"At the end of October, Twitter announced that it was banning political advertisements. The announcement came after its bigger rival Facebook ruled out the possibility of banning political ads on its own social network."
"But not only did Facebook refuse to ban political ads, it also refused to subject such ads to fact-checking, something which critics said was necessary in view of the often deceptive nature of posts from political sources."
"Well, this controversial policy appears to have had the desired effect, as the incumbent Conservative government celebrated a "crushing" victory in Thursday's U.K. general election."
"It gained 365 seats in Parliament compared to the Labour Party's 203...while Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed that result gave his administration a "stonking mandate" for Brexit, the victory may not simply have been a result of electorate's desire for a swift exit from EU."
"According to research from fact-checking non-profit First Draft, 88% of the Facebook ads the Conservatives posted in the first four days of December were deemed misleading by Full Fact, one of the U.K.’s biggest fact-checking organisations."
"By contrast, First Draft said that it couldn’t identify any specific Labour Facebook ads as misleading or false, although the party paid for fewer posts than its rivals."
"In other words, the Conservatives' social media election strategy involved subjecting hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of voters to false ad after false ad."
"Perhaps voters were swayed more by the desire to progress with Brexit when casting their votes, but the simple fact that the Conservatives paid for these “post-truth” ads indicates that the party believed they would have a tangible effect. If not, then why pay for them?"
"Zuckerberg is on record defending his company's political ads policy, having argued in recent weeks that "People should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying.""
Marketers fully understand the psychological impact and influential persuasion of ADVERTISING!!
"At best this is a naive take on the issue, while at worst it's downright cynical and dangerous. It's wrong to assume or believe that the general public will simply look at misleading or false ads and quickly realise that they and the people who wrote them are lying."
"Because once again, the fact that certain political parties pay for thousands of untruthful ads indicates that such parties truly believe that much of the public will believe the lies said ads peddle."
"They do not think, "Let's allow people to see what misleading statements and lies we're propagating." No, they think, "Let's lie to the public and hope our lies convince the public to vote for us.""
"Studies support the notion that Facebook ads are persuasive. A 2018 paper published by researchers at University of Warwick found that, in the context of the 2016 presidential election, Facebook ads "had a significant effect in persuading undecided voters to support Mr Trump,"
"...and in persuading Republican supporters to turn out on polling day." More specifically, it found that "neutral voters who access Facebook on a daily basis are up to twice more likely to support Republican candidates than neutral voters who do not have a Facebook account.""
"So, not only were the vast majority of the Conservative Party ads misleading, but they were also likely persuasive, as indicated by yet more research from 2018 which concluded that Facebook ads increased the number of Trump voters in 2016 by 10%."
"It's arguable that right-wing’s greater attraction to falsity is a trend Zuckerberg is happy to profit from & facilitate. That's because it's left-wing parties, candidates and intellectuals that are threatening to regulate Facebook, tax it, break it up, or even nationalize it."
@ArgyleBecky I think the starting point for EVERYONE before they embarrass themselves by spouting ill-informed opinions that highlight their ignorance is a simple question:
WHAT IS A GENDER IDENTITY?
@ArgyleBecky I confess, before the prefabricated uproar surrounding @scotgov Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, I was confident I knew the answer based on my assumptions and insights gleaned from media reporting.
@ArgyleBecky @scotgov Of course, like most people, my assumptions are based on lived experience and what is reported of other's experiences.
However, this provided little or no insight into the actual lived experiences of others and how their views differed from mine and most others.
@weegingerdug The future outcome of #COVID19 pandemic was pre-determined by the actions of politicians in the years preceding #COVID19.
Little could have been done that would have saved the lives of all that have been lost. ❤️
@weegingerdug Yet, reports of successes around the world - in containment, testing and tracing - could have been taken onboard if not, simply copied in order to lessen the economic and human losses.
So, our politicians complained of their perceived loss of freedoms and of government control!
@weegingerdug Let us not forget how it was reported that #Johnson sought to prioritise PPE supplies for England before Scotland, Wales and NI.
#GE2024 is but one election albeit an important one.
This is NOT the end of a 'tale' BUT merely, the beginning of a new chapter in a neverending journey ... made in Scotland, by the people of Scotland, for Scotland!
Come ONE, Come ALL!
#ScottishIndependence 🏴 - One For All and All For One!
#ScottishIndependence 🏴 - It's Coming Yet, WHEN Scots are Ready!
#GE2024 is but one election albeit an important one.
This is NOT the end of a 'tale' BUT merely, the beginning of a new chapter in a neverending journey ... made in Scotland, by the people of Scotland, for Scotland!
Come ONE, Come ALL!
#ScottishIndependence 🏴 - One For All and All For One!
#ScottishIndependence 🏴 - It's Coming Yet, WHEN Scot's are Ready!
@UnrollHelper "Liz Truss’s and Kwasi Kwarteng’s 2012 free-market treatise Britannia Unchained has shot up the sales charts, hitting the top spot on Amazon rankings for books on “economic conditions”. It costs £19.55 for the paperback."
@UnrollHelper Ought to come with a health warning for the nation's economy!
@UnrollHelper “The key is to make sure that failure is survivable,” is one of the book’s insights. “In the early stages of a project, failure need not be a disaster.”
"This is likely to provide scant consolation to Tory MPs facing the threat of losing their seats at the next election."