Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

politico.eu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 202 posts

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#61

Post by greggsy »

seydor wrote: post #38
paxys wrote: post #34

> “Smaller, newer parties and independent candidates will lose an affordable channel to reach voters, while large, well-followed accounts remain largely unaffected,” Grassroots campaigns are not banned. Organic social media activity is not banned. Smaller parties will be just fine. This will only negatively impact politicians/parties/corporations who think that spending more money entitles them to a louder voice.

and how does a sole candidate for mayor begin this 'grassroots campaign'. If you seriously start knocking on people's doors, you re most likely to end up dead or in prison in this day and age

Don’t be ridiculous. Canvassing is not a dangerous activity.

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#62

Post by jopsen »

seydor wrote: post #38
paxys wrote: post #34

> “Smaller, newer parties and independent candidates will lose an affordable channel to reach voters, while large, well-followed accounts remain largely unaffected,” Grassroots campaigns are not banned. Organic social media activity is not banned. Smaller parties will be just fine. This will only negatively impact politicians/parties/corporations who think that spending more money entitles them to a louder voice.

and how does a sole candidate for mayor begin this 'grassroots campaign'. If you seriously start knocking on people's doors, you re most likely to end up dead or in prison in this day and age

> If you seriously start knocking on people's doors, you re most likely to end up dead or in prison in this day and age.

Not in Europe, certainly not Denmark.

As a kid I've knocked on many doors selling lottery tickets for a charity. I think pretty much all streets in the town was assigned to a route and one or two people.

We still get people collecting from the red cross every year.

For the record I hated knocking on doors, if my kid ever comes home with lottery tickets to sell on a given route, I'll buy then all and burn them before his mom makes me sell any!

I'd honestly rather be a bad parent :)

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#63

Post by austin-cheney »

tdb7893 wrote: post #2

Ignoring political implications here and just on a personal level I wish political ads were banned. Quite possibly my least favorite type of ad to see and I've never felt meaningfully informed by them (generally quite the opposite).

Yeah, political ads are so toxic but worse its just lazy money. I am really tired of super PACs buying my politicians with this garbage. I would rather my politicians come down to the district here and hold rallies or town halls where they can lie to us in person.

Yes, I am fully aware the next problem in all this is how does the politician then notify the district of the place and time of the next meeting. It would be great if congress, as a body, had a mechanism in place to handle this so that it is equally applied for any registered candidate regardless of party affiliation or primary favoritism.

Seriously, if politicians want cheap media coverage then they should do something worthy of coverage. There is one politician I can think of right now, far outside my local district, that is on one edge of the political spectrum and simultaneously performing the miracle of picking up tremendous popularity from the opposite edge of the political spectrum. They finally learned to tune their messaging from party political theater to rapidly changing opinions on current events in ways other politicians cannot. I am hearing way more about people like that than the person from my district, who isn't doing anything worth of media attention.

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#66

Post by shevy-java »

ripped_britches wrote: post #22

I am a big fan of commercial advertising. I think it drives our global economy. However I think political and medical advertising need to be tightly regulated.

I think advertising should be eliminated. It just wastes people's time.

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#68

Post by yieldcrv »

austin-cheney wrote: post #63
tdb7893 wrote: post #2

Ignoring political implications here and just on a personal level I wish political ads were banned. Quite possibly my least favorite type of ad to see and I've never felt meaningfully informed by them (generally quite the opposite).

Yeah, political ads are so toxic but worse its just lazy money. I am really tired of super PACs buying my politicians with this garbage. I would rather my politicians come down to the district here and hold rallies or town halls where they can lie to us in person. Yes, I am fully aware the next problem in all this is how does the politician then notify the district of the place and time of the next meeting. It would…

Super PACs are the dumbest of dumb money, and I'm surprised this forum isn't solely about extracting money from them

They have no shareholders or fudiciary duties, they are formed as non profits 501(c)4's with no purpose except their stated political position (for a policy / candidate, or against a policy / candidate) and this comes with no limitation on what they can own and do with the money

and this is all based on the flawed theory that spending equals votes

it's the dumbest reality that I thought would have been solved by constitutional amendment after Citizen's United but nope! how are you not taking advantage of this stupidity! the spending has only grown from all sides

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#69

Post by tehjoker »

tdb7893 wrote: post #2

Ignoring political implications here and just on a personal level I wish political ads were banned. Quite possibly my least favorite type of ad to see and I've never felt meaningfully informed by them (generally quite the opposite).

Commercial ads are also designed to manipulate you emotionally or otherwise present you with information that induces a desire to buy what you otherwise didn't need.

Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU

#70

Post by immibis »

dylan604 wrote: post #56
cj wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Campaigners say the law will cause a harmful loss of information I find this quote from the article amusing. If EU political ads are anything like USA political ads, the objective of the ad is rarely, if ever, to educate the audience. The objective of most political ads is to confuse, disorient, and distort the narrative.

Clearly, they educate us into why they think their opponent is bad. /s Reform should state that campaign ads can only discuss what the candidate's positions are, and not be able to say anything about their opponent. If you can't tell me what your plans are and all you can do is say why the other position is wrong, then you're not showing me you'd be an effective person to hold office. However, that's what your websit…

Also that they have to actually be your positions and you can't just promise one thing and do a completely different thing.
Post reply on HN