Facebook (and others) Should Stop Deceitful Political Ads

There is not a day that goes by that each of us receives false, fake, misleading, political ads from the conservatives and liberals regarding their presidential candidates or the hot topics of the day.

We get them via social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube and others. With many voters not savvy to the what the truth really is for whatever reason and the media divided in their coverage of the same issues, yet, have different facts they believe in, American voters are faces with another 2016 interference from Russia, China, Iran, and other enemies of the USA. All this creates a a society of disinformation and no one knows what really to believe or what are the real facts.

With social media being used by most of the world and in the USA, the key apps mentioned should all be held accountable for checking the facts of all political ads before posting them. Otherwise, deception will continue to run rampant among all these sites that people go to for their feed. The conservative ads, like those from the liberals, all say dishonest things that appear to be facts. The are written to appeal to one's emotion and often in non-native like English with structure issues. Are these from Russian or Chinese actors?

Fake news even comes out of the White House in various forms. One cannot even believe what the president states or his other inner group. Is the news that Facebook's policy about political ads true? That policy states that those ads are not fact checked, which allows for the lies, deception and propaganda. From FB's view, they do not feel responsible for being a referee or scrutinize their political ads that target certain voters. Why? It is their app and platform used by billions!

FB has allowed Trump ads that are simply false, such as, the one claiming that Democrats are trying to repeal the Second Admendment. They run ads smearing disinformation about Joe Biden. When Biden requested that these false ads be removed, all the social media platforms refused. Meanwhile, Warren, continues to lie about FB, saying that FB endorses Trump and it is proved by not taking down the numerous Trump fake facts in their ads because of profit.

Both political sides are guilty of the disinformation mountain of fake facts to swing voters. While there is such a thing a "free speech", this has become the most scrutinized American right. God, forbid, that someone gets offended because of misuse. Yet, all the media outlets need the ads for profit. It IS a business. But there should also be ethical considerations about if a political ad is truthful with regards to facts and those which are just lies based on the reader's emotion about a topic. There must be some vetting to weed out just outright lies and disinformation so the American voter does know what the facts are.

Many Americans are simply too gullible when it comes to seeing things in print or online via social media. Just because it appears there does not mean it is real or factual. This applies to photos and videos that can easily show only one point of view to support a claim.

Until steps are taken to end the lies and disinformation in social media, each person must verify what the facts are by reading the same story on different sites and seeing if the facts are the same or have been altered. Go to Fox, CNN, al-Jazeera, New York Times, etc.find the story, and determine how it is presented.

By doing this, at least you have done your homework in determining what the real facts are and will be able to distinguish the lies, spins, and propaganda, from the facts.