4 ms·

Was the problem political ads though? I think a lot of the content shared across Facebook was meme-like images that received shares and likes organically after

by giarc 9y ago

Was the problem political ads though? I think a lot of the content shared across Facebook was meme-like images that received shares and likes organically after an initial push by bots and Russian facebook users?

CodeCube 9y ago
"initial push" being the operative term ... posts can be shared to a broad audience by giving fb money, which they did.
- giarc 9y ago
  So boosting the post, but that wouldn't count as a political ad. I'd like to see what Facebook would count as a "political ad". The top image here (http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/11/house-democrats-release-russian-troll-facebook-election-ads.html http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/11/house-democrats-release-r...) is one of these Russia ads. However, I wouldn't call that a political ad, just a terrible meme that happens to be about Clinton and the election.
  - jaawn 9y ago
    Obviously we don't know yet, but I would be absolutely shocked if they don't basically flag everything about well-known politicians as "political", and paying to boost something like that should fall under the new restrictions. It would be trivial for most large tech companies to make an automatic "political post" classifier at this point. The post "boosting" use case is a pretty easy target too because blocking someone from paying to boost something is fairly low-risk.
  - CodeCube 9y ago
    You'd be surprised at how influential memes are these days ... as ridiculous as it is to consider, they are absolutely political speech, and can be used as propaganda.
gt_ 9y ago
Is this a serious question? Maybe ask why America is the only democratic nation with uncapped campaign spending.
- smsm42 9y ago
  America is also the only democratic nation with First Amendment. In other democratic nations (like Britain) you can now be investigated, fined or jailed for posting a video or retweeting or sharing something on Facebook. I somehow prefer the former.
  - pjc50 9y ago
    And you can in America too. "Jailed for a Facebook post:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/18/facebook-comments-arrest-prosecution https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/18/facebook-com...
    - smsm42 9y ago
      No, it's not jailed for facebook post, it's jailed for a facebook post calling to an immediate specific violent action against a specific person. If a mafia boss tells his capo "let's whack that mofo", then it'd be very disingenuous to claim the mafia boss was prosecuted for speech, not for organizing a murder. Obviously, free speech protections do not apply when the speech is a part of a crime - either one that happened or one that is about to happen. Saying "let's burn this specific guy's house down" is well within the limits that should get police's attention. Even then, in this case, Peralta was not prosecuted. Which is probably OK if he was just extremely stupid and not actually intended to proceed with burning the house down. But specific violent threat is not the same as just speech, and one should never present it as such.
    - giarc 9y ago
      You read his comment right? He publicly posted "...It's time to strike back. Let’s burn this motherfucker’s house down." About a police officer. It is not right to post that.
  - 9y ago

by giarc 9y ago

CodeCube 9y ago

"initial push" being the operative term ... posts can be shared to a broad audience by giving fb money, which they did.

giarc 9y ago
So boosting the post, but that wouldn't count as a political ad. I'd like to see what Facebook would count as a "political ad". The top image here (http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/11/house-democrats-release-russian-troll-facebook-election-ads.html http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/11/house-democrats-release-r...) is one of these Russia ads. However, I wouldn't call that a political ad, just a terrible meme that happens to be about Clinton and the election.
- jaawn 9y ago
  Obviously we don't know yet, but I would be absolutely shocked if they don't basically flag everything about well-known politicians as "political", and paying to boost something like that should fall under the new restrictions. It would be trivial for most large tech companies to make an automatic "political post" classifier at this point. The post "boosting" use case is a pretty easy target too because blocking someone from paying to boost something is fairly low-risk.
- CodeCube 9y ago
  You'd be surprised at how influential memes are these days ... as ridiculous as it is to consider, they are absolutely political speech, and can be used as propaganda.

gt_ 9y ago

Is this a serious question? Maybe ask why America is the only democratic nation with uncapped campaign spending.

smsm42 9y ago
America is also the only democratic nation with First Amendment. In other democratic nations (like Britain) you can now be investigated, fined or jailed for posting a video or retweeting or sharing something on Facebook. I somehow prefer the former.
- pjc50 9y ago
  And you can in America too. "Jailed for a Facebook post:" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/18/facebook-comments-arrest-prosecution https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/18/facebook-com...
  - smsm42 9y ago
    No, it's not jailed for facebook post, it's jailed for a facebook post calling to an immediate specific violent action against a specific person. If a mafia boss tells his capo "let's whack that mofo", then it'd be very disingenuous to claim the mafia boss was prosecuted for speech, not for organizing a murder. Obviously, free speech protections do not apply when the speech is a part of a crime - either one that happened or one that is about to happen. Saying "let's burn this specific guy's house down" is well within the limits that should get police's attention. Even then, in this case, Peralta was not prosecuted. Which is probably OK if he was just extremely stupid and not actually intended to proceed with burning the house down. But specific violent threat is not the same as just speech, and one should never present it as such.
  - giarc 9y ago
    You read his comment right? He publicly posted "...It's time to strike back. Let’s burn this motherfucker’s house down." About a police officer. It is not right to post that.
- 9y ago