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Meta has run hundreds of ads for cocaine, opioids and other drugs

wsj.com

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Re: Meta has run hundreds of ads for cocaine, opioids and other drugs

#131

Post by squidsoup »

dzjkb wrote: post #128
RomanPushkin wrote: post #110

> “DMT,” a psychedelic drug. I would argue that. It's probably the least offensive thing, compared to alcohol you can buy everywhere. DMT and other entheogens are far less harmful than alcoholic drinks available. It's confirmed by many academic papers, and DMT is not something people use for recreational purposes. Moreover, some of these "psychedelic drugs" are used by people who have serious illness, wether it is li…

I totally agree, but why do you think people don't use DMT recreationally?

Because experiencing death is not a recreational activity.

Re: Meta has run hundreds of ads for cocaine, opioids and other drugs

#132

Post by kerkeslager »

warkdarrior wrote: post #78
realusername wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On my phone, only about half of the Youtube ads look legal. They have it all: crypto scams, ponzi schemes, fake mobile games, get quick rich schemes... Some stuff can always slip through but to have a result like this, there's a systemic lack of checks at Google.

So your solution is for YT/Google/Meta to check the code, operations, finances, and business models of every advertiser that comes to them? Even if YT/Google/Meta could do this at scale, do you want them to have that power?

> So your solution is for YT/Google/Meta to check the code, operations, finances, and business models of every advertiser that comes to them?

Sure, why not?

I literally don't care if this causes them to go bankrupt. If your business doesn't work without breaking the law, your business doesn't work, and we're not obligated as a society to form our laws to make your business work.

I mean seriously, if your local convenience store was letting people sling cocaine out the back because they couldn't make a profit selling candy and sandwiches, would you be like "Oh that's okay."? Obviously not. I'm not even for drug prohibition, but applying the laws we have fairly seems even more fundamental.

That said, fears that this would cause them to go bankrupt are likely overblown.

> Even if YT/Google/Meta could do this at scale, do you want them to have that power?

They already have that power. They can put whatever conditions they want on doing business with advertisers.

Re: Meta has run hundreds of ads for cocaine, opioids and other drugs

#134

Post by freejazz »

RIMR wrote: post #127
freejazz wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Because there is absolutely zero evidence that there are drugs being physically trafficked at Meta's offices? Well that's not why they would raid Meta. They would raid them to preserve evidence and documents of Meta's complicity with the drug trafficking that does occur on their platforms.

They can do that with a court order. Meta would end up caught with their pants down if they deleted evidence. There's little to no chance that they could do that without either leaving behind damning evidence, or having an employee blow the whistle.

Yes, they can do that with a court order. Was that in question? As to whether or not they could get away with it, I don't agree. Depends what you mean by get away with it. They'd probably rather take a default on the issue than release any internal discussions making them look complicit.

Re: Meta has run hundreds of ads for cocaine, opioids and other drugs

#136

Post by AnthonyMouse »

aeturnum wrote: post #42

This is part of a larger pattern for Facebook and other "large scale" advertisers where it's clear they are breaking laws at some rate and are protected from paying a real consequence by the cost of discovering the exact rate of misbehavior. Facebook recently settled a lawsuit related to racially discriminating in housing ads (a federal crime)[1]. I suspect this will get added to the pile of illegal services Facebook…

The flaw here is in expecting Facebook to be the police.

Here's what happens if you make Facebook do it. They become aware of someone running an illegal ad and ban them. But the advertiser is a criminal and still wants to make money, so they make a new account or find some way to avoid detection, and the ad ends up back in the system, and the advertiser can do this forever because they're making a net profit by continuing to play the cat and mouse game.

Here's what happens if you have law enforcement responsible for enforcing the law. Someone runs an illegal ad on Facebook, law enforcement subpoenas Facebook to find out who it was, and the advertiser gets arrested. This provides an actual deterrent because there is a penalty in excess of a ban, so it exceeds the profits from the criminal activity, and criminals dumb enough to not be deterred go to jail where they can't run any more ads.

Why are we trying to do it the stupid way and expect a non-stupid result? Corporations are not law enforcement. Stop trying to make it otherwise.

Re: Meta has run hundreds of ads for cocaine, opioids and other drugs

#137

Post by meroes »

throwup238 wrote: post #61
meroes wrote: post #55

I've seen a lot of responses saying prosecutors won't go after Meta because of a professional responsibility for winning at trial. Well, what about cops+feds civil asset forfeiture-ing their servers and offices?

> Well, what about cops+feds civil asset forfeiture-ing their servers and offices? Meta's lawyers would have the forfeiture overturned by a judge before the cops have even finished their paperwork for the seizure. Civil asset forfeiture is only really a weapon against convicted criminals and people who can't afford to defend themselves.

They can prove in civil court standards their severs weren’t part of drug dealing? Because that’s the standard when a person gets pulled over and the cops->feds take their cash without any criminal charges.

Re: Meta has run hundreds of ads for cocaine, opioids and other drugs

#138

Post by [deleted] »

aeturnum wrote: post #42

This is part of a larger pattern for Facebook and other "large scale" advertisers where it's clear they are breaking laws at some rate and are protected from paying a real consequence by the cost of discovering the exact rate of misbehavior. Facebook recently settled a lawsuit related to racially discriminating in housing ads (a federal crime)[1]. I suspect this will get added to the pile of illegal services Facebook…

[deleted]

Re: Meta has run hundreds of ads for cocaine, opioids and other drugs

#139

Post by fl0ki »

markovs_gun wrote: post #126
realusername wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On my phone, only about half of the Youtube ads look legal. They have it all: crypto scams, ponzi schemes, fake mobile games, get quick rich schemes... Some stuff can always slip through but to have a result like this, there's a systemic lack of checks at Google.

I recently got an ad for some kind of scammy garden hose nozzle that supposedly turns your garden hose into a "military grade" (whatever that means) pressure washer but the ad had a weird conspiracy theory theme and kept talking about how the big corporations and Congress were conspiring to try to make the garden hose nozzle illegal because it was too powerful for civilian use. It was like it was trying to get the 2n…

> fundamentally it's not adding any energy to the fluid.

That's just what the big corporations and congress want you to believe.

/s

Re: Meta has run hundreds of ads for cocaine, opioids and other drugs

#140

Post by squigz »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #136
aeturnum wrote: post #42

This is part of a larger pattern for Facebook and other "large scale" advertisers where it's clear they are breaking laws at some rate and are protected from paying a real consequence by the cost of discovering the exact rate of misbehavior. Facebook recently settled a lawsuit related to racially discriminating in housing ads (a federal crime)[1]. I suspect this will get added to the pile of illegal services Facebook…

The flaw here is in expecting Facebook to be the police. Here's what happens if you make Facebook do it. They become aware of someone running an illegal ad and ban them. But the advertiser is a criminal and still wants to make money, so they make a new account or find some way to avoid detection, and the ad ends up back in the system, and the advertiser can do this forever because they're making a net profit by conti…

I don't believe GP was suggesting Facebook do it; rather just pointing out that the second option is extremely costly and difficult, which is a consequence of the scale and influence of Facebook
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