3 ms·

The fact that a candidate can tell obvious, blatant, and easy fact-checked lies with impunity isn't Facebook's problem, it's America's problem. (And the rest o

The fact that a candidate can tell obvious, blatant, and easy fact-checked lies with impunity isn't Facebook's problem, it's America's problem. (And the rest of the world's too.) In any functional democracy, a candidate telling blatant lies under their own name should be political suicide. It somehow is not, and that's stupid, but I'm not sure banning campaign ads is the right solution. Banning political ads not directly paid for by a campaign that had to put a candidate's name behind their words seems reasonable. But banning ads from the actual campaigns themselves seems like an overreach.

tlb 7y ago
That's true with TV ads. You can't tell a huge whopper in a TV ad without lots of people seeing it and saying "WTF? I can't vote for this guy." You can, however, promulgate specific conspiracy theories in highly targeted ads that the majority of people never see. If 0.1% of people believe some crazy theory, you can show them ads linking the opposing candidate with it. Perhaps almost everyone believes some crazy theory. In the future, everyone will be fooled for 15 minutes.
- jinushaun 7y ago
  You can thank Facebook and their wonderful innovations: algorithmic news feed and social graph.
quietthrow 7y ago
Couldn’t agree more. The people make up the democracy and they are (for a lack of better word in this instance) stupid and not demanding for a change (of laws, legislature and the people representing them). While banning ads is a solution it’s like treating the symptom and not the root cause - educating masses and giving them a way to practice. active citizenry which is the foundation of democracy. It’s it’s way to hard if not down right impossible to be and active citizen. The system has evolved such that the masses have no time. Capitalistic system promotes a lot of good thing but the downside it’s the masses participating in it mostly have no time for anything other that working. Even for them to go vote is so hard. Even if they make it there it’s hard to understand the ballot and who or what they are voting for. Once they have voted there are basically done till the next voting cycle 2 years out. There is no way for them to keep tabs on progress, voice against things they object or keep their politicians in check. They best solution today is to “call you representative”. Even if you do what do you tell them? It’s all quite like a spaghetti which is quite hard to untangle.

tlb 7y ago

That's true with TV ads. You can't tell a huge whopper in a TV ad without lots of people seeing it and saying "WTF? I can't vote for this guy." You can, however, promulgate specific conspiracy theories in highly targeted ads that the majority of people never see. If 0.1% of people believe some crazy theory, you can show them ads linking the opposing candidate with it. Perhaps almost everyone believes some crazy theory. In the future, everyone will be fooled for 15 minutes.

jinushaun 7y ago
You can thank Facebook and their wonderful innovations: algorithmic news feed and social graph.

quietthrow 7y ago

Couldn’t agree more. The people make up the democracy and they are (for a lack of better word in this instance) stupid and not demanding for a change (of laws, legislature and the people representing them). While banning ads is a solution it’s like treating the symptom and not the root cause - educating masses and giving them a way to practice. active citizenry which is the foundation of democracy. It’s it’s way to hard if not down right impossible to be and active citizen. The system has evolved such that the masses have no time. Capitalistic system promotes a lot of good thing but the downside it’s the masses participating in it mostly have no time for anything other that working. Even for them to go vote is so hard. Even if they make it there it’s hard to understand the ballot and who or what they are voting for. Once they have voted there are basically done till the next voting cycle 2 years out. There is no way for them to keep tabs on progress, voice against things they object or keep their politicians in check. They best solution today is to “call you representative”. Even if you do what do you tell them? It’s all quite like a spaghetti which is quite hard to untangle.