Comment by axus
1 day ago
If I'm reading this right, the playbook was... deleting scam ads ? And the implied problem is they only deleted searchable ads, and not trying harder to get rid of all of them.
It's interesting that Facebook was trying NOT to uncover identities, they're famous for insisting on real names.
All ads are searchable. They found the exact words and phrases that regulators used and then made sure those were clean.
>As a result, Meta decided to take the tactic global, performing similar analyses to assess “scam discoverability” in other countries. “We have built a vast keyword list by country that is meant to mimic what regulators may search for,” one document states. Another described the work as changing the “prevalence perception” of scams on Facebook and Instagram.
> the implied problem is they only deleted searchable ads
Well, more just the ads that matched the specific queries the regulators were using. So yes, they removed some scam ads, but there are probably many more that people are still seeing just because those didn't match the search queries the regulators were searching for.
> It's interesting that Facebook was trying NOT to uncover identities, they're famous for insisting on real names.
It isn't really surprising. If they required real identities, they wouldn't be able to make money from scammers using throw-away accounts, or from entities subject to US sanctions, so there is a monetary incentive not to know the identity of the ad customers.
Precisely, completely agree.
If this method actually removed a significant percentage of scam ads, rather than just heading off scrutiny, then a) doing proper verification wouldn't cost them $2b a year like they claim it would, and b) their quarterly revenues would be taking a meaningful (single digits %) hit and the share price would suffer.
This is the same tactics VW used. Find out about the test the regulator uses and focus on passing the tests instead of complying with the rules the regulator wants to enforce.
They weren't even deleting the scam ads, that would decrease their revenue. They were just hiding the scam ads from regulators.
I believe that's incorrect - the article quotes Meta as saying "By cleaning those ads from search results, the company is also removing them from its systems overall".
The real problem as I understand it is that they didn't stop the ads from entering the system, but rather identified the words used by regulators and only deleted those ads (after an unspecified amount of time online) from the system.