SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the dishonest-politicians?-say-it-ain't-so dept.
Facebook pulls Trump campaign ads for fake census claims:
Facebook infamously has a broadly laissez-faire policy for political candidates. If you're running for office, you can lie as much as you want in your paid and unpaid content—with one small catch. Anything that lies about voting or the census, such as sharing fake registration links or deliberately spreading incorrect polling dates, is prohibited. Even if it comes directly from the Trump campaign.
It just turns out that Facebook needs a lot of prodding—in the form of negative media attention—to follow through.
The site Popular Information first reported on the Trump campaign's ads early yesterday. The sponsored posts, which appeared on the accounts of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, were paid for by the Trump Make America Great Again committee, a joint fundraising effort by the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.
One ad Popular Information featured includes an image of a sheet of paper labeled "2020 census," next to a picture of Trump giving his characteristic thumbs up, and it exhorts readers, "President Trump needs you to take the Official 2020 Congressional District Census today." It continues, "The information we gather from this survey will help us craft our strategies for YOUR CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT."
Clicking through the ad directed readers to a website labeled as the "Certified Website of President Donald J. Trump," Popular Information reported, billing itself as the "Official 2020 Congressional District Census."
Popular Information pointed out to Facebook that the ads seem to violate the company's bright-line policy prohibiting "misleading information about when and how to participate in the census," but a spokesperson for the company at first disagreed. According to Facebook, since the campaign ads also referenced the campaign, it was clear they were not official Census advertising.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/technology/facebook-trump-census-ads.html
WASHINGTON — Facebook said on Thursday that it had removed misleading ads run by President Trump’s re-election campaign about the 2020 census, in a stand against disinformation ahead of the decennial population count that begins next week.
Earlier this week, Trump Make America Great Again, a joint fund-raising arm of Donald J. Trump for President Inc. and the Republican National Committee, started running ads on the social media site that Facebook said could have caused confusion about the timing of the census.
“President Trump needs you to take the Official 2020 Congressional District Census today. We need to hear from you before the most important election in American history,” the ad said. The campaign asked followers to “respond NOW” to help our campaign messaging strategy, with an appeal to text “TRUMP to 8022.”
The Census Bureau will not begin to survey the public for its population survey until next week. The ad linked the census to the Trump campaign, a misrepresentation of the official government survey, said civil rights groups.
The census has become another disinformation test for social media companies. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have come under pressure for their handling of political speech and what has been a piecemeal approach to policing their platforms. Candidates in this year’s presidential election are expected to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on political ads, and the companies have already struggled to enforce consistent policies.
Facebook has taken the most permissive — and most criticized — approach to political speech, allowing candidates and their campaigns to post misleading information and target those messages to specific audiences.
https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-removed-misleading-census-ads-from-trump-campaign-2020-3
- Facebook has removed a series of ads posted by the Trump campaign that gave the misleading impression respondents would be taking part in the official 2020 US census.
- One of the ads reportedly read: "President Trump needs you to take the Official 2020 Congressional District Census today," implying the survey it linked to – a survey on Republican talking points – was the official census.
- A Facebook spokesperson told Business Insider that "there are policies in place to prevent confusion around the official US Census and this is an example of those being enforced."
- Facebook has faced criticism for its general unwillingness to fact-check political ads published on its platform, though it seems to draw the line at interfering with the US census.
The story is also widely reported elsewhere.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 09 2020, @03:47AM (10 children)
Oh yes. Hillary's treatment of Benghazi, and the marines who were raring to go fight for their brothers, that was totally respectable. Praiseworthy! Should have won her all the votes.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Monday March 09 2020, @01:48PM (1 child)
Right because Hillary is 100% what was meant by "The people on the Hill who served, particularly in war time".
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 09 2020, @04:16PM
Anybody that served on Hill, wartime or not, deserves a medal and combat pay. Bill gets the tip of my hat. His stomach is stronger than mine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 09 2020, @03:39PM (7 children)
They couldn't have reached Benghazi in time no matter how gung-ho they were.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 09 2020, @04:02PM (6 children)
I'll type this really slow, so maybe you can keep up:
IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU WERE TOO LATE TO SAVE YOUR COMRADES!! If you can't save them, YOU TAKE VENGEANCE!!
I know, "Vengeance is mine", thus saith the Lord." We can talk about that in the after life.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday March 09 2020, @04:47PM (3 children)
Who exactly would you be wreaking your vengeance on? IIRC they were non-state actors.
Sure, let's start busting down doors and killing random unrelated people in the country. I'm sure that would go over well internationally.
If you want to find out *who was actually involved*, go find them, and punish them--fine. But is that going to happen the same day? Let's not go off half-cocked, here.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 09 2020, @04:56PM (2 children)
You could take vengeance on anyone who was still present when you arrived, FFS. Doesn't matter whether they were state actors. What's with the negativism? Brothers in arms don't stand by, and allow their brothers to be butchered in the streets. At very, very least, those troops arriving too late to save their brethren could recover the bodies, and render as much respect as possible to those bodies.
The only reason our Marines didn't go to Benghazi on the night of the attack, is our government leaders were a bunch of chickenshits.
When you have a medical emergency, you call the EMT's and allow the experts to handle the situation.
When you have troops under fire, you call the Marines, and all the experts to handle the situation.
If the Commandant of the Marine Corps had suggested that the situation was untenable, and that he would not commit men to the mission, THEN I could understand not sending the troops.
No such authority has ever uttered any such explanation. All that we have had are political excuses.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Monday March 09 2020, @07:44PM (1 child)
Because the U.S. should set a better example than ISIS, randomly pulling people out of their houses and executing them in the streets. I really have to explain this to you?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 09 2020, @09:48PM
Uhhhhh, nothing was said about pulling people out of their houses. THAT sort of stuff comes after - very much after, when investigations are being done.
If the grunts thought that they might have time to get there in time to save our people, then they were certainly close enough to get there before the - uhhhhh - "festivities" were ended. In effect, a riot. Encircle and extinguish. Or, at least encircle and detain for further investigation. People in their homes had little if anything to do with killing our people. Those who killed were IN THE STREETS.
I've had a lot bad to say about drone strikes killing random people, who may or may not be somehow related to some terrorists. In this case, the people in the streets pretty much all shared SOME degree of responsibility. So, anyone who surrendered would be detained, anyone who did not surrender could be shot down. THEN, the investigators arrive on scene.
As I said above, a military commander who was close enough to make the call should have made the call. Not a bunch of politicians, whose only thoughts were, "How will this look to the voters? How can I avoid a blemish on my record?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @12:59AM (1 child)
Blood thirsty aren't we now. Where were you when the Liberty was attacked?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 10 2020, @01:19AM
Lemme think a moment. June 8, 1967? I think I was performing in a silly little school play, graduating from 6th grade. Singing 'Age of Aquarius', yadda yadda yadda. Or, maybe it was June 6th, or 8th, or whatever. We did your ceremonies the first week of June, on a Thursday I think it was.
Not what you meant? You need to hear my condemnation of Israel for attacking a US ship? You've got it. It's been posted before on Soylent. I suppose you can do a site search for my name and USS Liberty. Despite the fact that I was just a kid when Liberty was attacked, I know enough about ships to decide that it was no "mistake". The Israelis meant to sink a US ship, they KNEW they were attacking a US ship.
Anything else?
No, I'm not a sycophant for Israel. I am something of a Zionist, kind of like in the hangers-on fringe. But, Zion and Israel are not synonymous, and there are plenty of Jews who will tell you the same.