Facebook backtracks after removing Warren ads calling for Facebook breakup

Re:Facebook backtracks after removing Warren ads calling for... by acdha on Monday March 11, 2019 @08:19PM (#19364217)

Facebook bills itself as a communications platform which follows rules which this didn’t violate so this is more akin to a newspaper refusing to run an ad which criticized them or a bar evicting someone who politely disagreed with the owner. Even if they successfully avoided regulation as a monopoly I would not be surprised if this led to people suing them for content which they didn’t take down on the theory that once you make arbitrary editorial decisions you’re responsible for everything.

At the very least it would also give pause to all of the media companies whose content has made them so much money, since you’d have to ask which other areas would be meddled with. That doesn’t need to be a legal process to have an impact on their business.

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Re:Facebook backtracks after removing Warren ads calling for... by chrisseaton on Monday March 11, 2019 @09:31PM (#19364587)

> or a bar evicting someone who politely disagreed with the owner

Is this supposed to be an example of something unreasonable?

Of course a publican can ask anyone to leave their bar for any reason or not reason at all, as long as it's not because of a protected characteristic. I think that's extremely reasonable.

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Re:Facebook backtracks after removing Warren ads calling for... by Swenrekcah on Monday March 11, 2019 @10:54PM (#19364946)

True, but all of these small-business/relatable analogies break down because fb is a monopoly. It would be unreasonable if a polite disagreement with one person excluded you from 90% of bars in your state/country.

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Re:Facebook backtracks after removing Warren ads calling for... by edmundsauto on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @01:13AM (#19365599)

It's more like getting kicked out of the most popular bar, where 90% of your friends go. Sure, there are other bars, but you want to go to the one with your friends.

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Re:Facebook backtracks after removing Warren ads calling for... by faceplanted on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @07:17AM (#19367032)

I'd say it's more like getting kicked out of a library for being a republican and therefore not being allowed to ever enter any library in the country again.

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Re:Facebook backtracks after removing Warren ads calling for... by edmundsauto on Thursday March 14, 2019 @09:43PM (#19395716)

How is facebook preventing you from using a different social network (another library)?

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Re:Facebook backtracks after removing Warren ads calling for... by faceplanted on Monday March 18, 2019 @10:13AM (#19421126)

The reason I used the library analogy is that at least where I live, library's are only run by the state.

And literally the whole point of this conversation is that Facebook has a monopoly on locally targeted online marketing, they're not stopping you from advertising on Myspace, what's stopping you from advertising on Myspace is that it's pointless.

Sure, technically Facebook doesn't have a 100% perfect, totally clean monopoly with literally no competitors, but that doesn't mean that them owning a significant majority of the targeted local advertising market isn't a monopoly problem and shouldn't therefor be legislated against.

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Re:Facebook backtracks after removing Warren ads calling for... by epanchin on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @08:20AM (#19367413)

A better analogy would be a bar owner evicting someone who politely disagreed with them, while simultaneously allowing a fascist group to drink, telling punters who complain about them he just serves drinks and will serve them to anyone who he legally can do.

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Re:Facebook backtracks after removing Warren ads calling for... by acdha on Tuesday March 12, 2019 @08:05AM (#19367316)

Unreasonable in the sense that even if it’s legal, ejecting someone who wasn’t causing problems is likely to strike many people as overbearing even if they share the owner’s politics. Facebook being arbitrary hurts them because everyone else has to wonder whether something they care about will be next.

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