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Comment by 6thbit | Hacker News Reader

Thought it was clickbait/circumstantial but they are quoting an actual spokesperson saying they are doing it on purpose !!

> "We're actively defending ourselves against these lawsuits and are removing ads that attempt to recruit plaintiffs for them," a Meta spokesperson tells Axios.

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Legally finding plaintiffs, who can sue us for our illegal machinations is not allowed on our platform. What a world we live in. If this isn't the simplest demonstration of monopolization of social media that Facebook has, then I don't know what is.

Would you allow it on yours? As a shareholder or on the board of directors of your company I would not be pleased.

Nothing nefarious about that.

It’s not illegal, just stupid because. Because plaintiffs can use this as evidence that they can police their own platforms

That’s an internet argument. The legal issue being debated in actual courts has never been “does Facebook have the technical capability to remove content”.

There's a strong chance it's illegal so admitting to it is pretty breathtaking. They must be very confident they're in the clear, or the spokesperson didn't run this by the right people.

What is illegal about it? What law does it break?

Could these removals indicate editorial discretion that would remove § 230 protections from Facebook?

I think that would apply if they started removing user content about this. But Facebook is simply declining to accept ads about this, which doesn't seem like it would apply here.

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