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Ad.watch – Breaking open Facebook's machine of political persuasion

ad.watch

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Re: Ad.watch – Breaking open Facebook's machine of political persuasion

#13

This is something that Facebook and ad-serving companies should be fully transparent about. * Who is paying for their political propaganda? * How much was spent? * What were the ads? * How was it paid? Not being able to track ad spending by political parties, governments or individuals opens opens a huge opportunity for political corruption.

There's a problem in how do you classify ads into political and non-political. But then, why not make all ad spending public? What benefit is there to society in keeping the source of ads secret?

Re: Ad.watch – Breaking open Facebook's machine of political persuasion

#14
post #13

This is something that Facebook and ad-serving companies should be fully transparent about. * Who is paying for their political propaganda? * How much was spent? * What were the ads? * How was it paid? Not being able to track ad spending by political parties, governments or individuals opens opens a huge opportunity for political corruption.

There's a problem in how do you classify ads into political and non-political. But then, why not make all ad spending public? What benefit is there to society in keeping the source of ads secret?

> make all ad spending public

I like this idea tbqh

Re: Ad.watch – Breaking open Facebook's machine of political persuasion

#15
post #6

I love the idea, but the interface needs some work. In my humble opinion, your home page should be the interactive map part - show people the good stuff as quickly as possible. Those who want to read about the project will find their way to the info. Also, the map should be a little more intuitive to use. Don't make people dig for the gold.

Agreed.

Mobile accessibility would also help get this information in front of more eyeballs. I couldn’t make heads or tails of the site on my phone.

Re: Ad.watch – Breaking open Facebook's machine of political persuasion

#16
post #13

This is something that Facebook and ad-serving companies should be fully transparent about. * Who is paying for their political propaganda? * How much was spent? * What were the ads? * How was it paid? Not being able to track ad spending by political parties, governments or individuals opens opens a huge opportunity for political corruption.

There's a problem in how do you classify ads into political and non-political. But then, why not make all ad spending public? What benefit is there to society in keeping the source of ads secret?

I guess one downside for those selling the ads is that other companies could easily attempt to poach based on this information... what upside would there be for a company who sells ads?

Re: Ad.watch – Breaking open Facebook's machine of political persuasion

#18
post #16
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a problem in how do you classify ads into political and non-political. But then, why not make all ad spending public? What benefit is there to society in keeping the source of ads secret?

I guess one downside for those selling the ads is that other companies could easily attempt to poach based on this information... what upside would there be for a company who sells ads?

They can compete in offering a better product/service, instead of with a secret client list. Advertising itself is about connecting buyers and sellers - so making that information public would make the market all the more efficient! What's good for the goose and all that.

Besides, the world is drowning in ads. Any downside for advertisers is an undiluted upside for society at large.

Re: Ad.watch – Breaking open Facebook's machine of political persuasion

#20
post #6

I love the idea, but the interface needs some work. In my humble opinion, your home page should be the interactive map part - show people the good stuff as quickly as possible. Those who want to read about the project will find their way to the info. Also, the map should be a little more intuitive to use. Don't make people dig for the gold.

It's a tableau embed so unfortunately I think this is the limit of what you can do with tableau.
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