Facebook Bans Conservative Political Ad

According to the San Francisco Chronicle (August 7, 2018) Facebook is banning conservative political ads.

Facebook banned a California Republican House candidate’s biographical ad because of content the online platform deemed “shocking” and “sensational.” The content in question was footage of the 1970s Cambodian genocide that the parents of Central Valley congressional candidate Elizabeth Heng survived. Heng, who is running against Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, opened the ad with black-and-white photos of the Cambodian genocide under the Pol Pot regime of the 1970s, then explained how her parents narrowly avoided death and later came to the U.S.

“We have big tech companies umpiring our elections. And they’re not the umpires,” said Michael Cornfield, a George Washington University professor and expert on social media. “This goes back to the problem that we haven’t made up our minds whether to treat them like a public utility or a private media company.”

It took five days for Facebook to change its mind on Heng’s ad. Cornfield wondered what would happen if a controversial video was posted “in the last 72 hours of the campaign and Facebook didn’t decide right away (about whether to remove or restore it). That might affect a close election. Do we want that?”
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