Facebook Says It Won't Back Down From Allowing Lies in Political Ads

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/technology/facebook-political-ads-lies.html

Facebook Says It Won’t Back Down From Allowing Lies in Political Ads
The company was under intense pressure to adjust its policies. But in this presidential election year, no big changes are planned.
By Mike Isaac and Cecilia Kang
Jan. 9, 2020

...

Facebook’s decision, which company executives had telegraphed in recent months, is likely to harden criticism of the company heading into this year’s presidential election.

The issue has raised important questions regarding how heavy a hand technology companies like Facebook — which also owns Instagram and the messaging app WhatsApp — and Google should exert when deciding what types of political content they will and will not permit.

“This is about money,” Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, wrote on Twitter. “Specifically, the $6 billion that will be spent on political ads in 2020 that Facebook will use to continue increasing their profits at the expense of our democracy.”

Facebook’s hands-off ad policy has already allowed for misleading advertisements. In October, a Facebook ad from the Trump campaign made false accusations about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden. The ad quickly went viral and was viewed by millions. After the Biden campaign asked Facebook to take down the ad, the company refused.

In a strongly worded speech at Georgetown University in October, Mr. Zuckerberg said he believed in the power of unfettered speech, including in paid advertising, and did not want to be in the position to police what politicians could and could not say to constituents. Facebook’s users, he said, should be allowed to make those decisions for themselves.

[Mike Nelson]

1. They're all full of lies...

... most political ads are lies.

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. When Putin takes over entirely, FB will be the official propaganda program.

Zuckerberg and a few execs might be allowed to keep homes and cars but all the rest of this country will be living the way russians do, two room apartments.

[Dennis Donovan]

3. Maybe it's time for any Dems left on the platform to bug out...

I wouldn't go there with a 10 foot keyboard.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Here's A Suggestion, Jeffy

Take the ads. Sell them stipulating no refunds.
Then when an ad is shown to be a lie, pin a statement to iy reading "This ad is known to be untrue. Facebook is not responsible for the content of such ads."
Now you have your precious unfettered speech, but lies don't go viral as fact.
See how simple this is, Jeffy boy?

[mr_lebowski]

5. Not only is there the billions to be made in Ad money ...

There's also the LACK of expenses involved in trying to code solutions and pay staff to review/make determinations of fact/remove ads.

That being said ... I do kinda understand the underlying arguments ... it's not really FB's fault that people are fucking stupid and gullible. It also can be a lot of work (i.e. expense) to determine what is 'fact' and what is not.

And even when it seems determined ... people clearly don't always agree on what constitutes 'fact'.

There's also the reality that it's mostly going to end up being ads from the Right that are removed, because they're WAAAAAY more full of shit generally. Which they're going to whine incessantly about because they believe their lies to the end, against all evidence to the contrary.

[katmondoo]

6. Happy I backed out of Facebook a year ago