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Facebook's Ad Scandal Isn't a 'Fail,' It's a Feature
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/23/opinion/sunday/facebook-ad-scandal.htmlFacebooks Ad Scandal Isnt a Fail, Its a Feature
Zeynep Tufekci | SEPT. 23, 2017
What does it take to advertise on Facebook to people who openly call themselves Jew haters and want to know how to burn Jews? About $10 and 15 minutes, according to what the investigative nonprofit ProPublica recently uncovered.
After much outcry over this revelation, Facebooks chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, called the anti-Semitic ad targeting a fail on our part, promised to put more human reviewers in place, and said the company never intended or anticipated this functionality being used this way and that is on us.
Some of Facebooks users may find it even harder to accept what happened. How could the site that we use to keep in touch with friends and family, share baby pictures, and keep up with politics and volunteer work be made so easily to cater to the interests of Nazis?
But anyone who understands how Facebook works shouldnt have been surprised. Thats because the same digital platform that offers us social interaction, news, entertainment and shopping all in one place makes its money by making it cheap and easy to send us commercial or political messages, often guided by algorithms. The recent scandal is just a reminder.
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Facebook's Ad Scandal Isn't a 'Fail,' It's a Feature (Original Post)
dalton99a
Sep 2017
OP
So why do billions of us still use Facebook? Because everyone else is already there.
Skittles
Sep 2017
#1
Skittles
(153,193 posts)1. So why do billions of us still use Facebook? Because everyone else is already there.
NO WE ARE *NOT* ALL THERE
SOME OF US HAVE NEVER BEEN SUCKED INTO THE FUCKING FACEBOOK BORG
More_Cowbell
(2,191 posts)2. Because the "all caps" people got you first? :-)
Just kidding. I recently went on Facebook but the sponsored sites that say "so-and-so likes this" gave me pause because I realized that Facebook follows people around. Creepy.
Skittles
(153,193 posts)3. it is unbelievably creepy
it sickens me how many people just eat it up
Best_man23
(4,907 posts)4. Reason #2447 why this Dem
Will NEVER be on deFacebook.
BigmanPigman
(51,627 posts)5. Or this one as well as her sister, boyfriend, and parents.
None of us have ever used it or Twitter. We are more of a phone call type of family, and yes, we do use email/Gmail so we are not against tech as a form of communication.
Response to dalton99a (Original post)
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