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State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending

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Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending

#211
post #193
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sans this minimum level of funding, your supporters don't go to the polls, and you don't win. Ah, of course, you have the minimum funding to get your message out, I do not doubt that for a minute. There's a minimum level beyond which you can not mount a successful campaign. But beyond that level, the link between dollars and votes becomes much less direct and obvious. > general consensus is that the difference in f…

Granted on your first two comments. But something not guaranteeing success doesn't mean it doesn't make it more likely. As for advertising dollars, you could absolutely hide a public ad in 2016 by buying through Facebook, not declaring yourself, and targeting a subset of users. And Citizens even gives you (not great, but some) legal cover if you're caught. "My ad was an artistic work sharing my own viewpoint." Done.…

> Tl;dr, they didn't keep relevant records, didn't have any idea about the law, and are still scrambling to be compliant.

I find it fascinating that the implication is the global company has to be aware of and compliant with any city law that any tiny city council (I am not saying Seattle is tiny, but if Seattle can do it, why Rusty Sticks, Flyover State can't?) passed 40 years ago. I seriously wonder how one can do business in such environment? I guess for a Facebook it's just breadcrumbs and they could hire whatever lawyers needed to fend it off and pay whatever fines they might be assigned without even flinching - but imagine you are just a startup and you have to comply with the same web of laws?

Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sort of issue has cropped up since there started being commercial activity on the internet. If you try to start a company like ebay, you'll learn that means complying with every relevant local, national, and international law, for any item it's possible to sell, and updating the rules every times they change.

What do you mean ? Ebay isn't even subject to normal sales tax in Australia yet (will happen this July). I mean it's changing, but these multinational companies have "bypassed" (ignored and gotten away with) normal sale laws for various reasons in so many ways.

It's true that they've bypassed some taxes in some locales, but they still have ended up with a giant list of rules about the sale of sports memorabilia, weapons, human bodyparts, and so on. Their help actually links to some international laws if you take a peek.

Re: State of Washington sues Facebook and Google over failure to disclose spending

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you shut down the Washington Post? Or is Jeff Bezos allowed to buy a newspaper? Why is Anderson Cooper allowed to spread his opinions with the aid of a multi hundred million dollar distribution system but I can’t buy 2000 dollars of Facebook ads? Limits on funding speech are limits on speech.

"Limits on funding speech are limits on speech." I entirely disagree. Everyone has the same amount that they can give. Everyone has exactly the same rights.

Or put another way: everyone's rights are equally infringed.

And if you really wanted to make everyone equal, you'd have to ban celebreties and the media from talking about campaigns. Bill Maher's TV show is worth millions in advertising dollars.

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