Elizabeth Warren is certainly not one to shy away from making a statement, and she recently showcased this by cleverly challenging Facebook. The Facebook page for Warren’s campaign opted to ignite discussion about the platform’s practices regarding misleading advertisements, especially in the political arena. To illustrate their point, they decided to run a fabricated ad.
The ad included a blatant piece of misinformation, designed to test whether Facebook would allow it to be promoted. It proclaimed, “Breaking news: Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook just endorsed Donald Trump for re-election.” It continued by teasing viewers, “You’re probably shocked, and you might be thinking, ‘how could this possibly be true?’” before revealing that it was indeed false. The ad concluded with a critical message: “But what Zuckerberg has done is given Donald Trump free rein to lie on his platform — and then to pay Facebook gobs of money to push out their lies to American voters.”
Warren made a compelling argument about the need for accountability in political advertising and the responsibility of platforms like Facebook to ensure that misinformation does not spread unchecked.