The social platform announced on Thursday — after months of hemming and hawing — that it would not change its basic rules for political advertising ahead of the 2020 election. Unlike Google, which restricted the targeting of political ads last year, or Twitter, which barred political ads entirely, Facebook and its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, decided to preserve the status quo.
Instead, Zuckerberg has embraced Facebook’s central role in elections — not only by giving politicians a pass on truth, but also by preserving the elements of its advertising platforms that proved to be a decisive force in 2016. But despite these changes, the basic architecture of Facebook is largely the same as it was in 2016, and vulnerable in many of the same ways. The platform still operates on the principle that what is popular is good. It still takes a truth-agnostic view of political speech — telling politicians that, as long as their posts don’t contain certain types of misinformation , they can say whatever they want.
Ultimately, though, Zuckerberg’s decision to leave Facebook’s platform architecture intact amounts to a powerful endorsement — not of any 2020 candidate, but of Facebook’s role in global democracy. It’s a vote for the idea that Facebook is a fairly designed playing field that is conducive to healthy political debate, and that whatever problems it has simply reflect the problems that exist in society as a whole.
In Facebook’s partial defense, safeguarding elections is not a single company’s responsibility, nor are tech companies the sole determinants of who gets elected. Income inequality, economic populism, immigration policy — these issues still matter, as do the media organizations that shape perception of them. I also don’t believe, as some Facebook critics do, that Zuckerberg is doing this for the money.
markzucky FBBusiness Facebook FAKE FACEBOOK ALLOWS LYING POLITICIANS 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻 to be specific TRUMP’s ‘LIES’
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: TeenVogue - 🏆 481. / 51 Read more »
Source: CNBC - 🏆 12. / 72 Read more »
Source: usweekly - 🏆 390. / 55 Read more »
Source: DEADLINE - 🏆 109. / 63 Read more »
Source: ABC - 🏆 471. / 51 Read more »