This story first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
It’s Facebook’s business model that needs modification. They are using huge data bases, OUR data all about us, to target their ads. This is far from TV ads that reach a broad audience, which can be targeted by varying points of view. Facebook does not and cannot educate using their business model, and what they do clearly has zero to do with free speech. It’s speech at our expense, to their profit. Nothing free there.
We must regulate and stop this use of our personal data for profit. It’s bad for Democracy, and it helps malefactors who would do us ill. That we will recognize this reality and do something about it is what Facebook fears, and they will do all that they can to distract us. They plan and rehearse so that we’ll not ask the right questions.
Included in the ban are ads purchased by election officials — secretaries of state and boards of elections — who use Facebook to inform voters about how voting will work.
Because providing a public service announcement on how, where and when to vote is no different from broadcasting fact free propaganda. The doctrine of false equivalence demands equal protection of the very fine people on both sides.
I applaud this move by FB, not just for the obvious reasons but because it could help push more states into 100% VBM like we have here in WA instead of antiquated in-person voting systems. You don’t need social media to tell you how to vote, if you receive the ballot and information pamphlet in the mail.
That can be “hacked” too of course, with misleading mailers, but it’s a damn sight better than government agencies relying on social media for informing the public.
I decided to finally deactivate my FB account and am giving friends (real ones, not FB ones) some time to message me for email addresses. Will finally pull the plug after my birthday in 9 days. It will be a huge relief–stories like this only reinforce my decision. The world might be a better place without all these social media outlets.
Zuck-The-Fucker making this no new adds the last week is LOL/ROFLOL and is 100000000000% meaningless. For no other reason than Voting has already started.
What is the reason for FB and why does anyone actually need it?
Is it really that important that all your friends know that exactly when you’ve left the house and that you’re heading for your car?
I dropped FB and my cell phone 3 years ago and life is so much better without either one of them!
I had one of my accts toasted because I listed a url to a tara reade fact check website in a comment on a 3rd party site that used FB to log in. No appeal just poof gone
If enough of the brocialists complain about you you’re gone.
If only we had some means of conveying information besides facebook. We could build a network of information sites, world-wide. Maybe call it the world-wide web? WWW, for short?