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Facebook To Let Users Turn Off Political Ads (bbc.com) 58

Posted by BeauHD from the cool-but-what-about-fact-checking dept.
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg says users will be able to turn off political adverts on the social network in the run-up to the 2020 US election. The BBC reports: In a piece written for USA Today newspaper, he also says he hopes to help four million Americans sign up as new voters. "For those of you who've already made up your minds and just want the election to be over, we hear you -- so we're also introducing the ability to turn off seeing political ads," Mr Zuckerberg wrote. Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram will give users the option to turn off political adverts when they appear or they can block them using the settings features. Users that have blocked political adverts will also be able to report them if they continue to appear.

The feature, which will start rolling out on Wednesday, allows users to turn off political, electoral and social issue adverts from candidates and other organizations that have the "Paid for" political disclaimer. The company said it plans to make the feature available to all US users over the next few weeks and will offer it in other countries this autumn. Mr Zuckerberg went on to encourage people who aren't signed up as voters to register in time for the US election in November. As part of the initiative a new information hub, called The Voting Information Center, will be put at the top of American users' Facebook and Instagram feeds from the beginning of July. Information on offer will include how to register to vote and details about mail-in ballots. The firm also said it will share reliable information from state and local election authorities.
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Facebook To Let Users Turn Off Political Ads More

Facebook To Let Users Turn Off Political Ads

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  • Does it matter? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RazorSharp ( 1418697 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @04:29PM (#60194796)

    The people who take the time to opt out will likely be the ones who will not be influenced by political ads so Facebook will probably just sell this as a feature to customers. This is a way for Facebook to do absolutely nothing about what makes their platform terrible while claiming to be doing something.

    • To elaborate, political ads are usually not the cesspool of lies and filth that defines most of the posts, shares, reposts and shitposts coming from the various facebook groups. You cannot turn that shit off, no matter how hard you try, except to block your friends entirely. Which is what I have to do every 2 years. To my own mom.

      Political ads have some accountability, however loose it is. Most of the GRU posts I see are just blatant lies that 5s of google reveals to be complete fabrications. You can (and I

      • "To elaborate, political ads are usually not the cesspool of lies and filth that defines most of the posts, shares, reposts and shitposts coming from the various facebook groups."

        HaHaHa snicker snicker lolol Really? Just to funny ;)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          So they allow you to only block political ads but no junk food ads for example. They want their users to be kept in the dark and fed nothing but bullshit. How important does Facebook feel having citizens involved in the government, well, apparently not at all, they obviously hate the idea of having their users interested in politics. That is really sick as fuck for a corporation in a Democracy. They actually want their users to be less interested in politics, ohh so fucking scummy.

          I suppose a junk food ad i

    • But it's something that I wish everyone or atleast Google could adopt. I hate all the political ads but especially so the Trump ones. Voting against both ads is just leaning the ratio toward a Trump ads.

      Having an option to even turn down the blast volume by even 1 would be a godsend.

    • The people who take the time to opt out will likely be the ones who will not be influenced by political ads

      Hard truth for ya - absolutely NO ONE is influenced by political ads anymore.

      • Trump winning the prior election seems to be at odds with your statement. Most agree that his campaign ran the slickest online ad-campaign ever seen which had a very significant impact on how people voted (or not).

        • Most agree that the Russians ran the slickest online ad-campaign ever seen which had a very significant impact on how people voted (or not).

          FTFY

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lgw ( 121541 )

      he people who take the time to opt out will likely be the ones who will not be influenced by political ads so Facebook will probably just sell this as a feature to customers.

      Sure, but it's still a step in a right direction. Giving users more choices is usually a good thing for software.

  • Can I turn off political posts, too? (Score:3)

    by memory_register ( 6248354 ) on Wednesday June 17, 2020 @04:29PM (#60194802)
    Then I might actually come back!

    Seriously though, Facebook has become an emotion machine (not unlike Twitter) without much redeeming value. If I could just see nice photos of my extended family, I'd be happy to use the service, but every family or friend group has those one or two people that just can't stop posting hyperpartisan political crap.

    Maybe I'm delusional, but it feels like the most political, emotional stuff was ALWAYS first on my feed. I'm just here to see the cookout/birthday/baptism photos!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Maybe I'm delusional, but it feels like the most political, emotional stuff was ALWAYS first on my feed. I'm just here to see the cookout/birthday/baptism photos!

      The problem is the emotional stuff generates the right metrics for site interaction and engagement - by showing you the crap, they hope you'd respond with more stuff while causes others to respond and total eyeball-hours increase, which means ad views increase and thus more money.

      Showing you your mom's birthday party which you couldn't attend gener

    • Prune your friendlist if you don't like what you see on FB, because what you see is mostly dependent on what all your "friends" click and like.

      • Prune your friendlist if you don't like what you see on FB, because what you see is mostly dependent on what all your "friends" click and like.

        Yeah, I did that very thing last election season by un-following "friends" and family members, then discovered the few remaining people (out of like 200) only posted about once a week or so. Which kind of matches myself at the peak of actually posting to Facebook.
        So of course, I stopped checking FB and removed the app from my phone, like so many of my friends obviously had.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Prune your friendlist if you don't like what you see on FB, because what you see is mostly dependent on what all your "friends" click and like.

        Problem is every family has at least one conspiracy theorist that floods your feed with all sorts of crap. Unfriending them usually also removes notifications of actual useful family events (why are they the social butterflies - spreading news as well as filth)

        And it makes reunions awkward. Especially when you find out they've been spreading rumors about you. Which e

  • why stop with political ads. Lets keep it simple,
    Suppress All Ads (y/n)

    Just my 2 cents ;)

    • why stop with political ads. Lets keep it simple, Suppress All Ads (y/n) Just my 2 cents ;)

      I'm sure that people blocking all ads to avoid the politics is exactly what motivated FB to try to accommodate somewhat.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • You might want to check who spent what in 2016. [washingtonpost.com]

      Clinton's unsuccessful campaign ($768 million in spending) outspent Trump's successful one ($398 million) by nearly 2 to 1. The Democratic National Committee and left-leaning outside groups also outspent their Republican counterparts by considerable margins.

  • I wish they would let me turn off gambling ads, I flag them as offensive every time they show one on my feed but keep showing them.
    • I could never live myself working at Facebook. Me and my friends who all work in the Monsanto parent enforcement division all agree.

    • I wish they would let me turn off gambling ads, I flag them as offensive every time they show one on my feed but keep showing them.

      Why are you not blocking the ads entirely?

    • Instead of marking them as "offensive" (which is probably just getting you flagged as an excessive reporter), why not try "hide all adds from this advertiser" or adjust your advertising preferences to remove whatever has them thinking you're interested in gambling?
  • It is not that I have already made up my mind. It is that political ads are one of the worst means of commercial communication, ever.

    • They are a way for a candidate to get across accomplishments that the media may have decided to not report on. It's the best means a candidate has to communicate with the masses in their own, unedited words without biased commentary. As the media has further balkanized either conservative or liberal, large chunks of the population hear only a one-sided perspective of those running for office. It's also a means for them to exaggerate or make empty promises, but we already know the opposing media outlets a

      • }}} They are a way for a candidate to get across accomplishments that the media may have decided to not report on. {{{ --- thanks for the laugh. Such political ads are quite few and far between. Oh so far between. If the candidates actually want to do political ads for the reason you state, then maybe they should not pollute the medium so much with the usual negative, senseless and annoying ads.
  • ... Disable Advertising checkbox here on /.?
  • Then Facebook would be fun again. I mean a bit oâ(TM) politics is fine but the constant barrage...well I left.
  • If you are on facebook and don't know how to disable the ads, well, that's your fault.

  • I often wonder the same thing about ads on YouTube, etc...

    Do I leave the ads on so they waste their money on me, someone who couldn't care less about their political advertisements?

    Or do I turn them off, downvote them, ask to not see this particular ad again, etc... to send the signal to the platform that I don't want to see them, but allow them to hyper-target people more susceptible to their ad techniques?

  • If Zuckerberg cared about saving American democracy, he would stop sucking president trump's dick

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