Wow. Thanks for running this TPM.
Agree, happy to have paid for Prime just so that there is support for outlets for this content.
Thank you for this post. It is the first time, at least for me, where I have been able to see in detail how the Facebook right-wing/Russian ad campaign worked–at least to extent that it is beginning to make sense. I hope someone somewhere publishes examples of the ads that were targeted to pro-Trump haters of various types.
After we contacted Facebook, it removed the anti-Semitic categories — which were created by an algorithm rather than by people…Like many tech companies, Facebook has long taken a hands off approach to its advertising business.
Silicon Valley claims to love freedom, but really it’s just too cheap to hire enough staff to do basic work. That, and it will gladly take anybody’s money.
Somehow you think Mark Zuckerberg either watched the Producers and created a social media version of it or just never got the gist of it.
“Facebook has long taken a hands off approach to its advertising business.”
Because there are very fine people on both sides.
Rimmer: “The Hitlers are a charming couple, and – provided you avoid politics – they’re an absolute hoot!”
Kryten: “We have a few laughs, play canasta, enjoy the odd game of mixed doubles with the Goerings…”
Facebook has standards? I take it this is a recent development.
If I wanted to target these users with content or links meant to change their minds or to introduce diverse perspectives into their currently alt-right-clogged news feed in order to de-normalize their behavior, these are exactly the steps I’d want to be able to take. So I’m a little wary of the idea that FB should disallow this kind of targeting altogether. But “wary” is where I’m at – would be interested in other thoughts on this.
Thanks for this! I am similarly happy that my prime membership supported this.
I am not a Facebook user.
Could a member use a search to find likeminded people based on profiles?
Or are profiles visible/searchable to already identified friends?
I.E., could a user type in Jew Hater and find the users who have this in their profile?
Thanks for any response.
Re: ethnic targeting. If it’s housing-related, that would run afoul of laws put in place for good reasons. If it’s trying to sell magazine subscriptions or cooking solutions or personal care products, then targeting for FB shouldn’t be any more constrained than the way advertising is purchased in other venues.
So in that case surely it’s not the targeting capability that’s the problem, it’s how it’s used, right?
I mean, his name IS Zuckerberg after all…or should I say uber alles?
It is fascinating, especially when combined with the ongoing exposes of the Russian Troll Farm uses of Facebook.
Same thought occurred to me.
I also wondered about loss of the data value in being able to do this. The information that these would be great marketing terms, reaching a large audience and even better if you add guns (head banging happens here) seems like really important information.
Also – why is the ProPublica ad in German??? Did TPM do that or did that happen arithmetically???
“and said it would explore ways to fix the problem”
Meaning, this will take awhile. When they decide to commit. Sometime in the future, can’t say when, like said these things take time. It is almost like it is out of their hands.
For anyone who is wondering how to permanently delete their Facebook account (which I highly recommend if you have on) go here:
https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account
And just follow the instructions.
Here’s an article with more information on the matter:
Once you go down the microtargeting rathole, only human intervention will get you out of it. But this makes me wonder a little about their algorithm. If the algorithm is creating microgroups that are too small to actually sell ads to, this would seem not to make much sense, unless some of those people are really super-duper enthusiastic about their chosen subjects. Or unless their advertisers really like to aggregate groups in strange ways.
What this also tells me is that I hope Facebook is more secure than equifax. Because there’s some social science research just begging to be done there. And some targeted scams.
How does Facebook vet the ads it sells to microtargeted groups? Because if it’s waiting for user complaints there must be a lot of really interesting stuff appearing in some feeds.
(I am reminded of a story told by an IT guy from a midwestern city back in the early 90s, when they were first studying the job of putting public records online. He mentioned a perfectly legitimate search that someone might make: select all estates admitted to probate in the past year with values exceeding $250K and only one heir; then select the subset of those where the heir is a woman 65 years old or older…)
…and people wonder why I refuse to sign up to FB.
Are they like vampires or witches? Or do they burn like regular human people?
“How to burn jews,”
Jews ruined Russia so they can’t be all bad. Is that why alt right Russia admirers hate Jews?