Facebook again refuses to ban political ads, even false ones

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By BARBARA ORTUTAY and MAE ANDERSON

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Despite escalating pressure ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Facebook reaffirmed its freewheeling policy on political ads Thursday, saying it won’t ban them, won’t fact-check them and won’t limit how they can be targeted to specific groups of people.

Instead, Facebook said it will offer users slightly more control over how many political ads they see and make its online library of political ads easier to browse.

These steps appear unlikely to assuage critics — including politicians, activists, tech competitors and some of the company’s own rank-and-file employees — who say that Facebook has too much power and that social media is warping democracy and undermining elections.

And Facebook’s stance stands in contrast to what its rivals are doing. Google has decided to limit targeting of political ads, while Twitter is banning them outright.



FILE - This Jan. 17, 2017, file photo shows a Facebook logo at Station F in Paris. Facebook has decided not to limit how political ads can be targeted to specific groups of people, as its main digital-ad rival Google did in November 2019 to fight misinformation. Neither will it ban political ads outright, as Twitter has done. And it still won't fact check them, as it's faced pressure to do. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)


Read more: https://apnews.com/90e5e81f501346f8779cb2f8b8880d9cq

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Facebook is the Devil as lies are free to reign

apparently you can say what you want

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I wish masses of people would cancel their accounts and bring

FB to its knees.

[Rebl2]

3. Why is

anyone still on Facebook?

[blueinredohio]

6. Beats me. I never joined in the first place.

[Rebl2]

8. Actually I

joined briefly a few years ago to look at kittens at a local city shelter, then closed my account.

[not_the_one]

4. Every time facebook is mentioned it should be labeled as

"PUTIN'S FAVORITE PLATFORM FOR LIES AND MISINFORMATION"

[jcmaine72]

5. I don't know whether to laugh or puke when cons whine about how FB censors them.

Zuckerberg is the devil, and despite his feeble attempts to appear sympathetic to progressive causes, he's been on his knees at Dotard's gloryhole since day one. Ditto for his pal Dorsey over at Twitter. Trump is good for their businesses. Trump's degenerate ravings generate tons of traffic and ad revenue for these greedy scumbags. They wouldn't dare censor him or his legion of drooling trolls. That's the side of the table social media's bread is buttered on.

[kimbutgar]

7. Boycott Facebook 2020

I don’t know how to do hashtags but someone should get it going on twitter

[cstanleytech]

9. If they will not do the right thing then they need to be encouraged to do so by declaring a boycott

for any company that advertises on their site and the boycott should continue until Facebook makes the changes to turn them into an ethical and socially responsible company.
Same goes for Fox News imo.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

10. Zuckerberg doesn't care about anything but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[DaDeacon]

11. So deep fakes are GO!

We need to start making vids and ads with Trump hanging out with Epstein and Putin ASAP so people will sour on him. Lol. Lies dont sway, all you can do with lies is to confirm bias. Get on facebook and flame the right wingers that Trump is still for the uperclass. Take away his populist bend if you want to beat him!

[BigOleDummy]

12. For the life of me

I cannot understand why anyone still uses this platform. I had an account many years ago to play a game but have been facebook free for ages now. I don't want to hear how its "helping me to connect with family/friends" either, we have a marvelous new invention called "telephones" that accomplish that and much better too. The more money facebook makes the more powerful it becomes, talk about a vicious circle! The only way to reign in this propaganda machine is to strangle it financially and the only way to do that is to leave. At a certain point no one will be left but the Russian trolls and the fascists and then so what? Let them have it.

In MY opinion anyone who is still there, for WHATEVER reason you may use to justify staying, is complicit in the harm to our country it has become and will continue to be.

[ck4829]

13. A lie will get halfway around the world before truth even puts shoes on

And Facebook will be there, holding open every door for the lie.

An entertaining lie makes money. Confirmation bias makes money. The truth is boring. This is why.

[Buckeyeblue]

14. I deleted my account in 2012

After my wife asked me to refrain from responding to the anti-Obama hate that various family members and acquaintances were posting. I haven't missed it once.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

15. How to Delete your Facebook ACCOUNT - WHY is anyone still supporting this

thing??? Where you spend your money, where you put your energy and time - that's where your power lies, folks....

https://www.facebook.com/help/224562897555674