Internet Platforms Censor Campaign Ads
Rules on ‘inflammatory’ and ‘shocking’ content give Facebook and Twitter too much political power.
‘One of the restraints on the vitriol and the filth that so often is part of the American political debate,” noted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in 2012, “is that candidates have to stand by their ads.” For many online platforms, however, fixing your name to your claim is no longer good enough for an ad to pass muster. Web publishers increasingly are censoring campaign advertisements for being “shocking” or “disrespectful.”
A week before Tuesday’s election, Google’s advertising platform rejected an ad from Rep. Marsha Blackburn,...