November 01, 2019

Who is going to fact check the political ads on social media fact checkers? Big Brothers?

Sir, you opine: “The spread of political advertising on social media requires companies fact-check political ads in collaboration with trusted, independent organizations”, “Online political ads are in urgent need of regulation” November 1.

“Trusted, independent organizations”, does that not ring a bell with respect to trusting the human fallible credit rating agencies with so much power to decide on the risk weighted bank capital requirements?

I am reminded of an Op-ed I wrote in 1998 in which I argued, “In many cases even trying to regulate banks runs the risk of giving the impression that by means of strict regulations, the risks have disappeared” 

And in it I opined “in matters of financial regulations, the most honest, logical and efficient is simply alert to alert about the risks and allow the market, by assigning prices for these, to develop its own paths”

Sir, if I was concerned then, how much more concerned should I not be with the possibility of social media, fact checkers and Big Brothers entering joint ventures. 

So no Sir! Much better is a continuous reminder that: “Nothing advertised here has been fact checked and so even though it sounds interesting and correct, it is quite possible that it is all fake, even an outright shameful lye”

@PerKurowski