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Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

theguardian.com

41–50 of 106 posts

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#41
post #28
post #23

Why does facebook do this rather than let third party advertisers advertise? I thought they got most of their money from third party advertisers, not selling their own products. Note - gun sales are very strong in the US. Antifa / BLM / Armed protestors.

>Why does facebook do this rather than let third party advertisers advertise? I think that's exactly what FB is doing, to be honest. They are simply letting third party advertisers advertise. Historically, dem president in power has always been an indicator of increased spending on guns (because hardcore gun people become afraid that the dems will make guns more difficult to purchase, so they stock up). And increase…

How much can one stock up on guns? Every 4-8 years when the political cycle changes they stock up but after a few cycles the demand should grind to a halt. It's not like guns are advancing a lot either.

So I really wonder if republicans are scared when a democrat is in office and subsequently buy guns because of that or whether they are scared into buying more guns by mere marketing.

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically Facebook is like, you and you, fight! Also buy our weapons.

probably what's more likely is that with a democrat president, gun companies are pouring money into ads to really juice up already high sales. (generally speaking, people rush to buy guns whenever the specter of gun control comes up, because they think that'll be the last chance they get.)

> people rush to buy guns whenever the specter of gun control comes up

And it's mostly in their head. The right was fired up for eight long years driving up the price of guns and ammo while Obama was president, meanwhile he never made even a token effort at gun control.

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#43
post #15

Yep, here's one for an AR-15 chamber lock that I got a couple weeks ago: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=364409318216958 I was shocked. What's suburban dad doing getting out of his SUV in a mall parking lot with an AR-15??? Full disclosure: I'm not on the right wing or even remotely close.

"When saftey is paramount"

(From the ad)

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#44

I am a far leftist who runs a 500+ liked antifa page. I also only see the body armor ads.

Would you mind revealing that page? I am on the opposite end of the political spectrum but I hold great value in people who are honest about what they are and I’m always reevaluating my positions.

I’m not trying to put you on the spot. Feel free to ignore this message.

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't you say the same for, say washing machines? You: I just bought a washing machine on Amazon Amazon: "Here are some ads for more washing machines, in case you're an enthusiastic collector!"

Perhaps the ads cannot discriminate between those that merely looked at washing machines, and those that actually bought one.

Oh they often can, trust me. The tech is all there. It's just a matter of joining the dots at this point.

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#46
post #44

I am a far leftist who runs a 500+ liked antifa page. I also only see the body armor ads.

Would you mind revealing that page? I am on the opposite end of the political spectrum but I hold great value in people who are honest about what they are and I’m always reevaluating my positions. I’m not trying to put you on the spot. Feel free to ignore this message.

What exactly is the opposite side of an anti-fascist facebook page?

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#47
post #39
post #35

First of all, fb ad policy explicitly doesn’t allow selling fire arms. https://m.facebook.com/policies/ads/prohibited_content/weapo... If you are selling related stuff(belts, holster, vest, gun case etc), be prepared to have your fb ad account banned often(as the algo will likely (mis)-categorize you into selling weapons). Advertisers in this space generally are very good at 1) cloaking, 2) renting or purchasing ad a…

Maybe they could address the whole "there is a way to circumventing the system" thing? I mean, they own the system, so they should probably be responsible for any circumvention.

They're not circumventing the system, they're circumventing the false positives of the gun-detection algorithm. As the parent pointed out, advertising these gun-related things is explicitly allowed by Facebook.

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#48
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the smartest people of my generation have dedicated their lives to building super-computers to point at peoples' brains and make them want to buy things. I suppose it's marginally better than fractionally growing somebody else's pile of money.

If by "buying things" that includes buying into pervasive detachment from reality (ie, Q related posts) then maybe it's even worse.

Not many cultures have ever been free from widespread pervasive detachment from reality. By default, that's religion, though some political ideologies and superstitions have also filled that need. If you really don't like it, you probably don't like humans. And I tend to agree, humans have a fault in their brains causing irrational beliefs, but it probably serves some more valuable purpose than being right.

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#49
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by "buying things" that includes buying into pervasive detachment from reality (ie, Q related posts) then maybe it's even worse.

Not many cultures have ever been free from widespread pervasive detachment from reality. By default, that's religion, though some political ideologies and superstitions have also filled that need. If you really don't like it, you probably don't like humans. And I tend to agree, humans have a fault in their brains causing irrational beliefs, but it probably serves some more valuable purpose than being right.

Religion is arguably useful to those who follow it (state of mind, material benefits) vs. those who are in the out-group.

Could the same be said of Q content?

Re: Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See for yourself

#50
post #46
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind revealing that page? I am on the opposite end of the political spectrum but I hold great value in people who are honest about what they are and I’m always reevaluating my positions. I’m not trying to put you on the spot. Feel free to ignore this message.

What exactly is the opposite side of an anti-fascist facebook page?

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