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Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

thetimes.co.uk

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Re: Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

#131

Post by NeedMoreTea »

ascorbic wrote: post #127
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #41

I'm fascinated to see the apparently limitless efforts that both the media and his own party went to in order to brand Corbyn as an extreme and dangerous left winger and undermine his progress. His policies were comparable to, and sometimes to the right of, those of the SDP. The SDP being the right of the Labour party who split in the 1980s and later merged with the Liberals to give today's LibDems. He was more of th…

This article is the exact opposite of what you're claiming. Labour HQ was trying to make him appear less left wing than he is, by refusing to run the more extreme ads that he was demanding.

No, it isn't. It's quite well known that both party MP's and admin tried to make both his leadership and campaign difficult.

They chose to "refuse to run the more extreme ads" that were well within the bounds of moderate Labour policy of relatively recent years. With a manifesto that resonated pretty well with voters on most issues as it turned out yet didn't include several of Corbyn's actual well known fringe views such as unliatera disarmament as that went against agreed party policy. The manifesto is what counts.

Thus he's being treated as some dangerous extremist whose views can't even be let out in public during an election campaign. Views that, as put forward in the manifesto, are not actually that extreme. It's miles away from Foot's longest suicide note manifesto for example.

Re: Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

#132

Post by tonyedgecombe »

GreeniFi wrote: post #25

This is disturbing for the following reasons: 1. It alerts us to the possibility of fake political adverts. Do I (hypothetically)see an ad purporting to be a Tory ad promising something that will damage me, placed by a non-Tory actor? 2. Are unknown actors placing adverts which cause discord and dislike? 3. How do we solve this problem? Where FB is not regulated it will be impossible to knowingly audit the materials…

The solution is to ban political advertising on the internet.

Re: Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

#133

Post by ascorbic »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #131
ascorbic wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article is the exact opposite of what you're claiming. Labour HQ was trying to make him appear less left wing than he is, by refusing to run the more extreme ads that he was demanding.

No, it isn't. It's quite well known that both party MP's and admin tried to make both his leadership and campaign difficult. They chose to "refuse to run the more extreme ads" that were well within the bounds of moderate Labour policy of relatively recent years. With a manifesto that resonated pretty well with voters on most issues as it turned out yet didn't include several of Corbyn's actual well known fringe views…

Unless you're claiming that they were refusing to run the most moderate ads, and would only run the more left wing ones, I still fail to see how this could be seen as them trying portray him as more left wing.

Re: Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

#134

Post by alecco »

user982 wrote: post #52
rossdavidh wrote: post #50

Wow, a left-of-center party more worried about change from within than they are about losing the election to the right. What a bizarre and unprecedented thing. Thankfully that could never happen in my home country, the USA.

It helps that you do not have a real left-of-center party to begin with.

Democrats turned hard left, recently. Sure, on banal stuff like identity politics while keeping ties with Goldman Sachs & co.

Re: Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

#135

Post by [deleted] »

hellllllllooo wrote: post #7

Wow. We've seen people microtarget leaders and CEOs with ads on Facebook to get a job. http://twicsy-blog.tumblr.com/post/174063770074/how-i-target... This is a case where microtargeting the boss hopefully cost them their job. This is completely unethical.

[deleted]

Re: Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

#136

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

infogulch wrote: post #95
madrox wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree, per se, but it's interesting that we have no problem with leaders of corporations personalizing ads for individuals while we are bothered when the position is reversed.

More than anything I think it's a more tangible argument for how microtargeting can go south. Most people are ok with the concept of advertising in general, and microtargeting feels like a small step from normal ads. "Yeah I get it, people want to sell me shit, what's the big deal?" This is the big deal. Advertising's purpose is to infect your mind and trick it into thinking what the ad-buyer wants. In the past it wa…

> This is the big deal.

I'd argue that the whole modern western political system came out of advertising (as first allowed by the printing press). That was a big deal ...

Re: Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

#137

Post by titzer »

fareesh wrote: post #24
andy_ppp wrote: post #8

So they ran ultra left wing ads micro targeted at Corbyn and similar supporters so these people thought everyone was seeing them. I really wonder if micro targeting should just be switched off for everyone during political campaigns. It allows political parties to do exactly this, be literally all things to all people rather than genuine in their messaging. How can we educate people this is happening? I’m certain it’…

If you can speak to me one on one and tell me why I should vote for you, and you convince me - then you deserve my vote. Microtargeting allows you to do that at scale. If I care about a certain issue and you advertise to me in a way that matches up to the things I care about, and present ideas that I agree with, then you are campaigning correctly. If a politician saw that I cared about the environment and argued for…

I think you completely missed the point of the article. Microtargeting was used to create a completely alternative view of around a single person. That's not "speaking to me one on one"; that's gaslighting.

Re: Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

#138

Post by repolfx »

yawaramin wrote: post #87
downandout wrote: post #84

From the article: ”When the leader of a political party can be tricked in such fashion by his own officials, voters themselves stand little chance.” This event does not support the conclusion that social media ads are effective at “tricking voters”. These ads weren’t even shown to voters. Employees simply microtargeted their boss to convince him that the ads were running. The idea that social media ads are somehow ef…

I think it supports the conclusion very well. If you can microtarget ads at segments of voters, you can find a way to tell different types of people exactly what they want to hear. You can quite effectively prey on their fears and weaknesses, pit them against each other–divide and conquer. Facebook has long promised more visibility for users into ads, and that would go a long way to fighting this kind of trickery ...…

And what makes you think you know the personal fears and weaknesses of every single voter, or that you can trivially flip votes by making ads about them? After all, in theory politicians are actually meant to implement manifestos, and if they are telling everyone different messages that'll get picked up immediately once people start debating the election down their local drinking hole.

The idea that you can buy elections through advertising is a typical position of the left (and these days, by extension, of journalists). Recall the huge fuss Obama and the Democrats kicked up when campaign spending limits were removed by the Supreme Court? Obama was even talking about a constitutional amendment. Then Hillary outspent Trump 2:1 on advertising and still lost. They disproved their own thesis.

Re: Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

#139

Post by bryanrasmussen »

Raphael wrote: post #96
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #6

huh we need a new version of the GDPR already it seems. Unfortunately it won't help Britain.

We don't need a new law. The schemers can be fired and rules can be written to guard against it.

what do you think a rule to guard against it is - in my world that's a law.

Re: Labour HQ used Facebook ads to deceive Jeremy Corbyn during election campaign

#140

Post by bryanrasmussen »

detaro wrote: post #9
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #6

huh we need a new version of the GDPR already it seems. Unfortunately it won't help Britain.

What do you think should it regulate that currently isn't?

sorry didn't answer earlier, on vacation - but I don't think there is a provision that allows a company to sell access to profiles that end up micro targeting 1 individual or maybe a provision saying no sell of advertising can be written to target less than 100 people, only people employed by one employer, or in one location - location described as (some description that keeps you from targeting everyone in a particular building.)
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