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Facebook Extends Political Ad Ban In US For At Least a Month (theguardian.com) 51

Posted by BeauHD from the pushed-back-deadline dept.
Facebook's ban on political ads, which was initially projected to last just one week, is being extended for at least another month. The decision is aimed at limiting the misinformation that's spreading rampantly over its platform in the wake of the U.S. election. The Guardian reports: "We are keeping the ad pause and other temporary election protection measures in place as that result moves towards certification next month," said Rob Leathern, director of product management at Facebook. "We are keeping the ad pause and other temporary election protection measures in place as that result moves towards certification next month," said Rob Leathern, director of product management at Facebook. "We know that people are disappointed that we can't immediately enable ads for runoff elections in Georgia and elsewhere," Leathern added. "It's taken years to build the infrastructure that supports the Facebook Ad Library and ensure that political ads are transparent. We do not have the technical ability in the short term to enable political ads by state or by advertiser, and we are also committed to giving political advertisers equal access to our tools and services."

With political adverts banned across the US, neither Democrats nor Republicans can take advantage of Facebook in their campaigns in Georgia, where both Senate seats are up for grabs on 5 January in a pair of runoff elections. According to Facebook's own research, the ban is likely to hurt Democrats slightly more, as the company says advertising on its site provides, on average, a proportional advantage to challengers against incumbents. Google is also continuing its political advertising ban, though it hasn't given a definite end date to the suspension.
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Facebook Extends Political Ad Ban In US For At Least a Month More

Facebook Extends Political Ad Ban In US For At Least a Month

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  • A month is a good start. (Score:3)

    by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Thursday November 12, 2020 @05:41PM (#60717612)

    Now if only they would keep the political ad ban indefinitely.

    • And religion. The bloodiest wars ever fought stem from politics and religion. The internet would be a nicer place if these platforms used the same rules we used for family gatherings. Religion spills into politics and politics spills into religion. That just leaves supremacy groups, which I think might just fall into one or the other category anyway.

      • And liberals. And rednecks. And vegans. And foodies. And gamers. And lawers..., and well, anybody who personally annoys me.

      • Religion is philosophy applied inwards.
        Politics is philosophy applied outwards
        Same coin, just different sides.

        Banning those topics isn't going to solve anything. People WILL gravitate to talking about those things regardless of what you do. The problem is NOT the topics themselves but HOW some people are inconsiderate, rude, and disrespectful people are toward those of an opposite perspective.

        By not allowing for a civil discussion in the first place then that is making the entire situation worse IMHO.

        It is

        • If people aren't allowed to express themselves how will they potentially learn WHY it is a problem for some people? Ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away.

          Horses for courses. In the case of Facebook political ads, at some point, it crosses the threshold of just annoying to being harassment. It is the same when you have to turn your phone off to get anything done. As a reluctant facebook user, The noise to signal ratio during the 2016 General election was horrid. And I had a lot less than some folks due to a few tricks.

          Political animals are like the parents who let their children run amok in restaurants in that they have no problem annoying the hell out of p

      • Technically every war was started by politics. But religion? WWI WWII Vietnam Korea .... Which ones were started by religion? Even the gulf wars were about oil.

        • I'd argue most wars are economic. Even the supposedly religious Crusades were really about Western princes getting their hands on the trade routes in Asia Minor.

          • Even the war in Syria has been about the natural gas pipeline the Western globalists want to build across Syria.

            Speaking of which, now that the warmongers are back in power....

          • pretty much all history can be traced to money and power. the the two are related.

            • pretty much all history can be traced to money and power. the the two are related.

              And pretty much all religion is about both money and power.

              • Religion is just another form of tribalism. It serves as a moderator of social interactions, as well as marking insider from outsider As such, it functions as a powerful motivator. The Papacy couldn't just tell the Western kings and emperors that the desire to save the Eastern Empire was also about gaining spiritual (and hence temporal) power over Eastern bishops, and so they were sold on the idea of taking chunks of Byzantine territory and squatting on one of the most important trade routes on the planet.

        • Technically every war was started by politics. But religion? WWI WWII Vietnam Korea .... Which ones were started by religion? Even the gulf wars were about oil.

          The ongoing wars in the middle east are 100% about religion, and the Evangelical Right wing that supports them are all about religion. 9-11 and the resulting forever war is all about religion. Iraq, yes. Afghanstan, definitely.

          Thoughts?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jjbenz ( 581536 )
      this guy gets it.

  • Good (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 12, 2020 @05:41PM (#60717616)
    I'm glad we have a non-partisan platform policing speech around our elections.

  • Don't worry (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Thursday November 12, 2020 @06:04PM (#60717658) Journal
    We'll protect you from any unapproved thoughts.

    • Ironically Im ok with a total ban. Thats saying a lot considering how distrustful I am of overreach. What I dont like is an unmeasured and selective process of blocking. That is subjective. A flat out binary approach means that the restrictions would be unilaterally applied regardless of source, content, or well-meaning.

  • Facebook banned (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Tough Love ( 215404 ) on Thursday November 12, 2020 @06:11PM (#60717676)

    Facebook and all its benighted progeny are banned in my house. This ban to continue for another month. Then another month after that. Then every month after that.

  • A temporary reduction in the rotting of their users' brains is something to celebrate.
  • I'll throw this out but I don't suppose it will make any difference. The only way to be truly informed is to read/watch/view ALL the media outlets. Take it all in. Process the information in your brain. Figure out what makes sense. Follow the money. Expect the little guy (you) will be screwed. Why would there not be a cabal of elites far above you manipulating the process. Wake-up people.

    • Facebook was not just a host for political ads - they've been a SOURCE [fastcompany.com] of some of the spending. That's not just as a company, but also their employees [govpredict.com]. That's also before you get into the money the company poured [washingtonpost.com] directly into the mechanisms of voting and vote counting.

      Remind me again: How many foreign citizens work at Facebook? (rhetorical question - they don't like publicizing this either)

      With the upcoming senate runoff votes, Facebook and the other big tech firms will probably try to double-down on the c

  • Doesnâ(TM)t do anything. They just run ads for the right wing sites/shows that promote the candidates instead.

  • It's not the ads that bother me, it's the shitposting from right and left and ruining the experience. I'm just here to check in with a few friends and family around the country, not be bombarded by tons of political posts. I think Facebook actually encourages this bad behavior. My quietly progressive aunt and my usually-apolitical cousin just couldn't stop needling each other on every family thread, and it seemed like they were being fed more fuel by 'the algorithm'. Good grief.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jjbenz ( 581536 )
      I'm glad that I"m not the only one that hates that. I used it to keep in touch with old College and Military friends. I could do without all the political meme garbage that permeates it these days.

  • As far as I'm concerned. Just another fouled link that I'll hit back on if a search result returns it. There's nothing I have that depends on it.

    Of course the world doesn't work that way. We're not their target demographic. Maybe FB provides a valuable service by sequestering the Eternal September away from us.

  • How convenient that "political advertising" is banned on these platforms - from the end of the election until the count is final and the Electoral College process is over (first Monday after second Wednesday in December).

    That's exactly when any evidence supporting claims of election fraud would surface and propagating it might be useful. So it's the perfect time to muzzle anyone making such claims and trying to present such evidence.

    For elections to do their job of keeping the peace, they must appear honest - to the losing side. Muzzling the losing side's speech is the perfect way to convince them that the elections were dishonest.

  • Can anyone tell me exaclty when the definition of misinformation became, "facts and well-founded allegations that hurt Democtats"? Why is it that sworn testimony from eye-witnesses to rampant election fraud has to be concealed from the public? Am I allowed to point out that Michelle Obama started a bogus charity that worked to increase turnout in predominantly Democrat counties, only contacting people who were statistically likely to support Democrats? "When We All Vote" is a Super PAC that is breaking t

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