislike it,[2] and Hertzberg calls use of the term "a minor irritation" and also "the partisan equivalent of flashing a gang sign".[10]

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#408

Post by cloverich »

macspoofing wrote: post #169
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.

>This is exactly what Cambridge Analytica did The impact of Cambridge Analytica is so overstated that it crosses into hyperbole. They were a bunch of clowns with minimal impact that got magnified to a status of super-villain because you could use them to club Trump over the head with. And let's not lose sight of the big picture, namely before Trump accidentally won (yes, accidentally and barely), the Trump campaign w…

They aren't the only ones doing it. I get what you are saying, but is your (more general) argument that CA was bad, or that precise, hidden information targeting based on a persons characteristics cannot be used in nefarious ways? Because if you aren't arguing the latter, I don't think its worth calling OP out on CA specifically.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#409

Post by rattray »

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…

Anecdotally, I was able to achieve this by _never_ interacting with political content on FB. That, or nobody in my network posts it (unlikely). But I never see political posts on my newsfeed.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#410

Post by ardy42 »

captainmuon wrote: post #371
at_a_remove wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really important to you that other people see what kinds of ads you want them to see. I just have to take a step back from this for a second, because I really, really dislike the concept that other people have decided that I need to be politically educated (and through Facebook ads, no less). Goodness. If you wish to view political ads, or adds for dog hair brushes, by all means, go for it. Do not attempt to for…

Maybe this is a cultural difference. I lived in Germany for a long time, and here "political education" ("politische bildung") is something you get in school (e.g. as part of history lessons). This is probably a result of experiencing the decline of democracy, and the rise of fascism. Note this is not about partisanal topics, but about how the separation of powers work, federalism, what happens with your taxes, and e…

> Maybe this is a cultural difference. I lived in Germany for a long time, and here "political education" ("politische bildung") is something you get in school (e.g. as part of history lessons).... Note this is not about partisanal topics, but about how the separation of powers work, federalism, what happens with your taxes, and even complex things like monetary policy (if you take certain classes).

Those kinds of classes exist in the US. In my high school the course was called "Government," but I think it's sometimes called "Civics." It was only one semester, but I'm pretty sure the basics were touched on in Social Studies classes in younger grades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_education_in_the_United_...

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