I agree in principle, but the connection between a hypothetical union and the approving particular ads is tenuous. I can see the argument for letting engineers resist being told to build unethical systems, but approving ads is a general policy decision engineers wouldn't ordinarily have control over. If they swing their weight around on that, there's basically nothing that's off limits, and I don't know if that's the right way to go about this problem.
Right, the only thing we're missing in the whole mess we're in is the highly political entity controlling the actions of all major internet service providers and content platforms, and threatening to bring them down if their demands aren't met. If we had that, it'd solve so much.
I really wish there was an electoral system of some sorts .
We have an electoral system that elected the Congress. Do you think they are awesome and doing an awesome job? 33% of citizens agree with you, up from 15% last year (all it took was distributing $2k to everybody - see how easy it is?).
How does a union help stop a foreign dictator from buying ads?
Unions don't stop dictators from buying, but can stop companies from selling to dictators.
"If you don't stop doing this, many of your employees won't come to work tomorrow" seems like something that could cause a large company to change its policies.