In less than two decades, Google went from “Don't be evil” to “We censor fart jokes to provide brand safety for scammers using deepfake videos to prey on the poor”
YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads
181–190 of 375 posts
Re: YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads
#182I don't understand who do people still keep using Google services. What are you expecting from a company like Google?
You did not use Android phone, never tried Google search, Google Bard, Chrome browser, never ever go to YouTube, never opened Google Maps, and refuse to open Google Doc or Google Sheet link?
Re: YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads
#183https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/ I suppose it would be nice if there were an easy way for everyone to do this.
If the reports don’t go straight to /dev/null, it would be ineffective anyway since the scammers are outside of US jurisdiction and operate under fake identities.
Re: YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
So I should just give up, have a talk about media habits with my parents and if they don't want to change, just hand YouTube the money? You freely admit that it is designed to be this bad and by giving them money actually just rewards their shitty behavior. I gave an example of a video showing how creators on YouTube can select which ads to show. Get-Rich-Quick is a category, YouTube could just take the decision to n…
> So I should just give up I really do try not to be the perpetual downer here, but Google has nearly unlimited resources including psych PhDs on staff to influence peoples' behavior and I assume executives with black holes where their souls would normally be who are trying to satisfy that void with money, but can never do so. I guess the best I can say is that it's about picking your battles.
Look I know I'm screaming in the wind here. It is a comment on the state of YouTube ads. It's not that I have an illusion that someone in the hierarchy of Google is going to read my comments and take decisions that improves the situation. It is a thought and opinion on the direction of what Google has become. And personally I'm reducing my reliance on google. Next year I'm starting move subscriptions and other things from my gmail mail account. I've gone back to firefox. Google Search has gotten terrible recently so I'm looking for alternatives. This is my personal choice and I just want to whine on the Internet on my way out.
Re: YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you're a major on-line ad distributor like Google/Meta, and broadcast malicious ads to consumers... It's actually worse than that. If they were neutrally broadcasting, they'd at least have the argument that they were conceptually just a common carrier providing a neutral conduit between advertisers and consumers. But they are actively selecting which ads to present to which consumers---with respect to scam ads, th…
While I wholeheartedly agree with you, I suspect explaining that to an older judge would be difficult.
Why? There are lots of examples of people who knowingly do things to aid and abet a primary criminal offense getting charged as accessories. Fences, bookies, pimps, pushers, shills, etc. This isn't a new pattern, and certainly wouldn't be a new idea to an older judge.
Re: YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads
#186Yep, my local city (over 1M residents) mayor was deep faked into selling crypto on yt ads. Reporting did nothing, I just got email 3 days later that the ad is alright.
The voice was in local language, while subtitles were in English. They did not match, possibly to evade detection by the more advanced, English, tooling.
Re: YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads
#187YouTube isn't the only Google property knowingly allowing scams, Google Maps has some interesting activity if you dive into it. A "policy", regulation, or law only matters if it is enforceable and enforced.
The digital platform policies are relatively meaningless, subjective enforcement, appeasement measure for advertisers. You will not see the needle move on video as fraud until the commission model for talent fees and use rights change for digital. A talent fee commission model results in industry tracking of creative content in order to route talent fees to actors and musicians. It is a secondary layer of tracking with funds attached that forces a platform to respond when illegal use of image and identity is reported.
Re: YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads
#188As it turns out there is a whole category in YouTubes ad system for Get-Rich-Quick schemes, as detailed out in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkhGJUTW3ag&t=1031s (timestamped at the relevant time). Just today I saw my elderly father click on a YouTube ad link for a crypto scam copying Swedish televisions web layout he was reading it and I saw it at the corner of my eye. He has adblock installed, he disabl…
Ad blocker can block that popup...
> He has adblock installed, he disabled it because of the terms of service popup by YouTube.
Re: YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads
#189Facebook has the same problem, see any FB group for endless "duct cleaning" or "bad roofs needed, buy our metal roof" spam. A few months ago it was "remote jobs at Amazon, follow this google doc link". They'll let it fly for months as it "generates activity" or some other metric, it will eventually die off when the spam campaign changes.
Re: YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads
#190I’m surprised there is no liability for facilitating scams / fraud on the ad networks given that they’re making money on it.
These platforms control too much of humanity’s social fabric for any politician to dare go against them in fears of being “cancelled” and effectively disappear (in favour of their rival). Same for privacy protections, nobody dares do anything about it.