Mark Zuckerberg and the whole Facebook community is under fire for their policy that allows politicians to lie on its platform. This mess began earlier in the fall when Facebook stated that they won’t fact-check advertisements published by politicians. Then, Facebook refused to take down an ad run by Trump regarding false information about Joe Biden and Ukraine affairs. Following this, Democrats were not satisfied with the Trump campaign being able to make up facts, so the Warren Campaign followed after Trump’s campaign and ran a fake ad claiming Zuckerberg endorsed Trump’s reelection.
Facebook states that their argument for keeping up false facts is following First Amendment rights (freedom of speech). However, this is also riding on the fact that they do not want to anger any major conservative leaders since these leaders already play off the liberal media bias narrative. If Facebook decided to remove the ad with false claims about Biden, then this would create even more problems for the company. Facebook would then be responsible for policing every false political ad on its platform along with the fact that it would cause a large amount of controversy from Trump and his supporters.
Recently, we learned about the media and its impact on people as well as voters. The fact that Facebook is allowing only political campaigns to feed their users false facts or even borderline propaganda is quite alarming. By Facebook following through with this policy, it will allow for more polarization and the hatred contributed to each side.
1. Do you think that Facebook should follow through with their policy on political ads?
2. What do you think about the decisions that Facebook has made about its Political Ads Policy?
3. Do you think it’s okay for political campaigns to be able to bend or falsify facts?
I believe that it would be extremely difficult to filter through all political ads deciding which ones are falsified and which ones are the truth. Taking down one political ad due to its said falsification can lead to much backlash as to why that ad was taken down when there are many others that are misinforming users as well. I do not believe that Facebook should allow themselves to be a platform for politicians to distribute false information, but I also understand the difficult nature of the situation. It is just unreasonable to do extensive background checks on every single piece of information being put out on Facebook. I do not think it is okay for political campaigns to be able to bend or falsify the facts. The public should know exactly who they are voting for, what they stand for, and what they plan on doing if they are in office. The blame should not only be on Facebook allowing questionable political ads, but also the politicians that are the start of this issue.
ReplyDelete1. Facebook should not continue allowing political ads which lie on its platform, in an age where donors can be anonymous and fake news is shown to have effects on democracy, truth is ever more important. I do not believe that banning fake news is, or should be, a partisan issue, however, if republicans are more likely to lie, and thus are worse affected by a ban on misinformation,then they only have themselves to blame. The truth is, in these times, it is essential to let go of fear of upsetting people and focus on securing the truth above all else.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with Facebook’s stance on these political ads. In carrying through with this policy, Facebook is simply tolerating the mass spreading of misinformation. Because we have learned and seen how the information on social media has its effects on politics and people’s views. In a sense, Facebook’s policy of allowing this to continue, is just promoting a policy of deceiving the public. Through this, campaigns are garnering the votes of people who have been misled and fed lies. While it may be hard to regulate these types of things, Facebook should at least put up an attempt to limit the proliferation of this decit.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very dangerous for Facebook to fact check political ads for two reasons. One, it can set a precedent for censorship of freedom of speech which undermines our democratic value of free expression; lying is still freedom of speech unless it becomes a threat. People lie all the time on social media. Big corporations like the tobacco industry lies all the time, but they aren't fact checked by social media outlets. They just have to be held accountable in the real world. Two, if Facebook fact checks political ads, then it is no longer a social media company, it becomes a news company. Ultimately it is Facebook's decision as to whether or not it wants to become a news company, but it seems like Zuckerberg is adamant on it remaining a social media platform. I completely understand where Democrats are coming from because Trump is spreading misinformation to deceive people and distract from his actions. I wish politics could be clean, but every day, it seems like Trump muddies up the waters and redefines/sets a precedent for what politics is. It is difficult to come to terms with, but not agreeing with someone's statements whether they're exaggerated or lies does not call for censorship.
ReplyDeleteI think Facebook should take down the ads with false facts because even though they are arguing that it is “free speech”, putting up false information on a platform that much of the public uses for their news should not be acceptable. At the same time, it is also not Facebook’s job to fact check everything that is posted, so I can see where their policy is coming from. However, I don’t think the campaigns should be bending information or putting up false ads in the first place because they are distorting the media, and if they can do that in their campaigns, I bet they can do more damage to others as president, when they have more power over big companies.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Facebook ought to remedy the current situation by eliminating political ads that directly violate their terms and services. If blatant distribution of misinformation does not violate these terms, then Facebook needs to fix their problems in their contract agreements first. By textbook, however, Facebook is legally able to allow this spread of falsification, although it is highly frowned upon. While the principle of the Freedom of Speech is well-intention-ed, the Republican party is directly benefiting from their malpractice. Ultimately, there needs to be reforms imposed on Facebook's political ad policy, or else there may be future consequences and cases such as this.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do think that it would be extremely difficult to filter through every ad and to check if they are true or not, I believe that it is necessary. I think Facebook can at least take down ads that are flagged or reported for false information. While I do understand the argument that it is their First Amendment right, I think that falsifying information about a specific political candidate would fall under slander and must be reported. I don't think that it is okay for campaigns to bend or falsify facts, however I think that it is inevitable and impossible to trace all instances.
ReplyDeleteHaving represented Facebook at Stanford Model UN 2019, I think that their ad policy is perfectly reasonable. Facebook is a platform and not a publisher, and therefore they should have minimal editorial control over the content that lands on their platform. And therefore, they should not have to fact check the ads on their site. If they were to decide that they would, it would extremely difficult if not impossible to apply that policy consistently. This would result in numerous accusations of political bias on part of Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI think the question is "how can Facebook take down these ads?" In today's day and age, political misinformation spreads like wildfire on the internet, and it is ever more important to regulate fake news. However, I don't think it would be viable for humans to take down these news sources, as what draws the line between fake ads and sensationalized ads? This will only reflect on greater human bias as well. It would be interesting to create an algorithm that detects and removes fake ads. It's important to keep in mind that shall Facebook truly decide to be a regulator, the company's total direction could change, as such is a tremendous undertaking.
ReplyDeleteFacebook's decision not to police conservative ad campaigns has probably actually been good for liberals. As Zuckerberg stated, it probably would have just been another example of liberal media bias that conservatives would play off of. However, facebook as a large media company and platform, has a responsibility not to spread misinformation, especially political misinformation which is especially dangerous. The only compromise solution that makes sense here is for Facebook not to allow political ads at all (which would probably have saved Zuckerberg billions of dollars in settlements anyway) and prevent political misinformation from being spread on such a large scale.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that Facebook should follow through with their policy on political ads. To bend and falsify facts on a product is a whole different ball game than false political facts, which have the potential to be much more dangerous. Facebook is essentially creating a platform in which politicians can spew propaganda on millions of viewers, muddling the public’s awareness. To allow false political facts is essentially the same as endorsing the candidates that stand behind them and all their deviousness. Facebook’s real stance on the issue is that they will do anything that will make them the most amount of money, and they know that their current policy can create a bidding war on ads between candidates, showing how they are unimpeded by moral codes.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that Facebook should follow through with their policy on political ads. To bend and falsify facts on a product is a whole different ball game than false political facts, which have the potential to be much more dangerous. Facebook is essentially creating a platform in which politicians can spew propaganda on millions of viewers, muddling the public’s awareness. To allow false political facts is essentially the same as endorsing the candidates that stand behind them and all their deviousness. Facebook’s real stance on the issue is that they will do anything that will make them the most amount of money, and they know that their current policy can create a bidding war on ads between candidates, showing how they are unimpeded by moral codes.
ReplyDeleteI believe that social media has enough false propaganda as it is, and that the platform that they are hosted on should try to prevent as much as they can. Facebook is essentially saying they approve of news that is false and approving of manipulation of social media. Although they are a private company, Facebook should still try to keep their integrity and business.
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