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

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

#71

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.

> For the record, I don't think Facebook should be shut down.

That's cool, I'm down for making all social media apps illegal. Today.

We've given guns to chimpanzees. Perhaps the human race needs to mature a little before we're shoving our entire lives into everyone else's face. Turns out that despite having more things in common than not, we still don't like each other very much.

10 years ago, most of the American left and center were shouting at banks about being the 99%. In the wake of that, these apps have been used to divide and conquer us. They've turned us against each other. Our best hope is to shun these tools en masse.

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

#72

The unintuitive thing here (for the general population at least, possibly not the HN crowd) is that almost certainly nobody at Facebook saw, and approved (much less designed) this marketing strategy. It naturally emerged from the goals the system has been given. That doesn't excuse it: in fact, it indicts automated targeted-advertisement as a category. This software is working exactly as it was designed to. I'm sure…

That's why the solution is liability: Companies will keep leaving unchecked algorithms responsible for this until they can go to jail for doing so.

Adtech is a cancer and it's time to cut it out using every legislative and regulatory option we have.

Put Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai behind bars and the problem will correct after that.

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

#74

The unintuitive thing here (for the general population at least, possibly not the HN crowd) is that almost certainly nobody at Facebook saw, and approved (much less designed) this marketing strategy. It naturally emerged from the goals the system has been given. That doesn't excuse it: in fact, it indicts automated targeted-advertisement as a category. This software is working exactly as it was designed to. I'm sure…

That's why the solution is liability: Companies will keep leaving unchecked algorithms responsible for this until they can go to jail for doing so. Adtech is a cancer and it's time to cut it out using every legislative and regulatory option we have. Put Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai behind bars and the problem will correct after that.

Liability is tricky because a) it seems like it would be hard to prove, and b) it could get too broad, hampering internet expression in general. I tend to think a specific law against automated content-curation would be better - that's the true source of problems - though it's obviously still really hard to define (arguably anything a computer does is "automated").

The simplest solution might be privacy protections, which (among other things) would indirectly kneecap targeted content curation, due to a lack of data.

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

#75

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).

I don't know about Facebook (I don't use it) - but YouTube adverts do nothing but make me hate the products being advertised (and yes I give as much feedback as it will let me).

Edit: Fortunately I find Nigel Farage trying to sell me financial products fairly amusing...

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

#76

The unintuitive thing here (for the general population at least, possibly not the HN crowd) is that almost certainly nobody at Facebook saw, and approved (much less designed) this marketing strategy. It naturally emerged from the goals the system has been given. That doesn't excuse it: in fact, it indicts automated targeted-advertisement as a category. This software is working exactly as it was designed to. I'm sure…

That's why the solution is liability: Companies will keep leaving unchecked algorithms responsible for this until they can go to jail for doing so. Adtech is a cancer and it's time to cut it out using every legislative and regulatory option we have. Put Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai behind bars and the problem will correct after that.

For clarity: liability solutions are civil and aren't going to put anyone behind bars.

But yes, that's absolutely part of the puzzle. Companies who made money by peddling armor and ammo and gear into an extremist community they were simultaneously trying to moderate need to be held partially responsible.

And that goes for the apocalyptic end-times mess that has infested the gun and gun-peripheral industries too. If you spend your advertising budget telling your customers they need your products to "protect their freedoms" then you don't get a pass if they end up sacking congress to do it.

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

#77
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as we call this an insurrection as well then: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/416411-youth-p...

I must have missed the part where they beat a Capitol Police officer to death on their way into the building.

He got hit with a fire extinguisher which is awful. It's still not an insurrection though. There was no attempt to over throw the US Government. Calling this an insurrection is like calling everyone that ways "All Lives Matter" a nazi and cheapens debate.

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

#78

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.

As another anecdote, I've had the same ad targeting for this last week or so. (Which is really unfortunate timing.) At some point I must've clicked on the wrong article while seeing what the "other side" was up to. And now my feed is full of tacticool insurrectionist chic. The most disconcerting to me was an ad showcasing a "tactical hooded trench coat"[0], with the model holding an AK in the FB ad. I mean, nobody is…

If Google Images is any indication a "tactical hooded trench coat" seems like exactly the kind of thing you see the HN demographic wearing while walking to work on a rainy day.

TBH I was expecting to see actual trench coats but they all seem like normal tight-ish fitting jackets in various grays, greens, browns and camo.

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

#79
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must have missed the part where they beat a Capitol Police officer to death on their way into the building.

He got hit with a fire extinguisher which is awful. It's still not an insurrection though. There was no attempt to over throw the US Government. Calling this an insurrection is like calling everyone that ways "All Lives Matter" a nazi and cheapens debate.

Just because they failed doesn’t mean they didn’t try to do so.

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

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why the solution is liability: Companies will keep leaving unchecked algorithms responsible for this until they can go to jail for doing so. Adtech is a cancer and it's time to cut it out using every legislative and regulatory option we have. Put Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai behind bars and the problem will correct after that.

Liability is tricky because a) it seems like it would be hard to prove, and b) it could get too broad, hampering internet expression in general. I tend to think a specific law against automated content-curation would be better - that's the true source of problems - though it's obviously still really hard to define (arguably anything a computer does is "automated"). The simplest solution might be privacy protections,…

People have been taught by big tech companies' PR teams that any regulation will hurt the Internet, but I don't believe it's remotely true. Internet companies currently enjoy near complete immunity to content they distribute, but when such things have gone, the Internet will readjust.
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