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Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube

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Re: Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube

#101

Post by kurayashi »

carpenecopinum wrote: post #21
iLoveOncall wrote: post #2

After living in 2 EU countries and the UK for decades, I don't think I've ever seen a political ad on any Google product (and even overall?). It's probably a very minor impact to Google's ad bottom line.

In a roughly two-week window of not having adblock enabled, I have seen a ton of "politics-adjacent" ads in Germany. They'd usually start off with something that will get right-wing nuts excited ("This Green Party politician ruined their career, learn more.") and will then pivot to some crypto-scam. I'm wondering if those will be affected by the new ban as well, or if crypto scams aren't political enough to apply.

Closer to an election you will also see ads from actual political parties. I’ve mostly noticed them from CDU and AfD, sometimes the greens.

Re: Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube

#102

Post by netsharc »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #39
01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #19

I wish they'd stop serving scams too. I keep seeing shit like "make 75,000 using Ethereum and ChatGPT"

Scams in online advertising are ubiquitous, I'm amazed adtech companies don't seem to see any consequences for it. I really think there needs to be an onus on online advertisers to prove that the products and services they promote are not scams before anything gets exposed to the public. I see adblockers as essential security tools at this point, however you dress it up one of the main functions of adtech in the pres…

Curious to think that the billion dollar profits, and 6-figure salaries, are earned by scamming people out of their money. Via an intermediary which is the scammer paying for ads on your platform, the money they have through by scamming people in the first place.

Yeah I suppose that's a certain %, the rest of it is ads from e.g. booking.com if you google "hotel california", and other not-really-scam companies. But a pie chart of "Profits made from ads from legitimate company" vs "Scammy ads" would be interesting.

Re: Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube

#103

Post by piva00 »

bluecalm wrote: post #72
piva00 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, watching how USA's elections unfold with ads I don't see much real information, it's a whole lot of noise with ads not beholden to any kind of truth. One can claim anything in those ads, attack politicians not even based on what they say or what their platform states as far as it's not clear cut libel and/or defamation, plaster some fearmongering and lies on an ad and run with it to damage opponents. Th…

How are you going to learn about the people running then? Rely on what they say? You need some mechanism so others can criticize them and be heard.

Of course I need mechanisms to hear criticisms, political ads like the ones in the USA are definitely not that, that's what I said.

I learn about the people running from different sources, journalism where I live still has some modicum of journalism and not entertainment news like CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc. even though they have clear biases it's quite well understood where their biases sit at, and even the most biased publications here are not overtly partisan so even when they don't align with my political views it's still interesting to read and consider the whole spectrum of opinions without those clearly pushing a distorted reality.

I really do not understand how ads are even considered as any part of the solution, at all. I'm not attacking what you said but just want to clarify it's a very alien view to my own, ads are inherently untrustworthy, they are paid, they don't suffer public scrutiny.

I rely much more on interviews of candidates, publications pro and against them (including the ones I align with that's how I decided to not vote for a candidate and pushing for another candidate of the same party a couple elections ago), and read through their policies in their official platforms.

Re: Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube

#104

Post by tivert »

StackRanker3000 wrote: post #99
tivert wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People do vote against their interests. Full stop. If you're not talking about the normal compromises every voter needs to make between competing priorities, then I think you should own your position and advocate that you yourself be given the power to exercise those voters votes on their behalf, since you claim to know what their interests are better than they do.

So do you really think there are no people who have ever voted against their own interests because they were misled, or even lied to? That doesn’t mean that they should be disenfranchised, but perhaps it’s worth looking into how those people can be better informed, and thus enabled to vote for options that actually align with the outcomes they desire?

> So do you really think there are no people who have ever voted against their own interests because they were misled, or even lied to?

No, but I also don't trust anyone complaining about people "voting against their own interests" to make that determination. That phrase is almost always shorthand for "they didn't vote the way I wanted them to," but often rationalized to not seem so self-serving (e.g. a partisan's biased belief the other side is uniquely full of liars, or that no reasonable person could disagree with them).

Personally, I think you should spend more time worrying if you "were misled, or even lied to."

Re: Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube

#105

Post by bluecalm »

piva00 wrote: post #103
bluecalm wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you going to learn about the people running then? Rely on what they say? You need some mechanism so others can criticize them and be heard.

Of course I need mechanisms to hear criticisms, political ads like the ones in the USA are definitely not that, that's what I said. I learn about the people running from different sources, journalism where I live still has some modicum of journalism and not entertainment news like CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc. even though they have clear biases it's quite well understood where their biases sit at, and even the most bias…

Well ads have informational value. They are very reliable source of what a candidate or a party wants to convey. They are a way to be heard.

I don't know any place where journalism is unbiased. Not saying it doesn't exist, maybe it does in some high trust society but it's definitely very rare. USA has it easy because there are only 2 parties and both have partisan media behind them. In parliamentary system with many parties though there is a problem of small ones not being heard. Ads are one solution to that. Social media/Internet in general is another. Incumbents have huge advantage in those systems because of media control, connections to journalists etc.

Re: Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube

#106

Post by dns_snek »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #39
01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #19

I wish they'd stop serving scams too. I keep seeing shit like "make 75,000 using Ethereum and ChatGPT"

Scams in online advertising are ubiquitous, I'm amazed adtech companies don't seem to see any consequences for it. I really think there needs to be an onus on online advertisers to prove that the products and services they promote are not scams before anything gets exposed to the public. I see adblockers as essential security tools at this point, however you dress it up one of the main functions of adtech in the pres…

> I see adblockers as essential security tools at this point

The FBI agrees.

> Use an ad blocking extension when performing internet searches. Most internet browsers allow a user to add extensions, including extensions that block advertisements. These ad blockers can be turned on and off within a browser to permit advertisements on certain websites while blocking advertisements on others.

https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2022/PSA221221

Re: Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube

#107

Post by PoignardAzur »

baud147258 wrote: post #25
Aardwolf wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paper flyers in your mailbox, and billboards in people's gardens, are some age-old and very common forms of advertisement during elections I've seen in multiple countries in Europe

At least in France I don't think I've seen either of those. More common are poster stuck on public infrastructure

There's a bunch of strictly regulated ad formats. Each party gets one "metal billboard" poster and I think one TV spot and that's it.

The most common form of political advertising by volume is probably unauthorized propaganda posters on public infrastructure, yeah. Those are annoying. Also stickers on traffic light poles and similar places.

Re: Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube

#108

Post by account42 »

NeuroCoder wrote: post #89
account42 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hope so. The government paying private companies to spread its propaganda is bad for many reasons.

It's already an uphill battle to fix misinformation concerning vaccines without calling it political.

If you need psychological manipulation (ads) to "fix misinformation" then there is a good chance it isn't misinformation in the first place.

Re: Google will stop serving political ads in the EU, including on YouTube

#109

Post by piva00 »

bluecalm wrote: post #105
piva00 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course I need mechanisms to hear criticisms, political ads like the ones in the USA are definitely not that, that's what I said. I learn about the people running from different sources, journalism where I live still has some modicum of journalism and not entertainment news like CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, etc. even though they have clear biases it's quite well understood where their biases sit at, and even the most bias…

Well ads have informational value. They are very reliable source of what a candidate or a party wants to convey. They are a way to be heard. I don't know any place where journalism is unbiased. Not saying it doesn't exist, maybe it does in some high trust society but it's definitely very rare. USA has it easy because there are only 2 parties and both have partisan media behind them. In parliamentary system with many…

> Well ads have informational value. They are very reliable source of what a candidate or a party wants to convey. They are a way to be heard.

I agree with your latter points, not with the first one. Ads are noisy, they are not bound to be truthful and there's no pushback during an ad in case it states something obviously misleading or false.

> I don't know any place where journalism is unbiased.

I have specifically mentioned that all journalism is biased on my previous comment, I don't know how you missed it. Still if the bias is well known and the journalists are acting as journalists even under their own bias it won't be extremely partisan such as it is in the USA with Fox News and similar networks (CNN, MSNBC, etc.), given that they aren't overtly partisan I can still hold some trust even towards media that don't align with my political views because I know they are still working as journalists and not partisan hacks.

> In parliamentary system with many parties though there is a problem of small ones not being heard. Ads are one solution to that. Social media/Internet in general is another. Incumbents have huge advantage in those systems because of media control, connections to journalists etc.

There's still ample opportunity for many small parties to deliver their messages since it's well regulated, they might have access to public funding and have a more leveled playing field where money is not a barrier to entry. Ads cost money, so in an ad-infested political landscape smaller parties with little funding have even less opportunities to spread their messaging.

Again, I believe you are too coloured by your limited experience with elections, ads are a noise infested hellscape of information and shouldn't be a large part of the political discourse.

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