I think "no potential" is way over-selling the case. For these purposes, I think targeted astroturfing is probably more cost-effective than ads, and wouldn't b

I think "no potential" is way over-selling the case. For these purposes, I think targeted astroturfing is probably more cost-effective than ads, and wouldn't be prevented by Facebook dropping ads altogether. I enjoy the thought of an alternate universe where the most common social network is a p2p federated open-source system without ads, just running on alternative firmware in people's WiFi routers. However, that universe would still have astroturfing, and it would likely be harder to detect.