Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

buzzfeednews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 258 posts

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#21

Post by eganist »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #8

According to modern zeitgeist, if Facebook can't be trusted to moderate their users, Facebook should be deplatformed and shut down. Edit: wow, that blew up. For the record, I don't think Facebook should be shut down, and I don't think Parler should have either. I'm rather anti-social media, so I've never used either. We should have better reasons for doing things, and stick to them. Section 230 exists for a reason.

> According to modern zeitgeist, if Facebook can't be trusted to moderate their users, Facebook should be deplatformed and shut down.

They've got (poorly paid and treated) human mods for user interactions, but apparently ad mods aren't a thing with them.

So I'm largely in the same camp; if they're enabling armed insurrection by white supremacists (or extremists in the middle east, etc), Facebook should be boycotted by their partners.

That's what happened with Parler. Facebook's more likely to weather the storm. Parler evidently wasn't able to.

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#22

Post by randlet »

_gmnw wrote: post #10

Facebook knows their audience well and is catering to it. It's social media for middle-aged conservatives, so it makes sense to advertise to them. I don't know of a lot of young people who use the platform still, they've all gone off to TikTok or Instagram(still FB I know).

> It's social media for middle-aged conservatives

Are you sure about that? When I sign on to Facebook, it appears to be social media for middle-aged liberal minded people. Facebook is a bit of a mirror in that sense.

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#23

Post by a3n »

prophetjohn wrote: post #15
theandrewbailey wrote: post #8

According to modern zeitgeist, if Facebook can't be trusted to moderate their users, Facebook should be deplatformed and shut down. Edit: wow, that blew up. For the record, I don't think Facebook should be shut down, and I don't think Parler should have either. I'm rather anti-social media, so I've never used either. We should have better reasons for doing things, and stick to them. Section 230 exists for a reason.

I'm no Facebook fan or apologist, but I do think there's a distinction between failing to moderate perfectly (or even well) and refusing to even attempt to moderate.

This isn't failure of anything. It's targeted advertising. They meant to do that. The system is working, "as advertised."

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#24

Post by solarkraft »

rreichel03 wrote: post #7

As an anecdote, since July they've started showing me ads for body armor almost nonstop whenever I actually open the app. Just the other day it was a body armor ad then an ad for a tactical communication earpiece.

I wonder how many dollars have been spent on bombarding you specifically with shit you're (probably) not interested in, instead of just randomly doing so (with a chance of success).

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#25

Post by wavefunction »

_gmnw wrote: post #10

Facebook knows their audience well and is catering to it. It's social media for middle-aged conservatives, so it makes sense to advertise to them. I don't know of a lot of young people who use the platform still, they've all gone off to TikTok or Instagram(still FB I know).

I think the ads I always used to see before terminating my use of Facebook for Christian Mingle say otherwise.

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#26

Post by a3n »

eganist wrote: post #21
theandrewbailey wrote: post #8

According to modern zeitgeist, if Facebook can't be trusted to moderate their users, Facebook should be deplatformed and shut down. Edit: wow, that blew up. For the record, I don't think Facebook should be shut down, and I don't think Parler should have either. I'm rather anti-social media, so I've never used either. We should have better reasons for doing things, and stick to them. Section 230 exists for a reason.

> According to modern zeitgeist, if Facebook can't be trusted to moderate their users, Facebook should be deplatformed and shut down. They've got (poorly paid and treated) human mods for user interactions, but apparently ad mods aren't a thing with them. So I'm largely in the same camp; if they're enabling armed insurrection by white supremacists (or extremists in the middle east, etc), Facebook should be boycotted b…

That's not what happened with Parler. They were boycotted by their vendors.

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#27

Post by solarkraft »

randlet wrote: post #22
_gmnw wrote: post #10

Facebook knows their audience well and is catering to it. It's social media for middle-aged conservatives, so it makes sense to advertise to them. I don't know of a lot of young people who use the platform still, they've all gone off to TikTok or Instagram(still FB I know).

> It's social media for middle-aged conservatives Are you sure about that? When I sign on to Facebook, it appears to be social media for middle-aged liberal minded people. Facebook is a bit of a mirror in that sense.

I thought Facebook was just for memes!

It has become pretty good at only showing you things you like to counter the reputation of making you hate the people you know IRL, I suspect.

Re: Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts

#28

Post by optimiz3 »

prophetjohn wrote: post #15
theandrewbailey wrote: post #8

According to modern zeitgeist, if Facebook can't be trusted to moderate their users, Facebook should be deplatformed and shut down. Edit: wow, that blew up. For the record, I don't think Facebook should be shut down, and I don't think Parler should have either. I'm rather anti-social media, so I've never used either. We should have better reasons for doing things, and stick to them. Section 230 exists for a reason.

I'm no Facebook fan or apologist, but I do think there's a distinction between failing to moderate perfectly (or even well) and refusing to even attempt to moderate.

Clearly Facebook's systems are able to associate correct ads based on the semantics of the content. Since this is true, why can't those systems moderate said content?
Post reply on HN