Facebook takes down Elizabeth Warren ads calling for breakup of Facebook

[swag]

Source: Politico

By CRISTIANO LIMA

Facebook has removed several ads placed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign that called for the breakup of Facebook and other tech giants.

The ads, which had identical images and text, touted Warren's recently announced plan to unwind "anti-competitive" tech mergers, including Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram.

“Three companies have vast power over our economy and our democracy. Facebook, Amazon, and Google," read the ads, which Warren's campaign had placed Friday. "We all use them. But in their rise to power, they’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field in their favor.”

A message on the three ads reads: “This ad was taken down because it goes against Facebook's advertising policies.”

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the ads had been taken down and said the company is reviewing the matter. The person said, according to an initial review, that the removal could be linked to the company's policies about using Facebook's brand in posts.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/11/facebook-removes-elizabeth-warren-ads-1216757

[RockRaven]

1. Facebook routinely deletes content which is critical of Facebook.

Not just removing paid content, but people posting links to news articles/editorials critical of Facebook.

Or so I have seen in other news articles. I have no first-hand experience with that myself.

[PoliticAverse]

2. Well, you can't really blame them, but...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

[rogue emissary]

3. Which in a weird way gives justification for her stance.

[still_one]

4. The only question I have, did they go through the FB authorization process for political ads.

https://www.facebook.com/business/news/requiring-authorization-and-labeling-for-ads-with-political-content

That is not made clear in the Politico article whether the procedure for submitting Political Ads in FB was done correctly or not

[DeminPennswoods]

5. Obviously struck a nerve

since Facebook had no qualms about accepting Rubles in payment for divisive ads in 2016.

[Evolve Dammit]

6. Yes! Al Franken pointed that out: "They paid in RUBLES!" Christ on a cracker and Beam me up.

[left-of-center2012]

7. Facebook restores Warren ads removed for criticizing the platform

Facebook on Monday restored three ads from Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) campaign that were briefly taken down from the platform that highlighted her push for the break-up of massive tech giants, including the social media platform.

“We removed the ads because they violated our policies against use of our corporate logo. In the interest of allowing robust debate, we are restoring the ads," the company said in a statement to The Hill.

Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Facebook, noted that several other ads Warren's campaign placed that specifically referenced her proposal to breakup Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, among other tech mergers, were unaffected.

A spokeswoman for Warren's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/433583-facebook-restores-briefly-removed-warren-ads-criticizing-the-platform

[lostnfound]

8. Good call to reinstate. Otherwise, TOO MUCH POWER. nt

[X_Digger]

9. OMG, it's like people are FORCED to read FB!! 11!!11!!

Facebook has no obligation to host content that they don't like or want.

They're not obligated under any legal doctrine whatsoever. Their site, their rules.

Don't like it? Don't visit / start the app. (Which is what a lot more folks are doing. Facebook is waning in market share anyway.)

[lostnfound]

12. "Waning in market share"?? What, overtaken by instagram??

Fox News agrees with you as well, no obligation to worry about the truth either. We can whistle that simplistic happy thought all the way to fascism and the end of democracy.

YOU DONT HAVE TO BE A MEMBER Of “THEIR SITE” to be tracked and profiled by it.

They collect addresses from people who have your information on their phones.
They create shadow profiles of you whether or not you’ve ever been on their site.
If you use YELP, Facebook collects THAT, too.

https://www.cnet.com/news/shadow-profiles-facebook-has-information-you-didnt-hand-over/

[X_Digger]

15. Facebook has been losing to newer and newer apps / platforms.

Kids are leading the way w/ newer and newer apps / platforms. Snapchat, twitter, instagram, periscope, etc.

Soon, facebook will be like ICQ is today, or IRC was 10 years ago- technically up, but loaded w/ bots & nostalgia nerds.

Facebook is a private site- they have no broadcast license, nor obligation to do absolutely fuck-all.

Don't like being spied on? Get a good vpn. Browse in incognito mode. Get a good ad blocker.

It's not rocket science. If you don't pay for it, YOU are the product.

[lostnfound]

16. They own Instagram

[X_Digger]

18. So don't use it. n/t

[lostnfound]

21. I don't. I was just a little fond of the US when it was less stupid. Nt

[lostnfound]

28. Is that your answer to the opioid epidemic, too? I don't use either...

But lives, and a country, are being poisoned.

[X_Digger]

31. Trying to put words in my mouth? Keep your fingers to yourself, I don't know where they've been. n/t

[lostnfound]

17. They bought WhatsApp

[X_Digger]

19. So don't use it. n/t

[lostnfound]

20. I don't. Guess you had no use for the Fairness Doctrine? Nt

[X_Digger]

22. The fairness doctrine doesn't apply to facebook, silly.

That's why I mentioned broadcast licenses.

What, you think that the fairness doctrine would apply to private websites?!?!

[lostnfound]

23. No duh, Digger. Dig away. Nt.

[X_Digger]

24. So why bring up the fairness doctrine when discussing facebook? You still seem lost. n/t

[kimbutgar]

10. That was a " no shit sherlock" decision

Did you expect anything less from the company that sold out our country over to a Russian puppet to please Wall Street investors. Facebook is all about the money not being a patriotic American. All I needed to know about Zuckerberg I saw years ago In the movie about him about the founding of Facebook. The creep has no allegiance to anyone but the almighty dollar. History will not be good to him.

[True Blue American]

26. Facebook has no problem

keeping the distorted video of Nancy Pelosi because it does not break their rules!

[Bayard]

29. This

[forgotmylogin]

11. I doubt they would purchase ads directly on FB.

Warren's team likely bought ad space from a company that syndicates them to a large number of paying websites, one of which happened to be Facebook - the company may have even been run by Facebook in a case where the right hand of a company isn't aware of what's going on in the left hand.

[turbinetree]

14. After hearing a conversation on Sirius XM with Michael Signorelli and Siva Vaidhyanathan

discuss his book ( Siva Vaidhyanathan, anti-socail media, How Facebook disconnects US and Undermines Democracy)

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/antisocial-media-9780190841164?cc=us&lang=en


and the conversation that was discussed about Facebook and what he wrote in his book, should be a wake-up call, that Elizabeth Warren has it right, this oligarch company is dangerous and should be broke up.....................and "stay broke-up" and not return like AT&T did.............................

[ck4829]

25. Kick

[Freethinker65]

27. Someone really needs to create and share a manipulated video of Zuckerberg on FB

Make it go viral.

[csziggy]

30. This story is two months old - from March 11

Facebook relented after all the bad press and put the ads back up the next day:

Facebook took down, and then restored, Elizabeth Warren's ad calling for Facebook's breakup

By Rob McLean, CNN Business

Updated 10:50 AM ET, Tue March 12, 2019

New York (CNN Business)Facebook removed — and then restored — an advertisement from Senator Elizabeth Warren's campaign that sharply criticized Facebook and other tech companies for "tilting the playing field" in their favor.
Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, wants to break up Facebook (FB), Google (GOOGL) and Amazon (AMZN). She called them monopolies that abuse their dominant position in the marketplace.
The ad, part of a series posted by Warren's presidential campaign, said the three tech companies have "bulldozed competition" and "used our private information for profit." The ad's removal was first reported by Politico.
In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said the company originally removed the ad because it violated Facebook's prohibition against modifying its corporate logo. The ad includes Facebook's "f" trademark surrounded by a comic-book dialog bubble. It also includes icons to represent Amazon and Google.

Facebook said it restored the ad for the sake of "robust debate."
It's unclear whether the company's artificial intelligence software or human content moderators took down the ad. Other Warren campaign ads on Facebook's platform called for the breakup of Facebook and other big tech companies, but they did not include a modified Facebook logo. Facebook did not take those ads down. Facebook declined to comment on how the ad with the logo was removed.

<SNIP>

On Monday evening, Warren cited the ad's removal as evidence that the company has too much power.
"Thanks for restoring my posts," she tweeted. "But I want a social media marketplace that isn't dominated by a single censor."
Warren's far-reaching tech proposal would impose new rules on certain kinds of tech companies with $25 billion or more in annual revenue, forcing Amazon and Google to spin off parts of their companies and relinquish their overwhelming control over online commerce.

The plan also aims to unwind some of the highest profile mergers in the industry, like the combinations of Amazon and Whole Foods, and Google and DoubleClick, as well as Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp.
-- CNN Business' Donie O'Sullivan and Heather Kelly contributed reporting.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/11/tech/elizabeth-warren-facebook-ads/index.html

[RedParrot]

32. Meanwhile Facebook keeps fake Pelosi video

Facebook has refused to take down a doctored video that portrays Speaker Pelosi as being drunk. Facebook’s rationale is that viewers can make their own minds.

Hypocrisy!

[truthisfreedom]

34. The first rule about Facebook is... there is no Facebook.