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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

#471

Post by lopmotr »

dimator wrote: post #209
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…

> I find it frustrating and damaging to democracy that politics is viewed as something dirty. Politics should be just a domain of problem solving and discussion like programming, home improvement, or cooking - except that everybody should have a say since it affects everybody. Why do we assume everybody in politics has sinister intentions? Because politics, at least at the top levels, has been perverted by lobbying.…

I'm going to get in trouble for saying this too often but why do Americans persistently complain about lobbying until an election when they suddenly forget that and instead vote for whoever from their favorite party spends the most money, much of which came from lobbyists? If you don't want lobbying, then stop voting for it!

I know people have a mindset of wanting to be on the winning team and not waste their vote on somebody who can't possibly win because they didn't spend enough money, but if that's really more important to you than lobbying, then stop complaining - you're getting what you want at the expense of something you want less. Maybe you can't have your cake and eat it too in this situation.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#472

Post by amznthrwaway »

TheKarateKid wrote: post #469
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.

It’s because “democratic” is only an adjective while “republican” can also be a noun. Does it make sense to say “The democratics oppose this legislation?” No. Before you all downvote this, check Webster dictionary if you don’t believe me.

[dead]

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#473

Post by catalogia »

akincisor wrote: post #435
ogre_codes wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think you severely underestimate what constitutes classifying something as political. You are over-thinking this. Just filtering obvious political stuff would be a massive help: - Mentions of politicians - Key words: Liberal, Conservative, Right-wing, etc etc - Material re-shared from political parties/ candidates/ movements. Just that would be a giant help. Allowing users to set their own filters would be a mass…

So any post that has "... a liberal amount..." or "... take the conservative approach ..." or "... replaced the right wing nut..." would be filtered. Political candidates also share names with other people. Name based filtering can silence unrelated people. See how well our no fly lists are at targeting people who just happen to have the wrong name. For every problem, there is a simple solution that is wrong. Getting…

> So any post that has "... a liberal amount..." or "... take the conservative approach ..." or "... replaced the right wing nut..." would be filtered.

This is pretty much a solved problem, and it actually is pretty simple: http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#474

Post by dragonwriter »

lliamander wrote: post #454
mywittyname wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adopting a disparaging name for a group of people that you don't like is a means of dehumanizing them.

True, I just find it odd that this is seen as (or was ever intended to be) disparaging, rather than a mere grammatical variation.

Heck, before it was adopted as the name of the party, Democratic was also a disparaging epithet conjured by the faction’s opponents (though not one involving torturing grammar, because that's not how Federalists rolled.)

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#476

Post by minkzilla »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #444
rlt wrote: post #399

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 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)

Which one of them likes the electoral college?

Depends on the year

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#477

Post by lliamander »

dragonwriter wrote: post #474
lliamander wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, I just find it odd that this is seen as (or was ever intended to be) disparaging, rather than a mere grammatical variation.

Heck, before it was adopted as the name of the party, Democratic was also a disparaging epithet conjured by the faction’s opponents (though not one involving torturing grammar, because that's not how Federalists rolled.)

To be fair, Democracy had (up until that point) a rather tumultuous history.

And even in the modern day, it is often the case that self-styled "Democratic" institutions are measurably worse than their counterparts. For example, compare the "People's Democratic Republic of Korea" to South Korea, or the "Democratic Republic of Congo" to the mere "Republic of Congo".

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#478

Post by hatboat »

three_seagrass wrote: post #425
ogre_codes wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think you severely underestimate what constitutes classifying something as political. You are over-thinking this. Just filtering obvious political stuff would be a massive help: - Mentions of politicians - Key words: Liberal, Conservative, Right-wing, etc etc - Material re-shared from political parties/ candidates/ movements. Just that would be a giant help. Allowing users to set their own filters would be a mass…

This has ethical reprecussions on the news ecosystem because whichever keywords/mentions that Facebook dictates as political will be targeted by news organizations to avoid. These organizations will strip normal news of any political connotations which is frightening because the news, although mostly a pile of noise today, is supposed to have signals to keep democracies in line by design.

This is one potential outcome.

Another is organisations will keep the same content (as this is what drives clicks and profitability), however change the language used to describe it.

I would say this outcome is worse, as it leads to things like newspeak, muddying of definitions, and an increase in accusations of dogwhistling (accurate or otherwise). We may already be on this path, but it would be accelerated.

Re: Facebook to let users turn off political adverts

#480

Post by pjc50 »

kortilla wrote: post #304
pjc50 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think one of the big ones is that our intellectual institutions have given themselves over to internet troll logic, including many prestigious Op-Ed pages Yes, absolutely. The prevalence of stupid "both sides" reasoning calls into being the contrarians and gives them a platform - in order to have someone say the world is round, you have to find a flat earth pundit as well and put them opposite each other so the p…

Can you come up with a better example? I don’t think flat earthers have been given any air time at all.

Frequently cited by mass shooters: Melanie Phillips

Climate change denial correspondent for Times, Telegraph, Spectator: James Delingpole

Wrong about everything on purpose: Brendan O'Neill (and the rest of the ex-Living Marxism gang who pivoted from Marxism to Libertarianism without ever passing through sanity)

All over television until he had served his purpose and then invisible: Nigel Farage

And of course, reprimanded as a journo for lying about Europe too often; paid more for a weekly column than as a Minister: Boris Johnson

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