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Facebook Is Recycling Your Likes To Promote Stories You've Never Seen

90 points by wyclif 14y ago

grey-area 14y ago
There's a serious issue of integrity here - Facebook is already appropriating people's identity for use in advertising, which in itself is disconcerting. The real world equivalent to their ads where you have 'liked' a page would be something like a ski resort using your ski pass photo on a billboard next to an endorsement of their resort. On top of that misrepresenting the opinions of its users like this to promote content that they have never even seen to their extended network is misleading in the extreme. Most people would not agree to this sort of manipulation, and there are even questions about how some likes have been generated: http://readwrite.com/2012/12/11/why-are-dead-people-liking-stuff-on-facebook http://readwrite.com/2012/12/11/why-are-dead-people-liking-s... Facebook have to be careful here, as if they lose the trust of their users by continually abusing it, people will just shut down their accounts. Their actual site offers little that can't be easily done with other services, their only pull with users at present is the network effect, which works both ways as if trust starts to slip and people notice others leaving, it can easily snowball.
- RexRollman 14y ago
  Integrity is something FB does not seem to concern itself with. And sadly, FB will largely get away with it, as everyday people just keep coming back for more.
- dmckeon 14y ago
  FTA: Condon continues, “most individuals have no idea this is happening. Any post made by Facebook on your behalf is completely invisible to you, and only shows up in your friends’ & family’s news feed.” That choice and the responses of people removing all their previous "likes" suggests that this amounts to a drive-by monetization rather than sustainable model.
ajhai 14y ago
I'm not sure if this is the case with just me or something really changed got changed behind the scenes, I've been seeing less of these 'sponsored' stories lately since this news created buzz sometime back.
- dcminter 14y ago
  If the difference is real (I've not seen it) then perhaps it's a result of more users becoming aware of the option to disable "Pair my social actions with adverts" via settings: http://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&section=social&view http://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&section=social&... In my own case I've come to see "likes" as a liability and removed all existing "likes" for commercial organizations or any uncommercial org for which I see these paid-for posts. Hardly the desirable outcome for Facebook or the organizations! I hope my reaction becomes more prevalent.
  - paulgb 14y ago
    I did the same and removed all my likes out of fear of showing up in ads. Whether the ads were misleading is irrelevant; I don't want my friends to associate me with ads.
    - joshrotenberg 14y ago
      Me too. Just went in and unliked everything I could.
naner 14y ago
Sort of a meta question: If you manage to use Facebook without ever "Liking" anything, will your face never show up in advertising for your friends?
- duggan 14y ago
  Interested to know, since I've never "liked" anything other than friend's status updates, (and I "unliked" all the autoliking they did when they converted a bunch of profile fields into likes a couple of years ago).
conradfr 14y ago
I have recommended a article on an alt FB account. I never did this (I just logged on the website with FB connect), I can't see it on my wall and remove it, and I revoked any rights for this website on FB preferences. I would be a lot more annoyed if it was in my real account. Following that I removed most of my infos and page likes. Seeing the new Graph Search, I'm glad.
bluetidepro 14y ago
To clear it up a bit, it's NOT what everyone is making it seem like. Facebook is NOT auto 'liking' a post on your behalf. Basically, what is happening (per his example) is that "Johnny" liked "Vice", and what Facebook is saying is "Johnny liked Vice", and it's pulling in a recent/popular "Vice" article to expand more on the brand. To help get more likes for the brand (which is a good thing, for pages/brands). It's NOT saying "Johnny liked this Vice story", which is what he [the guy in the video] is implying. That's why it says "Related Stories", that story is related to "Johnny" liking "Vice", because it's a "Vice" story/post. Facebook should just make it more clear that you like "Vice" as a whole, and because Facebook wants to promote that you like "Vice" they should phrase it like it's a recent "Vice" post and NOT an article "you" specifically liked. They currently have a horizontal rule with "Related Story" to show this, but that probably isn't enough since everyone is getting confused. That's the confusion here. It's just a confusing UI/UX element, it's not like they are saying you "Like" this weird article that you never liked. People need to take a "chill pill" over this, because it's not as bad as it seems.
- dcminter 14y ago
  The suspicion - and I think it's a reasonable one - is that the confusion is completely intentional. In which case it really is as bad as it seems. Why they don't just make the search facilities work better and attach adverts to those instead of these sorts of shenanigans is beyond me.
  - bluetidepro 14y ago
    I would argue that it's not intentional. I will agree they are trying to bring more exposure to a brands by pulling in a related story in a confusing UI way, but I think they could argue that they don't force you to 'like' anything. If you don't like the things pages you 'like' are posting, 'unlike' them. It's that simple. I tested it with a few test accounts and if you 'unlike' the page there will be no posts like this. So, I will keep with my statement that it's not as bad as it seems. People just need to watch what they 'like' and maybe go back through those 'likes' to do some cleaning. I actually like this, because it puts the full blame on the user to be more responsible on what they 'like', and not to just 'like' everything possible.
ccorda 14y ago
'It turns out that Facebook also adds likes any time a user messages a link to a “likable” page.' Is this true? If I share a link so something on HackerNews, can PG now run social ads against that action?
- alexwebmaster 14y ago
  yep, this is true, basically every shared link inside a message counts as a vote
valgaze 14y ago
Why is this simple idea so hard: I don't want anything posted on my behalf unless I say so- ads, apps, likes, anything Old Feb 2012 story on this about a guy who became associated with a "personal lubricant" via Amazon: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57386733-71/facebook-ad-puts-lubricant-joke-on-slippery-slope/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57386733-71/facebook-ad-pu...
- neumann_alfred 14y ago
  I don't want anything posted on my behalf unless I say so Maybe they know that. Maybe it turns them on? Just consider people who grope, or even rapists. They know their victims don't want it, and in presence of physically fit people who pay attention they hold their feet quite still; but as soon as the attention or the ability for self-defense wanes, they come a-creeping again. Sure I could have used a less loaded comparison, but for me that's what is going on here and elsewhere. Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft to name just those who certainly will not stop unless they've been disabled. But of course, it's really hard to knock someone out for good when for anyone adding 2 and 2, there are ten people with Stockholm Syndrome doing their best to stop them; so that's why we're still here, instead of, say, the information age. Bill Hicks kindly asked advertisers to kill themselves; they didn't. So can we at least fucking stop putting food on their table? I'd like to know how an information age, as opposed to a naked emperor advertisement age, would actually look like. Since they won't do the decent thing, let's do it for them. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a hundred times, and people get confused and think that's just how it is. Well no, and it isn't over until the heat death of the universe, either.
petsounds 14y ago
There's been a running joke with my friend who always shows up as liking T-Mobile in my timeline (along with the timeline of everyone he's friends with) with whatever the latest T-Mobile update is, but he "unliked" T-Mobile over a year ago - pretty trivial, but also pretty annoying
DenisM 14y ago
This sort of thing can only further degrade the quality of information that Facebook has at their disposal. Let me elaborate: When Google started with Pagerank, making a link was technically hard, so each link was a vote of confidence made by a person, who is on average technically literate, and so on average is well-educated. As the first CMS systems emerged, they were still a pain to use, so only the most motivated people were making links, presumably those people also put some effort into researching their subject. The community of less educated and/or motivated people then could use Google to discover information that was effectively hand-sorted for them by the more educated and motivated. As adding weight to the link graph became easier, the quality of information began to fall. Enter Facebook - liking a page is the easiest thing you can do, takes no effort and there are no educational barriers. On the contrary, the most educated people will see this sort of shenanigans and they will stop "liking" anything at all. The less educated will continue to "like" things left and right, making it even more repulsive for the educated. Long term the entirety of information Facebook has in their possession is filled with celebrity gossip, urban legends, chain letters, cute kittens, horoscopes, feel-good wisdom quotes, etc - all that information that is heavy on emotional engagement, but light on actual information. There in lies the problem with "social search" - garbage in, garbage out.
- balbaugh 14y ago
  A couple of months ago, I un-liked everything except for a couple of bands. Main reason was that I don't have the time or patience for their changes in privacy. I couldn't even remember some of the things I had liked back when the feature was first introduced and I didn't want that to come back to haunt me at some point when I am not paying attention to their privacy policies.
dvo 14y ago
The quality of content on my Facebook feed has taken a turn for the worse lately. I regularly see sponsored or related posts that I have absolutely no interest in, leaving me with a more negative impression of that business and of the value of the Facebook experience. I don't mind ads, but they should at least be relevant. If you are putting ads directly in my feed that are as far from relevant to me as possible, then you've got a problem. It all started when I saw a post about purchasing country-style boots from a discount country store. Then it got worse with posts promoting Walmart. I believe those posts suffered from the problem noted in this article. It looked somewhat like a friend promoting Walmart. Does anyone know if there is a way to hide this stuff?

90 points by wyclif 14y ago

There's a serious issue of integrity here - Facebook is already appropriating people's identity for use in advertising, which in itself is disconcerting. The real world equivalent to their ads where you have 'liked' a page would be something like a ski resort using your ski pass photo on a billboard next to an endorsement of their resort. On top of that misrepresenting the opinions of its users like this to promote content that they have never even seen to their extended network is misleading in the extreme. Most people would not agree to this sort of manipulation, and there are even questions about how some likes have been generated: http://readwrite.com/2012/12/11/why-are-dead-people-liking-stuff-on-facebook http://readwrite.com/2012/12/11/why-are-dead-people-liking-s... Facebook have to be careful here, as if they lose the trust of their users by continually abusing it, people will just shut down their accounts. Their actual site offers little that can't be easily done with other services, their only pull with users at present is the network effect, which works both ways as if trust starts to slip and people notice others leaving, it can easily snowball.

RexRollman 14y ago
Integrity is something FB does not seem to concern itself with. And sadly, FB will largely get away with it, as everyday people just keep coming back for more.
dmckeon 14y ago
FTA: Condon continues, “most individuals have no idea this is happening. Any post made by Facebook on your behalf is completely invisible to you, and only shows up in your friends’ & family’s news feed.” That choice and the responses of people removing all their previous "likes" suggests that this amounts to a drive-by monetization rather than sustainable model.

ajhai 14y ago

I'm not sure if this is the case with just me or something really changed got changed behind the scenes, I've been seeing less of these 'sponsored' stories lately since this news created buzz sometime back.

dcminter 14y ago
If the difference is real (I've not seen it) then perhaps it's a result of more users becoming aware of the option to disable "Pair my social actions with adverts" via settings: http://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&section=social&view http://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads&section=social&... In my own case I've come to see "likes" as a liability and removed all existing "likes" for commercial organizations or any uncommercial org for which I see these paid-for posts. Hardly the desirable outcome for Facebook or the organizations! I hope my reaction becomes more prevalent.
- paulgb 14y ago
  I did the same and removed all my likes out of fear of showing up in ads. Whether the ads were misleading is irrelevant; I don't want my friends to associate me with ads.
  - joshrotenberg 14y ago
    Me too. Just went in and unliked everything I could.

naner 14y ago

Sort of a meta question: If you manage to use Facebook without ever "Liking" anything, will your face never show up in advertising for your friends?

duggan 14y ago
Interested to know, since I've never "liked" anything other than friend's status updates, (and I "unliked" all the autoliking they did when they converted a bunch of profile fields into likes a couple of years ago).

conradfr 14y ago

I have recommended a article on an alt FB account. I never did this (I just logged on the website with FB connect), I can't see it on my wall and remove it, and I revoked any rights for this website on FB preferences. I would be a lot more annoyed if it was in my real account. Following that I removed most of my infos and page likes. Seeing the new Graph Search, I'm glad.

bluetidepro 14y ago

To clear it up a bit, it's NOT what everyone is making it seem like. Facebook is NOT auto 'liking' a post on your behalf. Basically, what is happening (per his example) is that "Johnny" liked "Vice", and what Facebook is saying is "Johnny liked Vice", and it's pulling in a recent/popular "Vice" article to expand more on the brand. To help get more likes for the brand (which is a good thing, for pages/brands). It's NOT saying "Johnny liked this Vice story", which is what he [the guy in the video] is implying. That's why it says "Related Stories", that story is related to "Johnny" liking "Vice", because it's a "Vice" story/post. Facebook should just make it more clear that you like "Vice" as a whole, and because Facebook wants to promote that you like "Vice" they should phrase it like it's a recent "Vice" post and NOT an article "you" specifically liked. They currently have a horizontal rule with "Related Story" to show this, but that probably isn't enough since everyone is getting confused. That's the confusion here. It's just a confusing UI/UX element, it's not like they are saying you "Like" this weird article that you never liked. People need to take a "chill pill" over this, because it's not as bad as it seems.

dcminter 14y ago
The suspicion - and I think it's a reasonable one - is that the confusion is completely intentional. In which case it really is as bad as it seems. Why they don't just make the search facilities work better and attach adverts to those instead of these sorts of shenanigans is beyond me.
- bluetidepro 14y ago
  I would argue that it's not intentional. I will agree they are trying to bring more exposure to a brands by pulling in a related story in a confusing UI way, but I think they could argue that they don't force you to 'like' anything. If you don't like the things pages you 'like' are posting, 'unlike' them. It's that simple. I tested it with a few test accounts and if you 'unlike' the page there will be no posts like this. So, I will keep with my statement that it's not as bad as it seems. People just need to watch what they 'like' and maybe go back through those 'likes' to do some cleaning. I actually like this, because it puts the full blame on the user to be more responsible on what they 'like', and not to just 'like' everything possible.

ccorda 14y ago

'It turns out that Facebook also adds likes any time a user messages a link to a “likable” page.' Is this true? If I share a link so something on HackerNews, can PG now run social ads against that action?

alexwebmaster 14y ago
yep, this is true, basically every shared link inside a message counts as a vote

valgaze 14y ago

Why is this simple idea so hard: I don't want anything posted on my behalf unless I say so- ads, apps, likes, anything Old Feb 2012 story on this about a guy who became associated with a "personal lubricant" via Amazon: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57386733-71/facebook-ad-puts-lubricant-joke-on-slippery-slope/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57386733-71/facebook-ad-pu...

neumann_alfred 14y ago
I don't want anything posted on my behalf unless I say so Maybe they know that. Maybe it turns them on? Just consider people who grope, or even rapists. They know their victims don't want it, and in presence of physically fit people who pay attention they hold their feet quite still; but as soon as the attention or the ability for self-defense wanes, they come a-creeping again. Sure I could have used a less loaded comparison, but for me that's what is going on here and elsewhere. Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft to name just those who certainly will not stop unless they've been disabled. But of course, it's really hard to knock someone out for good when for anyone adding 2 and 2, there are ten people with Stockholm Syndrome doing their best to stop them; so that's why we're still here, instead of, say, the information age. Bill Hicks kindly asked advertisers to kill themselves; they didn't. So can we at least fucking stop putting food on their table? I'd like to know how an information age, as opposed to a naked emperor advertisement age, would actually look like. Since they won't do the decent thing, let's do it for them. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me a hundred times, and people get confused and think that's just how it is. Well no, and it isn't over until the heat death of the universe, either.

petsounds 14y ago

There's been a running joke with my friend who always shows up as liking T-Mobile in my timeline (along with the timeline of everyone he's friends with) with whatever the latest T-Mobile update is, but he "unliked" T-Mobile over a year ago - pretty trivial, but also pretty annoying

DenisM 14y ago

This sort of thing can only further degrade the quality of information that Facebook has at their disposal. Let me elaborate: When Google started with Pagerank, making a link was technically hard, so each link was a vote of confidence made by a person, who is on average technically literate, and so on average is well-educated. As the first CMS systems emerged, they were still a pain to use, so only the most motivated people were making links, presumably those people also put some effort into researching their subject. The community of less educated and/or motivated people then could use Google to discover information that was effectively hand-sorted for them by the more educated and motivated. As adding weight to the link graph became easier, the quality of information began to fall. Enter Facebook - liking a page is the easiest thing you can do, takes no effort and there are no educational barriers. On the contrary, the most educated people will see this sort of shenanigans and they will stop "liking" anything at all. The less educated will continue to "like" things left and right, making it even more repulsive for the educated. Long term the entirety of information Facebook has in their possession is filled with celebrity gossip, urban legends, chain letters, cute kittens, horoscopes, feel-good wisdom quotes, etc - all that information that is heavy on emotional engagement, but light on actual information. There in lies the problem with "social search" - garbage in, garbage out.

balbaugh 14y ago
A couple of months ago, I un-liked everything except for a couple of bands. Main reason was that I don't have the time or patience for their changes in privacy. I couldn't even remember some of the things I had liked back when the feature was first introduced and I didn't want that to come back to haunt me at some point when I am not paying attention to their privacy policies.

dvo 14y ago

The quality of content on my Facebook feed has taken a turn for the worse lately. I regularly see sponsored or related posts that I have absolutely no interest in, leaving me with a more negative impression of that business and of the value of the Facebook experience. I don't mind ads, but they should at least be relevant. If you are putting ads directly in my feed that are as far from relevant to me as possible, then you've got a problem. It all started when I saw a post about purchasing country-style boots from a discount country store. Then it got worse with posts promoting Walmart. I believe those posts suffered from the problem noted in this article. It looked somewhat like a friend promoting Walmart. Does anyone know if there is a way to hide this stuff?