Facebook is Willing to Run Demonstrably-False Ads

"Alternative facts" were new, in January 2017 when Trump first assumed office.  Unfortunately, they've become not only a part of the lexicon; they've gained a following among Trumpites who do not care for where reality is heading.  "Demonstrably false" factoids are now acceptable as alternatives if you're drinking the Kool-Aid.

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“We think it’s hilarious,” added Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.). “This is a sham process.”

To listen to DJT in one of his rallies, or Kevin McCarthy or Mark Meadows or Pat Toomey or Newt Gingrich or Doug Collins, you'd never know that what he did was baldly, flatly, unimpeachably illegal.  Is it a "high crime and misdemeanor"?  Well, messin' with an election is pretty damn serious.  

The Dems are doin' their best to make a case that convinces the Kellyanne Conways in Congress that what their boy did is impeachable.  We'll see if any of them come along.

They certainly had no qualms when Linda Tripp displayed a spermy dress.

"If it were a fact, it wouldn't be intelligence."

I guess the concept that "facts don't matter" precedes DJT. Must be a Republican thing.

NoCoPilot wrote:

The Dems are doin' their best to make a case that convinces the Kellyanne Conways in Congress that what their boy did is impeachable.  We'll see if any of them come along.

I don't think they'll get any Republican votes on behavior. We all knew DJT was an idiot when we elected him.

They won't vote to impeach on tax evasion. They ADMIRE that kind of "business genius."

The key to removal, I think, will be proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Vladimir Putin is driving our entire foreign policy -- and most of the domestic. Republicans would find that distasteful.

And the evidence is out there. They just need to subpoena the hidden phone transcripts.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/19/opinions/facebook-politicians-lie-ads-ghosh/index.html

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Trump's presidential campaign disseminated an advertisement on Facebook's platform claiming that 2020 Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden had used his power as vice president to try to influence Ukraine to help his son, Hunter Biden.

The "facts" behind the Trump advertisement implicating Biden — which has been viewed on Facebook no fewer than five million times — have been definitively debunked, and CNN declined to air the ad for that reason.

This new Facebook policy opens a frightening new world for political communication — and for national politics. It is now the case that leading politicians can openly spread political lies without repercussion. Indeed, the Trump campaign was already spreading other falsehoods through online advertising immediately before Facebook made its announcement — and as one might predict, most of those advertisements have not been removed from the platform. The 2016 election revealed the tremendous harm to the American democratic process that can result from coordinated misinformation campaigns; 2020 will be far worse if we do nothing to contain the capacity for politicians to lie on social media. The same capabilities by which political campaigns sliced up audience segments in 2016 via Facebook's advertisements will continue to exist in 2020. The difference will be that this time, the lies can be distributed by agents of the Trump campaign, instead of shell accounts operated by the Russian government and others.

Facebook's derogation of fact-checking will thus only lend greater credibility to coordinated disinformation operations — as in the case of the recent Trump campaign ad.