After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off • Hacker News Board

Re: After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off

#121

Post by nojokes » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 5:58 PM UTC

blantonl wrote: post #93

SilasX wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not even about violations (which there may not have been), just some kind of explanation. "Hey we don't want to be involved in this kind of content, we're making a judgment call to disallow it."

With regards to this, my point was that Facebook doesn't want to get into a long drawn out discussion with whataboutisms and splitting hairs on policy. They made a business decision to move on from this content platform. I love to hate on facebook with the best of them, but they really don't "owe" anyone anything. There seems to be this pervasive attitude in technology circles that platforms "owe" other businesses an…

In what kind of Lalaland is 50 million nothing?

Re: After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off

#122

Post by corobo » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 5:59 PM UTC

JamesBarney wrote: post #117

blantonl wrote: post #61

Let's be fair here. Shared.com is in the business of producing and distributing crap content. That's a subjective term, but it's like the supreme court ruling on pornography, you'll know it when you see it. These guys most likely "skirt the line" to just operate as a mediocre and crappy content distribution network, that at scale, makes a lot of money because there is a certain subset of the population that will eat…

I run a consulting company and if I decided to stop working for a client the right thing would be to give some explanation even if it's "We don't think your website meets our quality bar". Almost 80% of the ads I see on Facebook are of similar quality. If they're trying to reduce low quality content on their platform, than they should just say that.

Why open yourself up to a lawsuit though? If you say something that can't be solidly proven now you have to deal with lawyers

Re: After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off

#123

Post by santoshalper » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 6:02 PM UTC

drno123 wrote: post #96

The author of the article equates conspiracy theorists to pedophiles.

I don't think he was making a value judgment. These are just groups of people Facebook is actively trying to keep off their site. His point is that his companies aren't part of those groups. Based on quick (not even remotely thorough) look at shared.com, I tend to agree. It's just a bunch of buzzfeed-level listicles, but I didn't find anything scammy or harmful.

Perhaps Facebook is trying to raise the "quality" of what is shared on their platform (not just the ethics), but if that is the case I haven't heard anything about it. Facebook is absolutely stuffed to the gills with this kind of commodity-grade filler content.

Based on what he posted, my guess is that the author delegated too much editorial control in his mini media empire and one of the sites in his network published some pretty objectionable content. If I were a betting man, I'd say it was COVID/vaccine related.

Re: After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off

#124

Post by JamesBarney » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 6:04 PM UTC

corobo wrote: post #122

JamesBarney wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run a consulting company and if I decided to stop working for a client the right thing would be to give some explanation even if it's "We don't think your website meets our quality bar". Almost 80% of the ads I see on Facebook are of similar quality. If they're trying to reduce low quality content on their platform, than they should just say that.

Why open yourself up to a lawsuit though? If you say something that can't be solidly proven now you have to deal with lawyers

Because it's the right thing to do and I doubt it really has much influence on liability unless you say something like "we're not working with you because you're a black woman".

Re: After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off

#125

Post by conanbatt » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 6:08 PM UTC

rwdim wrote: post #6

Most likely, one of your competitors negotiated a deal where you were deplatformed as a condition. $57M over 13/14 years, or $100M right now... easy choice for Facebook.

That is subject to a severe anti-trust litigation

Re: After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off

#126

Post by maxehmookau » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 6:13 PM UTC

blantonl wrote: post #61

Let's be fair here. Shared.com is in the business of producing and distributing crap content. That's a subjective term, but it's like the supreme court ruling on pornography, you'll know it when you see it. These guys most likely "skirt the line" to just operate as a mediocre and crappy content distribution network, that at scale, makes a lot of money because there is a certain subset of the population that will eat…

I was with you until this statement:

> Facebook decided they don't want to be a part of this type of content distribution

Facebook's entire business model is built around the proliferation of "crap" content.

Re: After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off

#127

Post by xwdv » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 6:14 PM UTC

Before anyone gets too impressed (though I may be too late judging by the chorus that has formed), it's $57M CAD, and over the course of 14 years, so roughly about $3.2M USD in spending per year, or roughly $266k USD per month. Fairly typical customer.

Re: After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off

#128

Post by BikiniPrince » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 6:14 PM UTC

blantonl wrote: post #61

Let's be fair here. Shared.com is in the business of producing and distributing crap content. That's a subjective term, but it's like the supreme court ruling on pornography, you'll know it when you see it. These guys most likely "skirt the line" to just operate as a mediocre and crappy content distribution network, that at scale, makes a lot of money because there is a certain subset of the population that will eat…

Well let’s be fair here.

They made that conscious decision after running away with the money.

After the first few mil wouldn’t you understand your partner a little better?

At 57 it’s a rocky divorce and you know full well who you were sleeping with.

Re: After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off

#129

Post by 55555 » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 6:15 PM UTC

jaywalk wrote: post #95

> Facebook had taken action against me, personally, that one assumes are reserved for the worst in our society — criminals, pedophiles and conspiracy theorists. Lumping in conspiracy theorists with pedophiles? This guy is an ass, his business was probably barely legitimate, and I don't feel sorry for him in the slightest.

I read this as a tongue-in-cheek joke.

Re: After spending $57M on Facebook ads, I was kicked off

#130

Post by rsweeney21 » Mon, Jan 04, 2021, 6:15 PM UTC

smoyer wrote: post #30

> Facebook has systematically shut down our 2 small businesses during a pandemic and economic crisis without explanation. If you've spent $57MM on Facebook ads, are you still considered a "small business"? Perhaps I'm out of touch. I think the warning about building your business on someone else's land still applies but I'm not sure how you get around that when so much of the world's attention is controlled by a few…

The US Government, specifically the SBA, defines a small business as any business with fewer than 1,500 employees and less than $38.5 million in average annual receipts.

I was surprised by this definition too.