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How do they determine what's a housing ad? There's two pieces to this a) Facebook makes this possible and b) Facebook damns themselves and promotes that they m

How do they determine what's a housing ad? There's two pieces to this a) Facebook makes this possible and b) Facebook damns themselves and promotes that they make this possible for housing. Part b is easy to fix: make it harder to do housing ads that are targeted. However, part a is much harder: what stops me from advertising my AirBnb listing as a URL on Facebook as a "generic ad"?

TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
> what stops me from advertising my AirBnb listing as a URL on Facebook as a "generic ad"? By not permitting Airbnb URLs as generic ads. Edit to ad: and placing a warning if it looks like it might be a housing ad: “this looks like a housing related ad and has been flagged for moderation”
jerf 8y ago
"How do they determine what's a housing ad?" You ask the user to say what type of ad it is, under penalty of violation of contract, and contractually obligate them to carry the legal risk if they lie. There's no requirement that it be done via some fancy ML algorithm. I would expect that unless FB actively attempts to piss off the government, that would pass legal muster. Goodness knows I've signed enough agreements where I've agreed to very similar clauses just in normal day-to-day life.
- protomyth 8y ago
  > contractually obligate them to carry the legal risk if they lie The government is under no obligation to look at the terms of a civil contract when they decide who to prosecute.
  - mjcl 8y ago
    Furthermore, Facebook has already tried this. After the first ProPublica article (last year, I think) they added a “I’m not breaking the law” checkbox.
- bertil 8y ago
  I’m afraid that the law being used to accuse Facebook would apply in that case too.
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 8y ago
    Are you saying that as a lawyer who is aware of this area of law, or are you saying that as a random internet person? I'd be more than a little surprised if your guess is correct. Normally, in my understanding, if one makes a good faith attempt to follow the law, one is normally in the clear. One does not become culpable when one's efforts to comply are stymied by fraud on the part of a third party. Then again, I'm just a random internet person. If you're a lawyer, or if you can provide chapter and verse, I'll shut up.
reaperducer 8y ago
How do they determine what's a housing ad? The same way that newspapers, television stations, radio stations, magazines, and advertising agencies have for the last 200 or so years. And they didn't have super-duper AI, the smartest people on the continent, and warehouses full of servers to help.
ubernostrum 8y ago
How do they determine what's a housing ad? By doing it. Facebook loves to try to play both sides, and claim to paying customers that it absolutely has the ability to do a thing, while turning round and saying to regulators that it is only a poor helpless social-media network utterly lacking in the ability to do such things. If even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the capabilities Facebook claims in its materials for advertisers are genuine, it can figure out which ads are housing ads.

TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago

> what stops me from advertising my AirBnb listing as a URL on Facebook as a "generic ad"? By not permitting Airbnb URLs as generic ads. Edit to ad: and placing a warning if it looks like it might be a housing ad: “this looks like a housing related ad and has been flagged for moderation”

jerf 8y ago

"How do they determine what's a housing ad?" You ask the user to say what type of ad it is, under penalty of violation of contract, and contractually obligate them to carry the legal risk if they lie. There's no requirement that it be done via some fancy ML algorithm. I would expect that unless FB actively attempts to piss off the government, that would pass legal muster. Goodness knows I've signed enough agreements where I've agreed to very similar clauses just in normal day-to-day life.

protomyth 8y ago
> contractually obligate them to carry the legal risk if they lie The government is under no obligation to look at the terms of a civil contract when they decide who to prosecute.
- mjcl 8y ago
  Furthermore, Facebook has already tried this. After the first ProPublica article (last year, I think) they added a “I’m not breaking the law” checkbox.
bertil 8y ago
I’m afraid that the law being used to accuse Facebook would apply in that case too.
- asdfasgasdgasdg 8y ago
  Are you saying that as a lawyer who is aware of this area of law, or are you saying that as a random internet person? I'd be more than a little surprised if your guess is correct. Normally, in my understanding, if one makes a good faith attempt to follow the law, one is normally in the clear. One does not become culpable when one's efforts to comply are stymied by fraud on the part of a third party. Then again, I'm just a random internet person. If you're a lawyer, or if you can provide chapter and verse, I'll shut up.

reaperducer 8y ago

How do they determine what's a housing ad? The same way that newspapers, television stations, radio stations, magazines, and advertising agencies have for the last 200 or so years. And they didn't have super-duper AI, the smartest people on the continent, and warehouses full of servers to help.

ubernostrum 8y ago

How do they determine what's a housing ad? By doing it. Facebook loves to try to play both sides, and claim to paying customers that it absolutely has the ability to do a thing, while turning round and saying to regulators that it is only a poor helpless social-media network utterly lacking in the ability to do such things. If even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the capabilities Facebook claims in its materials for advertisers are genuine, it can figure out which ads are housing ads.