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Facebook is running anti-vax ads, despite its ban on vaccine misinformation

buzzfeednews.com

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Re: Facebook is running anti-vax ads, despite its ban on vaccine misinformation

#2
Relevant information:

>"Facebook does not have a policy that bans advertising on the basis that it expresses opposition to vaccines," a Facebook spokesperson said. "Our policy is to ban ads containing vaccine misinformation."

The ad Buzzfeed thinks is in violation:

>One ad reads, “Is the vaccine the best option? And if not, what is?” Another says, “Click below for a FREE guide for Pertussis which will include: Vaccine Controversy.”

Seems pretty cut and dry to me. The ad doesn't contain misinformation, merely opposition. Somehow I can't help but feel like we're sliding down the slippery slope though.

Re: Facebook is running anti-vax ads, despite its ban on vaccine misinformation

#3
post #2

Relevant information: >"Facebook does not have a policy that bans advertising on the basis that it expresses opposition to vaccines," a Facebook spokesperson said. "Our policy is to ban ads containing vaccine misinformation." The ad Buzzfeed thinks is in violation: >One ad reads, “Is the vaccine the best option? And if not, what is?” Another says, “Click below for a FREE guide for Pertussis which will include: Vaccin…

The site the ad links to contains the misinformation. It seems like that conforms with FB policy.

Re: Facebook is running anti-vax ads, despite its ban on vaccine misinformation

#4
This, along with political ads, is a pretty amazingly good example of how facebook was wrong - they can't deliver advertising to customers at higher efficacy and lower cost than traditional media... what they can do is fail to properly vet ads for cheaper than traditional media spends vetting ads.

I feel like this problem should start the sounding of warning bells around the efficiencies tech companies create. A lot of good value is created in tech, but along with that value is the movement to accomplish a solution for most of the problem for far less of a cost. If you can managed to eschew portions of your product that are unimportant (creating a DB tuned to reading that does reading really well and slows way down during writes) then you might have the beginnings of a great business, but the portions of the feature set you're eschewing need to actually be optional. Building a peer to peer trading website without building in support for all those onerous requirements around preventing human trafficking and other black market dealings isn't a solid business - the government will shut you down and your product isn't groundbreaking and paradigm shifting - it's half-assed.

I reeeeally strongly suspect that a lot of web advertisers are feeling the pain now that HUD has started watching web advertisements for housing discrimination, now that the impact of politcal ads is becoming accepted and now that slimy businesses are exploiting FUD to push homeopathy... Preventing these has always been a requirement in the field of marketing, and your business isn't disruptive and edgy because it ignores them - it's living on borrowed time until a huge lawsuit drives it out of business.

Re: Facebook is running anti-vax ads, despite its ban on vaccine misinformation

#5
post #2

Relevant information: >"Facebook does not have a policy that bans advertising on the basis that it expresses opposition to vaccines," a Facebook spokesperson said. "Our policy is to ban ads containing vaccine misinformation." The ad Buzzfeed thinks is in violation: >One ad reads, “Is the vaccine the best option? And if not, what is?” Another says, “Click below for a FREE guide for Pertussis which will include: Vaccin…

> The ad doesn't contain misinformation, merely opposition.

Can you show me a formulation of "vaccine opposition" that does not require misinformation to be credible?

Re: Facebook is running anti-vax ads, despite its ban on vaccine misinformation

#7
post #2

Relevant information: >"Facebook does not have a policy that bans advertising on the basis that it expresses opposition to vaccines," a Facebook spokesperson said. "Our policy is to ban ads containing vaccine misinformation." The ad Buzzfeed thinks is in violation: >One ad reads, “Is the vaccine the best option? And if not, what is?” Another says, “Click below for a FREE guide for Pertussis which will include: Vaccin…

The ad's destination URL contains the misinformation.

Agencies play this semantic cat and mouse game with policies that are clearly targeted at preventing this type of content from proliferating, so it's not as cut and dry as you believe it is.

Re: Facebook is running anti-vax ads, despite its ban on vaccine misinformation

#8
post #2

Relevant information: >"Facebook does not have a policy that bans advertising on the basis that it expresses opposition to vaccines," a Facebook spokesperson said. "Our policy is to ban ads containing vaccine misinformation." The ad Buzzfeed thinks is in violation: >One ad reads, “Is the vaccine the best option? And if not, what is?” Another says, “Click below for a FREE guide for Pertussis which will include: Vaccin…

> Our policy is to ban ads containing vaccine misinformation

Well, ok, so the only ads they ban are ads that say "Vaccines cause autism!". How useful is that as a policy? By the same metric a "Find out the truth about the moon landing!" would contain no false information about the moon landing even though the link is chalk full of it.

Has anyone ever seen or produced an ad that actually runs afoul of this policy? If not, it is a useless policy, they are still aiding the spread of misinformation on a very important health topic.

Re: Facebook is running anti-vax ads, despite its ban on vaccine misinformation

#9
post #6

What are the incentives or driving force behind anti-vaxxers? I am amazed why someone is putting money and efforts on anti-vaccination. Personally its hard to believe it become a big thing without some sort incentives/driving force.

A lot of people have fallen into the FUD wholesale and are resolute believers so it might be mostly driven by momentum at this point - but somewhere under all of that is a slimy snake-oil salesman who is raking in the money for sugar water... traditional medicine and such never take off unless someone can make a buck.
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