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Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

reuters.com

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Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#231

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

danieltillett wrote: post #214
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #158

Conspiracy theory: These advertiser boycotts are just making it cheaper for the Trump campaign to buy targeted political ads.

Doesn’t even matter if this is intended, it is the outcome. 2020 really is the year of peak stupidity - I hope 2021 is an improvement.

> 2020 really is the year of peak stupidity

It doesn’t matter where you are, what you believe, what you do, or what you have - 2020 is peak stupidity.

No one has gotten out of this better than they went in. We’re just seeing who lost the most credibility. My money on the WHO that was nearly without criticism 6 months ago.

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#232

Post by nan0 »

edmundsauto wrote: post #173
_jal wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the OP, and I don't think that's what I want, but FB's hide on the wall would at least be a warning to others.

I doubt "FB going out of business" would have the effect you think. There would then be a vacuum where other actors to fill -- actors who have not experienced the lessons ($5 billion fine) that FB has. I just don't buy the idea of "start a company, making tens of billions, then your company goes out of business" is a warning. Just like I don't think Adam Neumann's situation is a warning to anyone. Michael Lewis relat…

> There would then be a vacuum where other actors to fill > if there's an opportunity, people are going to take it.

Good, we need more platforms (preferably decentralized) to cultivate free thinking and public form. Not a centralized entity that bends to the will of domestic and foreign governments and angry mobs.

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#233

Post by IfOnlyYouKnew »

forbiddenvoid wrote: post #6

Sounds like Verizon's Facebook advertising spend is losing value because of COVID-19, so they're using this a way to redirect focus away from the negative impact on their business. All of the companies doing this right now are 'pausing spend' rather than redirecting. They're reducing their marketing budgets and pointing the finger at Facebook so no one looks too closely at the implications of their reduced ad spend.

You believe anyone but Facebook would notice (and care) about seeing fewer Verizon ads on the platform?

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#234

Post by cwhiz »

cdavid wrote: post #160
cwhiz wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is hate speech? Can you define it for me? Better yet, use legal definitions.

As the OP mentioned, many countries, including democratic ones, do have laws around hate speech. Wikipedia has a few words about it in English: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_France#The... You also have laws against defamation that consider it illegal to defame people based on race and other criteria (since the 19th century in France).

Okay, let me be more specific. Define it for me in US law.

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#235

Post by Tempest1981 »

gedy wrote: post #113
narag wrote: post #21

I'm not American, I'm not in Facebook either. I've read TFA and still don't have a clue what is Facebook criticized for. What's that hate speech and who's doing it?

It's an election year in the US and mud slinging time.

Mud slinging is usually at the other candidate, not entire races.

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#236

Post by IfOnlyYouKnew »

ve55 wrote: post #16
vvanders wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either way, if it puts pressure on FB to structure their business in a way that doesn't push hate at a micro targeted level isn't that a good thing?

It's hard to phrase this in a way that doesn't sound snarky, but I mean it sincerely: Would you rather they become more like Twitter instead? Promoting virality is promoting outrage content, full-stop.

At least Twitter is mostly public. That allows stupid stuff to be opposed, and harmful things to be reported.

With Facebook, and especially Groups, people are fully immersed in their self-selected filter bubble, and admins can run their colloidal-silver-scams without interference.

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#237

Post by bredren »

partiallypro wrote: post #54

I really don't understand this protest at all. If they really care about this, why aren't they pulling from YouTube and Google? Which has very very bad comment sections? I'm not for big corporations calling for people to police speech. Patagonia boycotted Facebook, but they have 13 factories in China...a country with concentration camps for Muslims and political prisoners. A lot of corporate good will falls on deaf e…

Verizon also currently appears heavily invested in TikTok which does not have better privacy practices and has yet to deal with many political issues Facebook must today.

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#238

Post by IfOnlyYouKnew »

Barrin92 wrote: post #38
vvanders wrote: post #28

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…

Interestingly, the law in Germany is far weaker than in the US, or at least it was before Citizen United.

There are no limits on donations, for example. Anything below €10,000 does not even have to be reported. And reporting only happens once per year.

Re: Verizon suspends advertising on Facebook, joins growing boycott

#240

Post by ogre_codes »

throwaway_jobs wrote: post #37
forbiddenvoid wrote: post #6

Sounds like Verizon's Facebook advertising spend is losing value because of COVID-19, so they're using this a way to redirect focus away from the negative impact on their business. All of the companies doing this right now are 'pausing spend' rather than redirecting. They're reducing their marketing budgets and pointing the finger at Facebook so no one looks too closely at the implications of their reduced ad spend.

>Sounds like Verizon’s Facebook advertising spend is losing value because if COVId-19 “We’re pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable,” Doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with Covid-19 to me but rather advertisers don’t want to spend money advertising on a platform promoting hate speech. But let’s say this was a conspiracy by all these companies to save…

> Doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with Covid-19 to me

Advertising is one of the first things companies cut during a downturn. Their revenues are down and they need to shave some costs.

Where do they make that budget cut? It's a pretty easy call right now. They can shave some money and garner some easy positive press at the same time. They are getting advertising for cutting spending.

When their revenue starts to come back online, they quietly turn Facebook advertising back on. If anyone calls them on it, they can say they feel the atmosphere on FB has improved.

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