The Orbán government here in Hungary is one of the biggest ad spenders in the EU. You literally can't open a YouTube video without seeing propaganda with just plain lies, increasingly with AI-generated video. I find it really hypocritical that these allegedly progressive companies are willing to sell millions of dollars of brainwashing to the most hateful toxic regime in the EU.
Weaponizing Ads: How Google and Facebook Ads Are Used to Wage Propaganda Wars
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Re: Weaponizing Ads: How Google and Facebook Ads Are Used to Wage Propaganda Wars
#52The Orbán government here in Hungary is one of the biggest ad spenders in the EU. You literally can't open a YouTube video without seeing propaganda with just plain lies, increasingly with AI-generated video. I find it really hypocritical that these allegedly progressive companies are willing to sell millions of dollars of brainwashing to the most hateful toxic regime in the EU.
> allegedly progressive companies…
If the last ~9 months has demonstrated anything, it's that this was never the case.
Re: Weaponizing Ads: How Google and Facebook Ads Are Used to Wage Propaganda Wars
#53The Orbán government here in Hungary is one of the biggest ad spenders in the EU. You literally can't open a YouTube video without seeing propaganda with just plain lies, increasingly with AI-generated video. I find it really hypocritical that these allegedly progressive companies are willing to sell millions of dollars of brainwashing to the most hateful toxic regime in the EU.
> allegedly progressive companies… If the last ~9 months has demonstrated anything, it's that this was never the case.
Hence "allegedly", but I think it's pretty telling that the people who work at Google and Meta are okay with this.
Re: Weaponizing Ads: How Google and Facebook Ads Are Used to Wage Propaganda Wars
#54[flagged]
What a deeply cynical and selfish point of view.
Re: Weaponizing Ads: How Google and Facebook Ads Are Used to Wage Propaganda Wars
#55> Google did not pro-actively vet the truth of Israeli government claims
It is really scary that people are pushing for Google and Meta to be the arbiter of truth. I don't think people realize what they are asking for. Western civilizations have a tradition of liberal free speech, and allowing the courts to sort out the specifics of what speech causes harm to what parties (libel, etc).
There are already laws on the books for false advertising. In the US, the FTC is one who prosecutes those laws, not Google or Meta!
full disclosure: I work on Ads at Google. You really don't want to privatize the prosecution, judgement, jury, and execution of speech laws to mega corps (and I am usually pro-privatization on most topics).
Re: Weaponizing Ads: How Google and Facebook Ads Are Used to Wage Propaganda Wars
#56[dead]
Re: Weaponizing Ads: How Google and Facebook Ads Are Used to Wage Propaganda Wars
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
Stealing a physical thing = the previous owner can't use it. Copying a thing or accessing a platform = the previous owner can still use or sell it. Even if you consider it unethical access, the comparison to stealing really misses the mark.
ok, call it theft of services. You used the service but blocked how the creator makes money on the service. Is it really different from someone who runs out of a barber or restaurant?
Re: Weaponizing Ads: How Google and Facebook Ads Are Used to Wage Propaganda Wars
#58That's (initially a small-ish) part of the reason why I've gone from "no ad blockers" to "block absolutely everything". That said, that is only part of the problem. Take tiktok for instance, which is a clean cut, self-installed direct link to the ccp. And not just tiktok: why do you think products such as this [1] exist? And they are dirt cheap too. If you think these aren't selling like mad, boy are you in for a shock. While griefters do exist, the dictators of the world absolutely love these opportunities.
[1] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Android-Phone-Farm-Se...
Re: Weaponizing Ads: How Google and Facebook Ads Are Used to Wage Propaganda Wars
#59It seems everyone is missing the forest for the trees by focusing on political motives, because the system is working exactly as designed. An ad platform is an auction-based machine for changing human behavior at scale, and a state actor is just the ultimate power user. They have a clear objective, an unlimited budget, and are willing to pay a premium for high-value keywords. To the ad exchange, a bid from the Israeli government to show an anti-UN ad is indistinguishable from a bid from Nike to show a shoe ad; it's just a high CPM impression from a client with a good credit line. The entire infrastructure is optimized to find the highest bidder for a given set of eyeballs, not to make a moral judgment on the message. You don't need to control the newspaper anymore, you just need to outbid everyone else for the ad space next to the article.
It’s propaganda-as-a-service.
Re: Weaponizing Ads: How Google and Facebook Ads Are Used to Wage Propaganda Wars
#60[flagged]
It sounds like you're saying that you believe money is more important than morals. You're not alone, and that is a problem.
I believe an individual is responsible for their own opinions.
I also believe that people should spread their own opinions however they can.
Personally, I think my outlook is much more moral than someone who wants to silence others.
Objective truth is very rare, but differences of opinion are everywhere.