3 ms·

How Is Disinformation Gaming Ad Tech? [pdf]

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
forinti 7y ago
It has recently come to light how Google helped fake news sites in Brazil: https://theintercept.com/2019/11/19/fake-news-google-blogueiros-antipetistas/ https://theintercept.com/2019/11/19/fake-news-google-bloguei... Apparently, the advertisers were not aware of where their ads were being shown.
12xo 7y ago
The rise of fake news, disinformation and the subsequent flaring of ignorance and hate are directly related to the currency of the web - ad imps. This is not new but has been exaggerated by the scale and the lack of any human oversight that Google and other ad exchanges offer. Pair in the ability to cookie match based on "intent" and thousands of other psycho-graphic and historical data points, and you have a definitive problem. For the longest time the issue was with the publishers themselves not being vetted. As bot filters and traffic reviews became better, they switched from sites themselves, to ads distributed. But the real issue is that media (not just digital) has ZERO incentive to change their practices. Attention is the currency of media and since controversy and sensationalism draw more eyeballs, they are used by actors across the spectrum to enhance their audience size and their revenue. Google and FB use this to their advantage by providing no market basis for their price. IMHO Facebook's problem is not the ads, its the fact that content distribution is sold as ads and 99/100 people cannot tell the difference between a friend sharing something and that something having been a paid boost or placement. The funny thing is that almost all of our current social issues are directly tied to advertising pushing the wrong message to the wrong people and the wrong time. Its the only reason we have Trump, or Kardashian for that matter and is the reason words no longer have any actual meaning. Dont believe me? Just look at words like Unlimited, guaranteed, free, etc for examples of this perversion. When we allowed the use of words without any legal blowback, we started down the slippery slope that ended with Trump. A man who is neither virtuous nor experienced at anything but playing the media sensationalism card better than anyone...
- jgeada 7y ago
  The problem of unqualified freedom of speech is that it amounts to freedom to lie without consequence for those that have power. And once you can lie with impunity, you have a mechanism to consolidate that power, either by disrupting those hostile to you (fake news, astroturfing, etc) or by providing support to those that support your goals.
  - giggles_giggles 7y ago
    The problem with restricting speech to only "true" speech is that then the truth is defined by those in power and those who disagree may not speak.
  - mc32 7y ago
    You’re kind of right, but not quite. When the bolsheviks took power the first thing they did was seize the means of communication in order to control speech. They became the only authorized voice to speak. So it’s not freedom of speech but control of speech by a single entity that establishes “narrative” that is the problem.
    - kazagistar 7y ago
      So maybe whats important is striving for an greater equality of power to speak? Power is both politics and money, and if you have enough of it, you can control the narrative and cause problems.
  - 12xo 7y ago
    This isnt "free speech", this is unfettered capitalism and greed. Free speech is about the Govt limiting what you can and cannot say. This is about how you can pay to manipulate the truth by leveraging a false sense of trust inherent in media. More akin to "Truth in Advertising" than free speech. People should not be allowed to misrepresent themselves or the facts without some blowback, either criminally (fraud) or civil (libel). [Digital] advertising is responsible for destroying trust.
    - 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

It has recently come to light how Google helped fake news sites in Brazil: https://theintercept.com/2019/11/19/fake-news-google-blogueiros-antipetistas/ https://theintercept.com/2019/11/19/fake-news-google-bloguei... Apparently, the advertisers were not aware of where their ads were being shown.

12xo 7y ago

The rise of fake news, disinformation and the subsequent flaring of ignorance and hate are directly related to the currency of the web - ad imps. This is not new but has been exaggerated by the scale and the lack of any human oversight that Google and other ad exchanges offer. Pair in the ability to cookie match based on "intent" and thousands of other psycho-graphic and historical data points, and you have a definitive problem. For the longest time the issue was with the publishers themselves not being vetted. As bot filters and traffic reviews became better, they switched from sites themselves, to ads distributed. But the real issue is that media (not just digital) has ZERO incentive to change their practices. Attention is the currency of media and since controversy and sensationalism draw more eyeballs, they are used by actors across the spectrum to enhance their audience size and their revenue. Google and FB use this to their advantage by providing no market basis for their price. IMHO Facebook's problem is not the ads, its the fact that content distribution is sold as ads and 99/100 people cannot tell the difference between a friend sharing something and that something having been a paid boost or placement. The funny thing is that almost all of our current social issues are directly tied to advertising pushing the wrong message to the wrong people and the wrong time. Its the only reason we have Trump, or Kardashian for that matter and is the reason words no longer have any actual meaning. Dont believe me? Just look at words like Unlimited, guaranteed, free, etc for examples of this perversion. When we allowed the use of words without any legal blowback, we started down the slippery slope that ended with Trump. A man who is neither virtuous nor experienced at anything but playing the media sensationalism card better than anyone...

jgeada 7y ago
The problem of unqualified freedom of speech is that it amounts to freedom to lie without consequence for those that have power. And once you can lie with impunity, you have a mechanism to consolidate that power, either by disrupting those hostile to you (fake news, astroturfing, etc) or by providing support to those that support your goals.
- giggles_giggles 7y ago
  The problem with restricting speech to only "true" speech is that then the truth is defined by those in power and those who disagree may not speak.
- mc32 7y ago
  You’re kind of right, but not quite. When the bolsheviks took power the first thing they did was seize the means of communication in order to control speech. They became the only authorized voice to speak. So it’s not freedom of speech but control of speech by a single entity that establishes “narrative” that is the problem.
  - kazagistar 7y ago
    So maybe whats important is striving for an greater equality of power to speak? Power is both politics and money, and if you have enough of it, you can control the narrative and cause problems.
- 12xo 7y ago
  This isnt "free speech", this is unfettered capitalism and greed. Free speech is about the Govt limiting what you can and cannot say. This is about how you can pay to manipulate the truth by leveraging a false sense of trust inherent in media. More akin to "Truth in Advertising" than free speech. People should not be allowed to misrepresent themselves or the facts without some blowback, either criminally (fraud) or civil (libel). [Digital] advertising is responsible for destroying trust.
  - 7y ago