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Elizabeth Warren’s Campaign Should Abandon Facebook Altogether
The senator is trolling Facebook, but would she send a louder message by abandoning the platform altogether?
Over the weekend, Senator Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign paid for an ad that falsely claimed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg endorsed Donald Trump for reelection. The idea was to show how easily candidates can spread misinformation on the platform. But the candidate might send a stronger message by laying off the ads and abandoning Facebook altogether.
While Warren’s tactic worked to generate viral attention on social networks and broadcast media coverage, it does not change the larger political economy or the rules of the platform. Rather, it enforces them. That’s why Facebook tweeted at Warren that, like FCC-approved political ads that air on television, the platform prefers to let people, and not companies, determine the truth of political advertisements for themselves. As long as politicians pay for advertisements on Facebook, the company is happy to absolve…
