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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-the-catch? dept.

Facebook to let users turn off political adverts:

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.

In a piece written for USA Today newspaper, he also says he hopes to help four million Americans sign up as new voters.

Facebook has faced heavy criticism for allowing adverts from politicians that contain false information.

Rival social platform Twitter banned political advertising last October.

"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 organisations 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.


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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by fustakrakich on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:26PM (16 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday June 18 2020, @06:26PM (#1009639) Journal

    What's a "political" advert? And who determines these things?

    Oh, what the hell am I saying? I don't look at facebook. I guess that's a pretty effective block

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday June 18 2020, @07:23PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 18 2020, @07:23PM (#1009669) Journal

    What's a "political" advert?

    Political Ad: (noun) An ad for any public policy idea or politician that you do not like.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @07:47PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @07:47PM (#1009683)

    What's an "a" and who determines that? How can we know anything?! I give up!

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by Username on Friday June 19 2020, @12:19AM (1 child)

      by Username (4557) on Friday June 19 2020, @12:19AM (#1009820)

      That depends on what your definition of "is" is.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @06:12PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 20 2020, @06:12PM (#1010438)

        And whether you inhaled when you smoked pot.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:41PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @08:41PM (#1009720)

    Oh, small stuff like

    https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/18/facebook-trump-campaign-nazi-imagery-red-triangle/ [techcrunch.com]

    At a certain point conservatives are gonna have to face the fact that they openly and at best accepted a literal Neo Nazi president with way too many ties to the KKK such as his father being a member.

    Hey fustakrakich, do you still want to say "both sides" in the face of such blatant neo-nazi fascism? Should we draw a distinction between politically corrupt assholes and politically corrupt assholes that assault innocent US civilians and promote rightwing extremists to politically motivated violence?

    • (Score: 1, Redundant) by fustakrakich on Thursday June 18 2020, @09:09PM (5 children)

      by fustakrakich (6150) on Thursday June 18 2020, @09:09PM (#1009730) Journal

      Oh please! If you wanted to defeat him, you would put up a winner, not a decrepit 44 year incumbent. That especially goes for congress. You are the cynics that reelect them, all the same people since Carter. So save your breath

      --
      La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by captain normal on Thursday June 18 2020, @11:22PM (1 child)

        by captain normal (2205) on Thursday June 18 2020, @11:22PM (#1009796)

        Trump War Room"?? What does that suggest? Looks to me like Trump has declared war on the citizens of this country.

        --
        When life isn't going right, go left.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @11:29PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @11:29PM (#1009800)

          Or maybe using meme magic.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @01:18PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @01:18PM (#1010015)

        There are plenty of people interested in intelligent, moral candidates without a big history of lies and corruption. Their desires are ignored in favor of the party propaganda machine and its billionaire backers. That's true on both sides of the aisle.

        Whether you love Bernie Sanders or hate him, there's a strong argument to be made that there were 10+ of the 20-some candidates in the Democratic Presidential Primary solely to pull away enough Sanders supporters to allow Biden to win the nomination. I'm not saying Sanders is a great choice, but he's a lot further from being the establishment's first pick like Biden.

        • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday June 19 2020, @04:31PM

          by fustakrakich (6150) on Friday June 19 2020, @04:31PM (#1010094) Journal

          Sanders was never a real candidate. He is a DNC sheepdog to bring in more money. If he were serious he would still be running, as an independent.

          --
          La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @08:09PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @08:09PM (#1010175)

        Redundant

        :-) Clearly the democrats are offended! It must be out of frustration

    • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @01:11AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @01:11AM (#1009836)

      Go look at the Biden family history and educate yourself ...

      There are two sides -- Democrook and Republocrook ...

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @01:47AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @01:47AM (#1009849)

        One wants to give you free weed and the other wants you to marry your rapist. Gah they're all the same.

        • (Score: 2) by edIII on Friday June 19 2020, @04:55AM

          by edIII (791) on Friday June 19 2020, @04:55AM (#1009899)

          One wants to give you free weed and the other wants you to marry your rapist. Gah they're all the same.

          Not going to send you to the grocery store, that's for sure. Certainly not to get my weed either.

          --
          Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @09:46PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @09:46PM (#1009751)

    Ads about social issues, elections or politics are:
    Made by, on behalf of, or about a candidate for public office, a political figure, a political party or advocates for the outcome of an election to public office; or
    About any election, referendum, or ballot initiative, including "go out and vote" or election campaigns; or
    About social issues in any place where the ad is being placed; or
    Regulated as political advertising.

    The first, second, and fourth seem straightforward enough. The one that is most questionable is the third one, and it is probably no coincidence it was placed there based on studies of how people read things and what they pay attention.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @01:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2020, @01:25PM (#1010020)

    Of course, political ads of all kinds can be worked around any direct "political" classification. Make a video ad for a truck, and then throw in a few comments on "your own hard work" and "as long as taxes are low" or "drill here and drill now for cheap gas". Voila, you claim to sell a truck but it's a conservative political ad. Or make a video ad for a truck, and then throw in a few comments on "built by organized labor", "used by the strong people in the Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craft Workers", and maybe "if the minimum wage was higher, maybe more good people could afford this fine product". Voila, you claim to sell a truck but it's a liberal political ad.

    If anything, this makes political advertising worse because the users will have to pay more attention to realize they're being hit with propaganda. All of us like to think we're too smart to be tricked by that kind of thing, but we're all wrong. The best option is to stop using Facebook.