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A comment on All Political Ads Run on Google in the US. Parent comment

Re:All Political Ads Run on Google in the US by AftHurrahWinch on Friday October 25, 2024 @07:01PM (#41950758)
> and to your question there, one example is to look at Japan. They give candidates an allotted minimum amount of time on TV for free. A candidate gets platformed purely by running.

I would be willing to try it in one of our laboratories-of-democracy, but my expectation is that a lot of people would run just for the free opportunity to self-promote. "Hi my name is Ron Popeil and I'm running for city council. I firmly believe that every homeowner deserves, nay, needs a Ronco food dehydrator!"

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Re:All Political Ads Run on Google in the US by umanwizard on Tuesday October 29, 2024 @12:15AM (#41979317)
I don't know about Japan but in France at least there is some minimum threshold to prevent totally unserious random people from running. For example when I lived in France during the 2007 presidential election you needed 500 elected officials (mayors etc.) to vouch that you are a serious candidate. This threshold meant that there were 12 official candidates, unlike the hundreds in US elections, but those 12 were treated equally.
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