Re:Facebook finally hands over leave campaign Brexit ads
by matthewmacleod on Friday July 27, 2018 @06:32PM
(#17629993)
That’s obviously not the claim and it’s churlish to imply so.
“Fairness” in a democratic system is a pretty messy concept. A “fair” vote might require rules (like controlling spending, foreign influence, and truthfulness), it might require clear criteria and outcomes, or it might require a well-informed population.
The UK’s Brexit referendum was a perfect example of how not to run a referendum:
- Billed as advisory but clearly not
- Electoral laws broken
- Shady foreign influence
- No definition of what the outcome of one result would be
- No success criteria beyond a simple majority (like requiring consent from all constituent countries)
- A vote on an extremely technical issue poorly understood by most of the population
I imagine this will be used as a textbook example of a terrible political event for decades.
“Fairness” in a democratic system is a pretty messy concept. A “fair” vote might require rules (like controlling spending, foreign influence, and truthfulness), it might require clear criteria and outcomes, or it might require a well-informed population.
The UK’s Brexit referendum was a perfect example of how not to run a referendum:
- Billed as advisory but clearly not
- Electoral laws broken
- Shady foreign influence
- No definition of what the outcome of one result would be
- No success criteria beyond a simple majority (like requiring consent from all constituent countries)
- A vote on an extremely technical issue poorly understood by most of the population
I imagine this will be used as a textbook example of a terrible political event for decades.