Twitter: the case for banning political ads

Last week, Jack Dorsey announced that Twitter would ban all political ads. The media lionized him.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, said political ads, including manipulated videos and the viral spread of misleading information, presented challenges to civic discourse, ‘all at increasing velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale.’ He said he worried the ads had ‘significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle.’

(The New York Times, October 30, 2019)

In January 2017, US intelligence agencies published a report on the 2016 presidential election that should have worried every media CEO.

The extent of Russian manipulation they documented was both troubling and foreboding. The report made it clear that the US could do little to prevent foreign actors from spreading disinformation as political ads.

Facebook: media profits trump national security

Mark Zuckerberg refuses to follow Dorsey’s lead. He insists that Facebook values “voice and free expression” above all else. That’s patent BS, of course. Facebook’s stock price is the only value he’s interested in.

Zuckerberg blames users for being duped by the disinformation Facebook platforms. He couldn’t care less that Russian trolls spread most of that disinformation to disrupt and destabilize life throughout the West.

The truly remarkable thing, though, is that these trolls are furthering the political interests of no less a person than the president of the United States:

If Facebook were to ban — or even limit — ads, it could upend Trump’s fundraising and re-election plan. … Trump relies heavily — much more so than Democrats — on targeted Facebook ads to shape views and raise money.

(Axios, November 2, 2019)

In truth, Facebook could provide no greater public service than to upend Trump’s ability to shape views with his political ads. After all, Trump has telegraphed his intent to continue lacing them with the same kinds of “big lies” that spew forth every time he opens his big mouth.

By championing free expression, Zuckerberg risks being hoisted by his own petard. Because he’s inviting government officials to regulate Facebook like they regulate TV and radio. I urge them to accept his invitation.

Google: the wizard of disinformation

Google is the stealth culprit behind this scourge of false and misleading political ads. Unfortunately, I am not tech-savvy enough to explain how it manipulates its search algorithms in this context.

Google was in the vanguard of tech companies that dumped all democratic values to gain access to Chinese markets. Western technology was supposed to help democratize totalitarian countries. Instead, those countries are using that technology (with the help of Western tech companies) to not only reinforce their totalitarian rule but also undermine Western democracies.

Like Facebook, if the price is right, Google has no qualms about Russian trolls using its platform. Because, for Google, that makes … adsense.