A few people have sent me @SachaBaronCohen’s ADL speech. I’m a big fan, and I empathize with his concerns. While agree with some of what he says though, I disagree with most. Some of my thoughts: https://twitter.com/SachaBaronCohen/status/1197610636773072899

I agree that platforms should do more to minimize the reach of crappy sites and misinformation. Notably, Facebook have already been taking a lead on this, much more than other platforms.

I also agree that limiting micro-targeting for political ads makes a lot of sense (as google has now done), especially when matched with full ad transparency (like Facebook now has). Others should follow suit.

He compares Facebook censorship to chucking someone out of a restaurant, but this isn’t a valid comparison. Facebook isn’t a 20 person meal; it’s billions of people across the whole world. Should Facebook be the arbiter of what everyone in the world can say?

He says that mark zuckerberg is too powerful... but then says that mark zuckerberg should have the final say as to what political ads can run in every country in the world? It’s very easy to say ‘ads should be fact checked’ and much harder to actually implement that in practice.

Who decides what is a fact and what isn’t? Sure there are some easy examples, but there’s also a huge amount of grey area. It’s a super complex topic that requires considerate thought and discussion, not black and white arguments.

Separately, Freedom House have a recommendation that we make it illegal to create bots that pose as real humans online. Given that’s the main disinformation strategy for political campaigns I think this makes a lot of sense (as well as banning deep fakes)