Well, constant vigilance shall be the watchword. And I'm here to help.
Recently an odd "ad" popped up in my feed. Probably everyone else's too. It was simple. The text was:
WISCONSIN PRIMARY ELECTIONS ARE COMING UP
The deadline to register online to vote in the 2018 primary elections is 25 July. Share a voters registration link to help your friends register.
There were two buttons, one to indicate you had registered and another to Register to Vote. There was also a little statistics bar indicating that 6,423,793 others had shared that they've registered.
Several things about this struck me as peculiar. It references the Wisconsin Primary elections but, you know, 6,423,793 considerably exceeds the entire population of the state. One could of course make jokes about how one or another political party may in the past have registered the moribund inhabitants of local cemeteries, but it still seems a stretch. The ad had no line on which to comment and no information on its source. It also had a whiff of being written by a non American. I mean, I write 25 July instead of July 25th, but I'm just odd.*
I figured it was a nation wide drag net trying to contact likely voters of a certain political persuasion, but the bare bones of it did not say anthing more.
Ah. But on the very same day this appeared there were a batch of press releases announcing the launch of When We All Vote. This is an onstensibly non partisan voting registration group that happens to be headlined by Michelle Obama and mostly staffed by former Obama administration officials. Heavy on celebraties, they are a bunch of the usual Progressive suspects although props for getting Tom Hanks on board, he at least seems to say rational things when he ventures into politics.
I did not click on either button.
Facebook collects a frightening amount of information these days. This could easily be a campaign aimed only at potential Democratic voters. Did a search on Subaru Outbacks recently? Confirmed Democrat!
On the face of things, and really no pun intended, this is all above board. I actually am a strong advocate of increasing voter participation. And I'm sure the Obama team bought this campaign fair and square. I did not realize by the way that fully 20 percent of all online advertising dollars go to our Facebook pals. I am also pretty sure that clicking either button would open up new spigots of political ads, social causes, and suggestions on how I should vote.
Its really hard to learn any more. Visiting the When We All Vote website there is reference to partnering with Rock the Vote, a longstanding Progressive group that also claimed - most unconvincingly - to be non partisan. And as to who is bank rolling the effort, good luck figuring that out.
I seldom use the topic label "Just Politics" because such commentary is rather a glut on the market right now. But this ad bugged me. I have no serious issue with the philosophies of either political party. The people running them are another matter. You might say I like the principles of the Democratic and Republican parties much more than I like their principals. But they can and should be out in the world making the case for their candidates and goals. I just wish they would be open about it. I mean, if they are being deceptive in small things that don't matter much what is stopping them from being deceptive in the big stuff they really don't want to make public?
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* I suppose the UK/European version of the date might have appeared because I have my Facebook preferences set to UK English. I also have entered "interests" in Sanskrit, scrimshaw, and orchestral directing; and have liked several tailor's shops in Copenhagen.
I did not click on either button.
Facebook collects a frightening amount of information these days. This could easily be a campaign aimed only at potential Democratic voters. Did a search on Subaru Outbacks recently? Confirmed Democrat!
On the face of things, and really no pun intended, this is all above board. I actually am a strong advocate of increasing voter participation. And I'm sure the Obama team bought this campaign fair and square. I did not realize by the way that fully 20 percent of all online advertising dollars go to our Facebook pals. I am also pretty sure that clicking either button would open up new spigots of political ads, social causes, and suggestions on how I should vote.
Its really hard to learn any more. Visiting the When We All Vote website there is reference to partnering with Rock the Vote, a longstanding Progressive group that also claimed - most unconvincingly - to be non partisan. And as to who is bank rolling the effort, good luck figuring that out.
I seldom use the topic label "Just Politics" because such commentary is rather a glut on the market right now. But this ad bugged me. I have no serious issue with the philosophies of either political party. The people running them are another matter. You might say I like the principles of the Democratic and Republican parties much more than I like their principals. But they can and should be out in the world making the case for their candidates and goals. I just wish they would be open about it. I mean, if they are being deceptive in small things that don't matter much what is stopping them from being deceptive in the big stuff they really don't want to make public?
* I suppose the UK/European version of the date might have appeared because I have my Facebook preferences set to UK English. I also have entered "interests" in Sanskrit, scrimshaw, and orchestral directing; and have liked several tailor's shops in Copenhagen.
I saw the same ad, keyed to my state (FL). I just scrolled past it, on general principle. Don't remember the figure it showed.
ReplyDeleteThere is a similar thing on Twitter. Put it various ID facts, and it checks to make sure you haven't been purged from the voting rolls, and emails you back with the results. Not doing that for sure...