6 ms·

While I agree Facebook is doing a bad job with regards to political advertising, I am actually really glad facebook isnt stepping in and deciding whats truthful

While I agree Facebook is doing a bad job with regards to political advertising, I am actually really glad facebook isnt stepping in and deciding whats truthful or not. Does anyone really think that we should give Facebook any power over our political system or give them the power to be the gatekeepers of what political ads we see? I think facebook should do what twitter did and just totally get out of the political ads game, however, since theyre not, call me crazy but I am kinda glad they arent deciding whats "right" and whats "wrong". Facebook has already proved to us over and over that they don't know the difference between right and wrong and that they make decisions that are bad for society.

spinningslate 7y ago
I think that's GP's point. The problem isn't that FB has declined taking executive power over deciding what's truth. The problem is that FB has too much influence. So the answer isn't to pressurize FB into taking even more power: the answer is to reduce its dominance. Of course, that requires a political system motivated by doing the right thing for the country's citizens. As opposed to being controlled (sorry, lobbied) by monopolistic corporations and, in particular, where few politicians dare take a stance against FB for fear of the misinformation campaign that would inevitably ensue. On Facebook.
arrosenberg 7y ago
Disagree. Since they have chosen to platform those ads, they should at least be held to the same standards as networks and not show ads that are provably false. It would be better if they didn't platform them, or better yet, they didn't have that much potential influence in the first place.
- sp332 7y ago
  I would certainly rather have someone outside the company making that decision. Make the FEC do it.
- Diederich 7y ago
  > same standards as networks and not show ads that are provably false I was going to ask you for a reference on this, because I was pretty sure that no such standard existed. I was quite wrong! https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/complaints-about-broadcast-advertising https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/complaints-about-broadc... "Broadcasters are responsible for selecting the broadcast material that airs on their stations, including advertisements. The FCC expects broadcasters to be responsible to the community they serve and act with reasonable care to ensure that advertisements aired on their stations are not false or misleading. The FTC has primary responsibility for determining whether specific advertising is false or misleading, and for taking action against the sponsors of such material. You can file a complaint with the FTC online or call toll-free 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357)." So we have: "The FCC expects broadcasters to be responsible to the community they serve and act with reasonable care" and "The FTC has primary responsibility for determining" So...maybe we should give online advertising the same treatment? As an aside: this FCC regulation surprises me; I'm quite aware that there are numerous limits to free speech, but I didn't expect this to be one of them. I've always been an ardent believer in expansive free speech, and I still am, though age has allowed me to accept more limits. Though it doesn't feel right to me, the negative impact of (largely?) unregulated online political advertising is big and getting bigger.
  - Keverw 7y ago
    I think that's only for local TV though for the FCC ones, like your ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS affiliates. They have other obligation like providing children programming which is usually early on the weekend, in exchange for the airwaves too. So cable and satellite network stations are treated differently. So like cussing on the local TV stations is a no, no but a show on HBO can cuss all they want. Then also some states like Ohio it's illegal to sell ads to businesses that aren't solvent, Facebook is currently being sued by school districts for selling ads to a charter school that later ended up closing, which I feel is a huge overreach since most of it's automatic and the school themselves decided to buy the ads. So I guess you have to do a financial background check before selling ads. Probably easier to just exclude Ohio from selling ads, but the lawsuit hasn't been settled yet. So far no activity for 7 months but still on the docket as a open case.
empath75 7y ago
They decide through their algorithms and advertising platform what people see and what they don't see, already.
rumanator 7y ago
> Does anyone really think that we should give Facebook any power over our political system or give them the power to be the gatekeepers of what political ads we see? They already have that power, and one of the problems posed by Facebook is that they leverage that power to disseminate false information devised to undermine democracies by unscrupulous totalitarian regimes.

spinningslate 7y ago

I think that's GP's point. The problem isn't that FB has declined taking executive power over deciding what's truth. The problem is that FB has too much influence. So the answer isn't to pressurize FB into taking even more power: the answer is to reduce its dominance. Of course, that requires a political system motivated by doing the right thing for the country's citizens. As opposed to being controlled (sorry, lobbied) by monopolistic corporations and, in particular, where few politicians dare take a stance against FB for fear of the misinformation campaign that would inevitably ensue. On Facebook.

arrosenberg 7y ago

Disagree. Since they have chosen to platform those ads, they should at least be held to the same standards as networks and not show ads that are provably false. It would be better if they didn't platform them, or better yet, they didn't have that much potential influence in the first place.

sp332 7y ago
I would certainly rather have someone outside the company making that decision. Make the FEC do it.
Diederich 7y ago
> same standards as networks and not show ads that are provably false I was going to ask you for a reference on this, because I was pretty sure that no such standard existed. I was quite wrong! https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/complaints-about-broadcast-advertising https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/complaints-about-broadc... "Broadcasters are responsible for selecting the broadcast material that airs on their stations, including advertisements. The FCC expects broadcasters to be responsible to the community they serve and act with reasonable care to ensure that advertisements aired on their stations are not false or misleading. The FTC has primary responsibility for determining whether specific advertising is false or misleading, and for taking action against the sponsors of such material. You can file a complaint with the FTC online or call toll-free 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357)." So we have: "The FCC expects broadcasters to be responsible to the community they serve and act with reasonable care" and "The FTC has primary responsibility for determining" So...maybe we should give online advertising the same treatment? As an aside: this FCC regulation surprises me; I'm quite aware that there are numerous limits to free speech, but I didn't expect this to be one of them. I've always been an ardent believer in expansive free speech, and I still am, though age has allowed me to accept more limits. Though it doesn't feel right to me, the negative impact of (largely?) unregulated online political advertising is big and getting bigger.
- Keverw 7y ago
  I think that's only for local TV though for the FCC ones, like your ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS affiliates. They have other obligation like providing children programming which is usually early on the weekend, in exchange for the airwaves too. So cable and satellite network stations are treated differently. So like cussing on the local TV stations is a no, no but a show on HBO can cuss all they want. Then also some states like Ohio it's illegal to sell ads to businesses that aren't solvent, Facebook is currently being sued by school districts for selling ads to a charter school that later ended up closing, which I feel is a huge overreach since most of it's automatic and the school themselves decided to buy the ads. So I guess you have to do a financial background check before selling ads. Probably easier to just exclude Ohio from selling ads, but the lawsuit hasn't been settled yet. So far no activity for 7 months but still on the docket as a open case.

empath75 7y ago

They decide through their algorithms and advertising platform what people see and what they don't see, already.

rumanator 7y ago

> Does anyone really think that we should give Facebook any power over our political system or give them the power to be the gatekeepers of what political ads we see? They already have that power, and one of the problems posed by Facebook is that they leverage that power to disseminate false information devised to undermine democracies by unscrupulous totalitarian regimes.