I came across this article today and actually thought it as true for a couple minutes.
https://babylonbee.com/news/facebook-will-now-add-warnings-t...
I just found that telling on how bad the current state of affairs has gotten.
Facebook widens ban on political ads as alarm rises over election
151–160 of 270 posts
Re: Facebook widens ban on political ads as alarm rises over election
#152Nationalize Facebook.
If that were to happen, then banning political ads would violate the First Amendment.
Re: Facebook widens ban on political ads as alarm rises over election
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vetted by who? Based on the political opinions of some manager somewhere in California?
The only democratic way to have a vetting system for political messages would be to have an transparent government institute that are responsible to the public, and it seems to me then that we have just reinvented the censor bureau of the past.
A transparent government institute? What's that? A kafkaesque bureaucracy operated by unelected and unappointed career bureaucrats accountable to no one that responds to FOIA requests in 18 - 36 months about why your ad was censored and your opponent's wasn't, after which you have no course of recompense?
Yes, what we need is an organization like the IRS to govern political speech online that's a BRILLIANT idea why didn't anyone think of that, that will finally solve bias in political advertising
Re: Facebook widens ban on political ads as alarm rises over election
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
My take on all of this... Lots of states are pushing for larger scale vote-by-mail than has ever happened before. Some states have been doing this for a long time (Oregon, Colorado), but they have the processes in place to handle elections. Other states are trying to do it in a few months with no real prep ahead of time. We're already seeing this lead to ballot printing problems, ex:[0]. To build on that, many of the…
It never ceases to amaze how one of the world's oldest and proudest democracies is absolutely useless at the basic table-stakes competency of a democracy, running a free and fair election. I guess Americans just love their broken legacy system too much...
Americans love winning to the extent that we cannot tolerate losing. Culturally, we are all but encouraged to cheat if we are ahead in order to maintain our lead (we deserve to win), in the event of failure we point the blame at someone else (we would have won if not for those meddling kids!), and when even that doesn't stick we just ignore reality (actually we did win).
Re: Facebook widens ban on political ads as alarm rises over election
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm curious what you consider the "hoax" in "very fine people hoax". Do you disagree with this analysis (linked below) which claims that the "only very fine non-white-nationalist people" Trump were either (a) at a different activity from the one Trump claimed they were doing, or (b) people who weren't there but Trump thought were there. That analysis puts Trump at best misinformed or confused, if not supportive of th…
Go to the transcript it’s clear as day: https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/apr/26/context-trump... > Trump: "Excuse me, excuse me. They didn’t put themselves -- and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. You had people in that group. Excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to pro…
I'm sure that not literally everyone at a Nazi rally is actually a Nazi. But the Unite the Right rally and posters were full of actual Nazi symbols. There were enough Nazi and white power symbols that anyone marching there is either:
1. Anti white supremacist and Anti Nazi, but VERY dumb or very unobservant.
2. Anti white supremacist and Anti Nazi, but believe that saving a statue is worth marching in a rally on the same side as a large number of self professed Nazis.
3. A white supremist and/or Nazi.
This wasn't a case of a few white supremacist sneaking into an otherwise unrelated event. A large percentage of the crowd was chanting overtly racist slogans and flying overtly racist flags (even ignoring the confederate battle flags). No one there was confused about what was happening. None of the people marching on the Unite the Right side were "very fine people."
Re: Facebook widens ban on political ads as alarm rises over election
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Coronavirus: Outcry after Trump suggests injecting disinfectant as treatment https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52407177
There is a difference between "suggests injecting disinfectant as treatment" and "tells people to drink bleach". There are many possible treatments being suggested for covid, but that doesn't mean you should try them until they are confirmed to work.
Language only conveys information as accurately as it is interpreted. Ambiguity invites varying interpretations. While ~everyone here knows better, half of the people Trump leads are of a below-median ability to fill in the blanks.
Ambiguity is great when you are running an election and you are trying to appeal to the greatest number of people -- it is not good when you need to convey information in situations where human life is on the line. The reasons we have seemingly obvious warnings on household chemicals are written in blood.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6923e2.htm?s_cid=mm...
Re: Facebook widens ban on political ads as alarm rises over election
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
Vetted by who? Based on the political opinions of some manager somewhere in California?
Yes. Private company, private rules. I will be the hypocrite back to make the argument you're making now when they come for me (which they won't because I'm not on facebook).
Lol I'm only on HN because the articles get here before they get on slashdot. The HN groupthink is much more toxic than Slashdot ever was
Re: Facebook widens ban on political ads as alarm rises over election
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the real question :) Of course it will be by some far left leaning person. Zuckerberg said they have content moderation and consult with many many groups and the interviewer asked for ONE example of a conservative group they consult with, he had no answer.
What are you talking about? The Daily Caller is one of Facebook’s official fact checker partners: https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/facebooks-fact-c... And the top performing content on Facebook is dominated by right wing media figures: https://mobile.twitter.com/FacebooksTop10
> The Daily Caller is one of Facebook’s official fact checker partners
That doesn't tell you how much they weight it compared to the others.
> And the top performing content on Facebook is dominated by right wing media figures
This is misleading for the same reason as Fox News being the most popular cable news network. There is only one right-leaning cable news network, whereas CNN and MSNBC split the left-leaning viewership even though together they're larger than Fox.
The same thing happens with links. Fox covers a story with their take, it gets N shares, CNN and MSNBC each cover the same story with their take and each get M/2 shares, and then Fox is at the top of the chart even if M > N.
Re: Facebook widens ban on political ads as alarm rises over election
#159Nationalize Facebook.
If Facebook were nationalized, it would have to adhere to the constitution, including the first amendment right to free speech. So if it was run constitutionally Facebook would be even less restricted than it is now.
However I don't think that Facebook would be run constitutionally if it were government owned. It would be run as a propaganda outlet and a way to spy on people all over the world.
Right now Facebook's motives are just money. If Facebook were government owned its motives would become more complex and dangerous. It would want to make the American government look good. It would want to elect corrupt politicians who promised behind closed doors to increase Facebook's funding.
Re: Facebook widens ban on political ads as alarm rises over election
#160Big tech is doing everything in their power to make Biden win this election, yet he'll still lose.
Precisely. Anyone denying this is kidding themselves.