Sounds good to me
Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU
91–100 of 202 posts
Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU
#92Ignoring 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).
Depends on your definition of "political ads".
If your definition is: an ad that explicitly involves a party/politician, why?
It seems like they're going to happen regardless, the difference is the subtly. For example, there's a lot of accounts purposefully pushing ideologies, and focusing on specific events for a political purpose on social media.
Arguably, these are much more dangerous than explicit political ads.
Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have successfully banned Cigarette ads. Not saying there aren't things to sort out, and lines to be drawn, but it's by no means impossible.
We've successfully banned cigarette ads from TV and radio. We haven't banned them from the wall at gas stations. They're also not banned on the internet, legally. Do you want to ban advertising, or ban TV and radio advertising?
Your jurisdiction might not have, mine has, for almost 30 years now.
They're sold under the counter (literally) / behind shutters, in plain packaging.
They certainly are not advertised on posters.
Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU
#94> “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 are too scared to step out of your house and meet your neighbors because you think your city is a warzone then you are not the kind who should be running for office anyways.
Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU
#95Earlier 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…
They think their opponent is bad because their opponent is not themself. That's not what the ads typically say though. Instead, they try to mislead uninformed voters into thinking the opponent is bad in the quickest way possible instead of explaining why the opponent is actually bad, which doesn't fit in a banner.
Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think the political ads are like in the US. Not at all. Also the scale is no where near. TV2 in Denmark just ran an article saying that the 24 politicians and parties buying the most ads bought a total of 250k ads ahead of this policy coming into effect. Note that same month last year the spend was ~1/3. I know Denmark is small, ~5-6M, but that's doesn't seem like a lot of money.
The amount of money in US politics and elections in particular is staggering when you think about it. In 15 weeks Kamala Harris' campaign spent $1.5 billion. That's just insane. Especially when you find out that a lot of that spend goes through "media consultancies" and PR firms...run by former DNC staffers. And the same is true for the RNC. The two parties are basically a giant revolving door and network of jobs wit…
It does seem like a lot of money, but distributed across all Americans it's not that insane. Americans spend approximately the same on election ads as on chewing gum.
Here's a source, but h/t James Gleick for the comparison: https://www.statista.com/topics/1841/chewing-gum/
Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
The amount of money in US politics and elections in particular is staggering when you think about it. In 15 weeks Kamala Harris' campaign spent $1.5 billion. That's just insane. Especially when you find out that a lot of that spend goes through "media consultancies" and PR firms...run by former DNC staffers. And the same is true for the RNC. The two parties are basically a giant revolving door and network of jobs wit…
Here in France the presidential candidates who make it to the second round are limited to spending €22.5 million over the course of the entire campaign (first and second rounds). About half gets reimbursed from public funds, so you 'only' need to raise about €10-12 million. Hard limits on campaign donations (about €4K) mean big money impacts the race less, and limits on advertising means you don't have to spend it on…
> Spending $1.5 billion on a campaign (and still losing) is near unfathomable.
Perhaps we should be delighted in the fact that political ads can win an election.
I have a hard time seeing other positive outcomes :)
Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is this bad? I welcome the decision and the outcome. It is beyond crazy what some groups are doing with the misinformation and outright lies on the platforms. Ad companies just want to rake the money with the least effort. They have shown over the years they are not willing to improve the outcomes.
> How is this bad? I welcome the decision and the outcome. I do not welcome it, as I am on the populists' side. Decisions like this one are effectively putting our political (non-violent, just to make sure on that) action outside the law, so in effect what do you think the next steps from my side of the isle will be? Acquiescence in practically being silenced out by the current powers that be? I think that that will…
That sounds like a threat of violence.
Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think it drives our global economy. It does, but in the same way that gambling drives the Macau economy.
Ads get a bad wrap, but no one wants a bad ad. The user wishes they didn't have to see it. The platform wishes they hadn't shown it to you. The advertiser/company wishes they hadn't paid to show it to you. In contrast, a "good" ad is just a recommendation for something you haven't heard of, but you love and are glad you were told about it. There are tons of products and services out there you haven't heard of. People…
So I think we've over-grouped ads into too broad a category to be useful. Brand sponsorships (i.e. The Doritos-Jeep-AT&T Halftime Show) and other 'brand awareness' are clearly bad ads by your own metric, they do nothing to inform. Same with "entertainment ads" which are just 30 second comedy bits attached to a brand.
But when people think of ads, radio promos, podcast interruptions, tv commercials, posters in shops, billboards online banner ads, they're almost exclusively this kind of bad ad. And when people talk about banning advertising they're talking about these and likely very little else.
Re: Google, Meta and Microsoft to stop showing political ads in the EU
#100Ignoring 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).
I would go even further: banning all ads, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43595269
Please don't shill someone's blog here. This kind of "native advertising" is not appreciated. If you have a point, make it. Don't just use it as an opportunity to astroturf a blog.