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Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

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201–210 of 356 posts

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#201
post #76

For all the people mentioning the free speech ramifications, I would like to point to the recommendations from the group leading this boycott[1]. It doesn't seem like any of this is related to free speech. They are asking for extra moderation and support. They also are asking for Facebook to stop profiting from hate speech and misinformation, but they stop short of asking for changes to any policy regarding the remov…

I think the concern is that some people working in tech companies and media may define "hate" as anything to the right of Karl Marx, even well-researched centrist positions.

If this is true, then I can easily see why policing of political content is seen as censorship.

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#202
post #13

We need to get corporate interests as far away from political speech as possible. It's honestly a disgrace these companies are trying to boycott Facebook for not wanting to censor our speech. We all know the phase "hate speech" is interchangeable with anything that's not deemed advertiser friendly to these corporations. You think these companies want to advertise against a status update critical of the BLM movement?…

Corporations want their customers to buy their stuff. It helps when you don’t offend your customers. Are you proposing that the government force companies not to discriminate where they advertise?

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly? I think all political advertising shouldn't be allowed, it gives those with a disproportionate amount of capital a lever of influence that runs counter to the democratic process. If you want to push an issue you should have to organize people who believe in your cause and have them involved. There's been plenty of examples of microtargeting's influence that makes me think it has no place in the political di…

Yep, it's pretty much how campaigns here in Germany work. There's about a few weeks of campaigning during which political posters and so on can be put up, but otherwise there's strict regulation on political ads. Also the parties are significantly publicly financed and the amount of money is much lower, due to the much shorter campaign span, making the process much more egalitarian. For example the largest party in G…

"Invest" might be a better term then "Spend"

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#206
post #201
post #76

For all the people mentioning the free speech ramifications, I would like to point to the recommendations from the group leading this boycott[1]. It doesn't seem like any of this is related to free speech. They are asking for extra moderation and support. They also are asking for Facebook to stop profiting from hate speech and misinformation, but they stop short of asking for changes to any policy regarding the remov…

I think the concern is that some people working in tech companies and media may define "hate" as anything to the right of Karl Marx, even well-researched centrist positions. If this is true, then I can easily see why policing of political content is seen as censorship.

Facebook already has a definition for hate speech and this boycott is not asking for any changes to that definition so complaints about how anyone but Facebook defines hate speech is mostly irrelevant.

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#208
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate speech is widely viewed as a legitimate exception to free expression, along with other classic examples of things like yelling fire in a crowded movie theater. Not by every country to be sure, but by many democracies. You're portraying this as some kind of whim that changes with people's moods, but that's a complete, total, 100% straw man. There are decades of legislation and jurisprudence, particularly in Europ…

Everything is being redefined as hate speech, so that's a moot point. "White lives matter" and "it's OK to be white" are not remotely hate speech, yet those sentences are being treated as being "white supremacist" stuff now. The laws in Europe are 1) not that great and 2) won't work in the US thanks to the 1st amendment.

That's because it's the kind of thing supremacist whites say. Not because it isn't true.

It certainly is legally permissible and agreed, not in and of itself "hate speech", but it is obnoxious and in bad taste and indicates sympathy with a certain point of view. Certainly something a big company wouldn't want to be associated with in the current climate.

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#209
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The triggering event, as I understand it, is they did not censor the President of the United States who said something to the effect of riots lead to death. There's two ways to interpret this. One way is that eventually people will get hurt in some way if riots continue. Another way to interpret it was as a death threat to protesters. FB's position was that even if it was a threat, that the protesters needed to know…

Thank you for the clarification. Now I remember reading something about an "antifa" flag, that seemed unconclusive... please, remember I'm a foreigner so my judgement may lack some insights you have. Actually all this seems absurd. Trump is a politician, actually a public officer, so censoring his speech is a alien concept to me. In my country certain politicians IMHO deserve jail for the outrageous nonsense they say…

>Now I remember reading something about an "antifa" flag, that seemed unconclusive...

You're probably thinking of this case recently where Trump ran ads on Facebook which called out antifa and used the same symbol for them that the Nazis used for leftist political prisoners sent to concentration camps. The ads even had other Nazi dogwhistles included too. Facebook took down those ads.

https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/06/trump-ups...

I find it outright amazing how much charity people around HN are still extending Trump.

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate speech is widely viewed as a legitimate exception to free expression, along with other classic examples of things like yelling fire in a crowded movie theater. Not by every country to be sure, but by many democracies. You're portraying this as some kind of whim that changes with people's moods, but that's a complete, total, 100% straw man. There are decades of legislation and jurisprudence, particularly in Europ…

Freedom of speech does not equal to freedom of consequence. What I've listened to people lately say is that when they engage in personal attacks they should be allowed to because "Freedom of Speech". Yet, the type of speech that is protected is speech that is against the government. Being mean, hurtful, and disrespectful against an individual is not protected speech, it's called being a jerk.

Being a jerk _is_ protected though, as is making jerk speech (at least in the US).

It just makes one a jerk to engage in it. Not a crime.

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