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posted by Fnord666 on Monday November 25 2019, @01:16PM   Printer-friendly
from the a-step-in-the-right-direction dept.

Google bans microtargeting and "false claims" in political ads

The country's largest digital advertising platform is trying to take a stand heading into the 2020 election this week, as it both limits the targeting of political ads and warns would-be political advertisers about making false claims.

On Wednesday, Google made an announcement "clarifying" its advertising policy for political ads, making it clear that outright lies are theoretically not welcome. "Whether you're running for office or selling office furniture, we apply the same ads policies to everyone; there are no carve-outs," the company said, adding:

It's against our policies for any advertiser to make a false claim—whether it's a claim about the price of a chair or a claim that you can vote by text message, that election day is postponed, or that a candidate has died.

To make this more explicit, we're clarifying our ads policies and adding examples to show how our policies prohibit things like "deep fakes" (doctored and manipulated media), misleading claims about the census process, and ads or destinations making demonstrably false claims that could significantly undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process.

That said, the company adds, they can't judge "every political claim, counterclaim, and insinuation," so they expect the number of ads they block to be low.

Those ads will also have to be aimed at a comparatively broad segment of the population, Google said, to the dismay of campaigns on both the left and the right. While the company will allow political ads to be targeted to users based on age, gender, and postal code, it will not allow more narrow "microtargeting" to highly segmented, granular audiences such as those based on public voter records or political affiliation.

Back to you, Facebook


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  • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday November 25 2019, @06:38PM (3 children)

    by DeathMonkey (1380) on Monday November 25 2019, @06:38PM (#924594) Journal

    And since Republicans are ALWAYS in favor of war....

    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 25 2019, @06:53PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 25 2019, @06:53PM (#924603)

    ... Democrats are always against war. QED.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 25 2019, @07:43PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 25 2019, @07:43PM (#924610) Journal

    How enthusiastic were Republicans when Clinton (Bill not Hillary) got involved in the Balkans [wikipedia.org] back in the 1990s. I can see why Clinton got into this war, because of genocide, shelling civilians in an open market, etc.

    That probably happened because Clinton made the mistake of getting the full CIA daily intelligence briefing instead of the one page summary with pictures favored by the current administration.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.