Facebook has an automated system for creating classifiers for its advertisers to use in their ad-targeting. This is a a terrible idea, whose idiocy has been obvious since 2017, when this system started allowing people to advertise to "Jew-haters."
propublica.org/article/facebo…
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propublica.org/article/facebo…
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But FB has 2.5B users, and while the impossibility of doing that responsibly is obvious to those without a financial stake in it, FB's got Upton Sinclair disease:
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
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"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
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That's why FB is STILL running the system that coughed up "Jew-hater" 3 years ago.
Now, The Markup has identified some of its other categories, like "pseudoscience" and various conspiracy theories ("New World Order," "Chemtrails," etc).
themarkup.org/coronavirus/20…
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Now, The Markup has identified some of its other categories, like "pseudoscience" and various conspiracy theories ("New World Order," "Chemtrails," etc).
themarkup.org/coronavirus/20…
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FB has now deleted those categories. But it hasn't deleted the system that generated them.
reuters.com/article/us-hea…
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reuters.com/article/us-hea…
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These categories are partially to blame for the spread of 5G/coronavirus conspiracies, as well as the promotion of ineffective and dangerous quack "medicine." They're used to target vulnerable people with messages that are shrouded in secrecy.
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"A a test by Consumer Reports in April showed Facebook approving ads containing coronavirus misinformation, including false claims that the virus was a hoax or that people could stay healthy through small daily doses of bleach."
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