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Facebook's advertising integrity chief leaves company

reuters.com

131–140 of 252 posts

Re: Facebook's advertising integrity chief leaves company

#131

I am always a bit surprised that Facebook ended up as reliant on advertising revenue as they are. I feel like they missed opportunities to replace Craigslist as the de facto online classifieds and to offer a payment system like Apple Pay. Perhaps these are only obvious in hindsight. I feel that most of their issues stem from their complete revenue reliance on advertising. It forces them to make decisions about their…

I used to work at the biggest social network in the Netherlands. They tried to make a push for becoming a classifieds site and also payments before Facebook, but neither of these worked out.

Yeah, unfortunately ads is the most profitable business model on the internet for large sites with sticky user-bases.

If FB thought they'd have made more money going after Craiglist and PayPal, then that's what they would have done ten years ago.

Re: Facebook's advertising integrity chief leaves company

#132
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine yourself as the CEO of a manufacturer that pollutes rivers, and you sincerely want to stop polluting, but if you stop polluting, the company's costs would increase to the point it would no longer be able to compete against all the other companies that continue polluting -- and they're trying to eat your lunch you every day. So, if you stop polluting you would quickly lose relevance, be forced to shut down pla…

Imagine that you invent the idea of polluting rivers, and you set up a company to monopolize polluting rivers, and you tell people for decades that you want to stop polluting rivers, but every year the rivers get polluted by you. The logical conclusion of your argument is this - Facebook cannot be operated safely and still make a profit and should shut down as soon as possible.

> The logical conclusion of your argument is this - Facebook cannot be operated safely and still make a profit and should shut down as soon as possible.

sounds great! how soon can this happen?

Re: Facebook's advertising integrity chief leaves company

#134

"Chief of Advertising Integrity" does anyone take that title seriously? Forget advertising, Facebook and it's CEO himself has no integrity.

Honest question, what did Mark Zuckerberg do that makes you think he has “no integrity”?

You could probably write a book about that, here is my favorite:

Illegally using Facebook log data to breach the accounts of journalists who he did not like.

Re: Facebook's advertising integrity chief leaves company

#135
post #56

As a corporation, Facebook truly seems to be trying to improve its behavior for the benefit of society at large, but the company is finding it very difficult to do The Right Thing, because it would reduce future revenue growth, shrink long-term profitability, and hurt the company's competitive standing against the many other companies that are trying to eat Facebook's lunch every day. In the extreme, Facebook's choic…

>As a corporation, Facebook truly seems to be trying to improve its behavior for the benefit of society at large

Based on what? Lip service? Empty gestures? Those are worth as much as Google's "Don't be evil" motto and Apple's and Nike's social justice campaigns...

Re: Facebook's advertising integrity chief leaves company

#136
post #45

Remember, if you work for FB, you are part of the problem.

I feel strongly that we’re at the point where one can’t think of Facebook and be ignorant of the problems and the clear abusive practices they have and continue to be engaged in. Every time they get caught they feint an apology and proceed to either ignore the issue, continue that same practice but in a different way, or engage in some new abusive scheme. It is foundational to them because it is fundamentally part of…

Can you explain (with links please) how Facebook are ethically equivalent to tobacco companies (who's product literally (not figuratively) kills people).

If you can't, then I'm going to assume that it's mindless hyperbole (a straight to which Facebook, for whatever reason, appears to be prone to).

Re: Facebook's advertising integrity chief leaves company

#137
post #111
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm finding these two sentences hard to reconcile. > If Zuckerberg, Sandberg, et al could improve Facebook's behavior without putting the business at risk, they would do it in a heartbeat. But it appears they can't. > Facebook truly seems to be trying to improve its behavior for the benefit of society at large

Imagine yourself as the CEO of a manufacturer that pollutes rivers, and you sincerely want to stop polluting, but if you stop polluting, the company's costs would increase to the point it would no longer be able to compete against all the other companies that continue polluting -- and they're trying to eat your lunch you every day. So, if you stop polluting you would quickly lose relevance, be forced to shut down pla…

It doesn’t matter to the people forced to drink the polluted river water if the person doing the polluting feels bad about it, or doesn’t. Feeing bad does not absolve the CEO of anything.

This analogy also ignores that Facebook is putting huge amounts of money into lobbying efforts to ensure that they continue to be able to figuratively pollute the river.

Re: Facebook's advertising integrity chief leaves company

#138

"Chief of Advertising Integrity" does anyone take that title seriously? Forget advertising, Facebook and it's CEO himself has no integrity.

I'm impressed with whatever branding exercise came up with Chief of Advertising Integrity. So much meaning and non meaning at all in the same four words.

Re: Facebook's advertising integrity chief leaves company

#139
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that Facebook can improve its behavior only by putting its business at risk. If Zuckerberg, Sandberg, et al could improve Facebook's behavior without putting the business at risk , they would do it in a heartbeat. But it appears they can't. Their efforts are thus sincere but highly constrained: They will never voluntarily do anything that would put the business -- their life's work -- at risk. If I may us…

Sounds like a job for regulation to me. Of course it’s profitable to be a monipoly and doing the “right thing” might be to allow competitors in but one could basically never truly do that while the bottom line is the most important thing. It’s so strange to me that so many truly believe a profit motive is all that’s needed to have good outcomes. It was never so, only starting in the 80s did companies care about share…

> It’s so strange to me that so many truly believe a profit motive is all that’s needed to have good outcomes.

Not strange. In the U.S. at least, we're acculturated to this ideology our whole lives through education and media.

That said, many/most of the wealthiest or influential market participants, fortune 500 CEOS, academics from top biz/econ programs understand the importance of trust in the economy and the role that an effective government (contracts, the rule of law, and regulation) play in enabling that trust.

If you or your industry are the target of regulation, though, government BAD, regulation BAD, regardless of what you philosophically believe.

Re: Facebook's advertising integrity chief leaves company

#140
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine yourself as the CEO of a manufacturer that pollutes rivers, and you sincerely want to stop polluting, but if you stop polluting, the company's costs would increase to the point it would no longer be able to compete against all the other companies that continue polluting -- and they're trying to eat your lunch you every day. So, if you stop polluting you would quickly lose relevance, be forced to shut down pla…

> the CEO of a manufacturer that pollutes rivers, and you sincerely want to stop polluting Imagine you started a company that pollutes rivers and you're still the CEO. Imagine people believing you sincerely want to stop polluting.

I can imagine it of course but can't see parallels to Mark Zuckerberg. He hasn't done a substantive thing to show societies health is a priority. A tax break foundation that works on ways to spread Facebook further is not it.
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