Presidential candidate and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) seems to think her argument for “breaking up” large tech companies like Amazon and Facebook was bolstered earlier in the week when Facebook temporarily censored some of her advertisements.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, her disingenuous reaction (and the pandering of a compliant press) highlights how we should not permit powerful elected government officials—of all people—to set the rules of behavior for online media platforms, no matter how big they are.
To summarize, Warren attempted to purchase advertising on Facebook to promote her campaign to break up big tech, including Facebook. Three of her advertisements contained one of Facebook’s logos. Those ads (but not her others—that’s important to note) were rejected temporarily because Facebook has rules against using their logos in advertisements. The reasoning behind this is extremely logical—to avoid the possibility of confusing Facebook users over the difference between ads and “official” messages from Facebook itself.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member