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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

I would be in favor of blocking ALL political expressions on social media a few weeks before elections.

But this case is something else entirely.

It's difficult to completely block all political expression, but I think it's a no brainer to simply not allow any political advertising money to be accepted. From the pacts or anyone. When you're taking money to promote a political opinion you've become part of that influence.

Social media is too powerful and influential to be allowed continue unchecked. Falsities, defamation cases all take too long for the election cycle. So you get garbage in, and then you get a populist TV show host as president who doesn't understand economic interests rates, international trade, pain points of international war.

Saying "no political expression this week" is a political expression that usually favors the status quo.

I think you're taking it too far.

Exactly 48 hours (before and on the day of election), banning electoral advertising is the right thing, gives voters the mental space to make up their own decision. It's the silence period.

Add much as I hate the lead up to elections, I love the day before and on, where it becomes purely personal.

That's simply not true though. There are cases when no answer is an answer. But this is simply not participating. As they shouldn't.

Many countries already have electoral silence (but it's limited to one or two days usually).

Define political expression.

The law isn’t code. It doesn’t require formal definition of all boundaries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it

Then people will carve around the edges. Also do you need to moderate every single post or comment by anyone? That's not free also.

Speech is already not entirely free and it works fine. You can’t scream “murder all the X” in a theatre. It doesn’t break the concept of freedom to have regulations, and assuming nothing can be regulated just leads to governance by corporation.

> You can’t scream “murder all the X” in a theatre

You actually can.

Without consequences? Where?

[Edit:] Oh you’re quite right. In the USA that’s legal sometimes. Where I live that would be seen - reasonably enough to us - as a call to violence.

It can be worked out. It does not need to be perfect. I see no need to start an endless discussion on it here.

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