Social Media Political Ad Wars
Beyond Social Media Show, Episode 287
BL and David discuss the controversy over social media political ads and two of the proposed solutions; The Climate Trail video game that takes place in the climate change apocalypse; Samsung’s selfie satellite fail; Yahoo Groups’ move to email-only; unrest on the Facebook campus; the trend toward video games as spectator sport epitomized with the launch of the Minnesota Vikings’ eSports team; hot dog boy gets a ride in Oscar Mayer’s weinermobile; McDonald’s social media fail; Amazon’s Choice paid reviews; Joe Biden’s domain fiasco; political Twitter; and much, much more.
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Best Digital Cases
Twitter Bans All Political Ads
Jack Dorsey announced in a series of Tweets: “We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally.”
- Twitter is banning political ads. If Facebook won’t, it must at least moderate them.
- Twitter Bans Political Ads Ahead of 2020 Election
Ban Political Microtargeting Ads
Ellen Weintraub, Chair of the Federal Election Commission, recommends eliminating the ability to microtarget political ads rather than eliminating online political ads entirely.
Samsung Selfie Crashes
As if broken folding phones weren’t enough, Samsung’s Selfie Balloon crashed on a Michigan farm. But their response was interesting.
The Climate Trail
Game developer William Volk developed a video game to show players how bad life can get if we don’t address climate change.
Facebook Employees Stand Up to Zuck
In an open letter, the social network’s employees said letting politicians post false claims in ads was “a threat” to the company.
- Dissent Erupts at Facebook Over Hands-Off Stance on Political Ads
- Read the Letter From Facebook Employees
Yahoo Groups Goes Email Only
Yahoo! has sent an email to Yahoo Groups administrators informing them that the service would be moving to an email-only format, that web boards would be shut down and the content deleted.
Minnesota Røkkr: Vikings eSports Team
The owners of the Minnesota Vikings NFL team have launched an eSports team named the Minnesota Røkkr, which borrows branding from the NFL team and will compete in a Call of Duty league.
- Vikings owners unveil e-sports team, the Minnesota Røkkr
- Video Game Tournaments Point To Future Mass Medium
Oscar Mayer Treats Hot Dog Boy
The boy whose hot dog costume school photo went viral got a free ride in the Oscar Mayer weinermobile.
- Boy who went viral for taking school photo in hot dog suit gets visit from Wienermobile
- On a dare from dad, boy wears hot dog suit for 4th grade photo. The image went viral
Worst Digital Cases
Stupid, Bloody Stupid
McDonald’s apologizes for its Halloween-themed dessert called “Sundae Bloody Sundae,” dessert, blah, blah, blah.
Amazon’s Choice Deception
Many Amazon’s Choice products sold by third-party sellers are not what they seem.
Dear Joe Biden: OK Boomer
Biden’s campaign #FAILs to buy fundamental urls. Trump’s campaign bought one of them. That’s not the only URL Biden’s campaign forgot!
Shiny New Stuff
Google Site Kit
Google’s official WordPress plugin for installing analytics and seeing reports within the WordPress dashboard.
Politics
Clever Interactive Trump Study From Pew Research
The Daily Numbers
Newsflash: Political Twitter is not representative of the American electorate at large.
- Just 6% of US adults on Twitter account for 73% of political tweets… and they disapprove of Trump
- Political Twitter
