Facebook wants to be seen to address its perceived interference in politics. Particularly ahead of the upcoming election cycle. It wants to do this without hamstringing its ad-revenue. Let's look at what the measures are -
-an opt-out option for political ads: "The feature, which will start rolling out on Wednesday, allows users to turn off political, electoral and social issue adverts from candidates and other organisations that have the "Paid for" political disclaimer."
-encouraging voter enfranchisement: "Mr Zuckerberg went on to encourage people who aren't signed up as voters to register in time for the US election in November."
By implementing these Facebook could reasonably make the claim (i.e. at a congressional hearing) that it has consistently and passionately worked to deliver fairness on its platform and protected against manipulation. You can't design against every crisis...but you can design to say you took "reasonable measures" to prevent a crisis. I think that's exactly what these measures are aimed at doing. Someone pointed out in an earlier thread that it's the people who don't think to opt-out that are most in need of "protecting".
-an opt-out option for political ads: "The feature, which will start rolling out on Wednesday, allows users to turn off political, electoral and social issue adverts from candidates and other organisations that have the "Paid for" political disclaimer."
-encouraging voter enfranchisement: "Mr Zuckerberg went on to encourage people who aren't signed up as voters to register in time for the US election in November."
By implementing these Facebook could reasonably make the claim (i.e. at a congressional hearing) that it has consistently and passionately worked to deliver fairness on its platform and protected against manipulation. You can't design against every crisis...but you can design to say you took "reasonable measures" to prevent a crisis. I think that's exactly what these measures are aimed at doing. Someone pointed out in an earlier thread that it's the people who don't think to opt-out that are most in need of "protecting".