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Advertising Businesses Facebook Social Networks The Internet

Facebook May Ban Bad Businesses From Advertising (theverge.com) 111

Facebook will now let you file a complaint about businesses you've had a problem with if you bought something after clicking on one of their ads. If enough people complain about a business, it could lead to Facebook banning the company from running ads. The Verge reports: The new policy is rolling out globally starting today, and it's meant to help Facebook fight back against another type of advertising abuse on its platform. Facebook says it's trying to combat "bad shopping experiences," which can cost customers and make them frustrated with Facebook, too. Facebook is particularly interested in a few problem areas: shipping times, product quality, and customer service. This isn't just a matter of misleading advertising: if a company regularly provides bad service, products that don't meet buyers' expectations, or just frustrates consumers, they risk getting in trouble with the platform.

It appears that Facebook will send notifications to users to ask about their experience if it detects that they've purchased something after clicking on an ad. You'll also be able to find those companies and leave feedback on the Ads Activity page. Facebook says it will inform businesses about negative feedback and try to pinpoint problems that a large number of customers are having. If customer feedback doesn't improve after a warning, Facebook will eventually start to limit how many ads a company can run. If it continues long enough, they can be banned.

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Facebook May Ban Bad Businesses From Advertising

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  • A new level to a DDOS attack.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Facebook bans themselves

      • I was thinking this policy could be used in an activist-like manner to boycott certain, unfavorable companies, but that's funny about Facebook, for sure.

    • by sycodon ( 149926 )

      Yep...SJWs will organize and start slamming un-PC businesses en mass.

      No different than the tactics used on Youtube videos and other social media platforms.

  • by PolygamousRanchKid ( 1290638 ) on Wednesday June 13, 2018 @05:11AM (#56776044)

    . . . against Facebook, and their business practices about collecting and selling data about folks who are not associated with their business.

    Maybe if enough people file complaints against Facebook, they will take some action against themselves.

    • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Wednesday June 13, 2018 @06:01AM (#56776140)
      I take it this is mostly in jest (not that what you say isn't true) but I think it does raise the point of something like this happening where some business (not necessarily Facebook) receives a lot of reports from an angry mob. That kind of action is right up the alley of the average "Kony 2012" internet slacktivist on Facebook.

      Facebook isn't completely stupid, but there's no way they're in a good enough position to evaluate these kinds of reports accurately or fairly. I suspect that some bad companies will get passes because they're well connected and know how to grease palms and some other legitimate companies that get broadsided by this won't be large enough for Facebook to care.
      • Yes, let's ask the folks whose business model is predicated on advertising sales to police it up, instead of applying a bit of common sense.

        There are abuses on both sides of the transaction; with deceptive advertisers taking advantage of the gullible, and uninformed purchasers blaming the seller for their own ignorance.

        Why would you even purchase something from a one-shot advertiser on the Facebook? Research a product you're interested in on as many sites as possible, and understand in advance that th

        • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Wednesday June 13, 2018 @08:36AM (#56776664)

          Why would you even purchase something from a one-shot advertiser on the Facebook? Research a product you're interested in on as many sites as possible, and understand in advance that the internet practice of purchasing something you cannot 1st hold in your hands is an inexact science.

          While this makes perfect sense to you and me, I'm going to guess that neither of us use Facebook. We've already got people getting their news from Facebook, so I expect purchasing decisions are the least of our worries.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      . . . against Facebook, and their business practices about collecting and selling data about folks who are not associated with their business.

      Maybe if enough people file complaints against Facebook, they will take some action against themselves.

      You would TRUST Fuckerberg to do that?

      Don't be a dumb fuck.

    • if facebook becomes the internet, such as it's facebook essentials in India, then doesn't it also violate net neutrality when it picks winners and losers?

    • by gnick ( 1211984 )

      ...selling data about folks who are not associated with their business.

      Is there any evidence that they've sold data linked to names of non-users? That would be super-shady, but I haven't heard of them doing that.

      • The words you are looking for are: 'Shadow profile'.

        • by gnick ( 1211984 )

          I'm aware of shadow profiles. The question I'm asking is whether they've been caught associating shadow profiles with names and selling the data. I'm not aware of that happening.

    • I heard you like to ban bad businesses, so I see you put a bad business in your business, so you can ban yourself while you ban everyone else.

      Kill Facebook.
    • Cue future headline:

      "Facebook bans bad businesses from advertising... and promptly disappears in a puff of logic."

    • by lagi ( 303346 )
      Yeah, you know, this is exactly what I was thinking reading this... Like maybe Facebook should ban them selfs from advertising.
  • by dohzer ( 867770 )

    Does Facebook ever advertise their business on Facebook?

  • by Anonymous Coward
    Facebook "may" do something good.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 13, 2018 @05:35AM (#56776090)

    It's open season on businesses you disagree with. It worked for posts, comments and videos. Why not businesses? Report brigades, ho!

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      All this is going to do is hide shady brick-and-morter businesses. The internet ones will just re-brand every 30 days (like the stores that sell counterfeit clothing, wedding dresses, and such do) and have a clean slate again.

      While I will applaud the idea behind this, the actual effort will require more than just "banning a business" but banning an entire marketing douchnozzle company from being able to place any ads for ANY of their clients.

      • The internet ones will just re-brand every 30 days (like the stores that sell counterfeit clothing, wedding dresses, and such do) and have a clean slate again.

        Don't forget Google changing its name to Alphabet.

    • The hard part is you actually have to buy before you complain.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        Buy something, then return and refund it. Double the damage to the business. That's how you review brigade on Valve's Steam for example.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Rather odd for a company to boast powerful AI targed ads only to have users report "bad" ones no? Smells awfully fishy. Clicking on any kind of report would confirm you saw the ad. Rating your experience confirms you purchased either the product on the ad or some other product from the company, either way furthering what they know about you.

  • It's a trap! (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    What a wonderful way to trick users, errr, suckers into giving FB feedback on ads!

  • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Wednesday June 13, 2018 @06:09AM (#56776158)

    I am not saying there are bad companies that produce crap. But if you look at Amazon bad reviews on products most of them are from people who got a product to solve a problem that there was no advertising to say it was even remotely going to solve.
    This $400 dell laptop runs the most modern games kinda choppy. It is utter crap compared to my $3000 desktop system I made last year.

    Or the people don’t understand the difference between a professional product vs a home product. Your linksys home router vs a Cisco switch for a data center. The home router is orders of magnitude cheaper and it has more features.
    Or people getting an expensive camera with lenses that do not autofocus. For most average picture taker your phone will get better pictures. But for the professional photographer they can get real art from this complex phone.

    People often will get the cheapest crap they can find expecting it to work like the premium version, or pay top dollar for an item that is meant for professionals that require sill and training to use.

    • by Kokuyo ( 549451 ) on Wednesday June 13, 2018 @07:27AM (#56776378) Journal

      I think there are much worse examples. One of them would be people leaving a 1 star review because shipping was bad. I have yet to figure out in what way that is the fault of the product.

      • It will depend. If the company that makes the product is also the ones that ship it, then they are responsible for not properly caring for their product in transit.

        I could make a top quality wooden sculpture. But if I decided to ship it in a box of nails and the customer gets it, they will be rightfully annoyed at my product.

  • by AbRASiON ( 589899 ) * on Wednesday June 13, 2018 @06:54AM (#56776264) Journal

    Look at the business which recently had people coming through the door late in the evening, AFTER closing time, they let people through but eventually had to cut new customers off at a certain point in time.

    Unfortunately, the next customer to try was a black woman,....

    Do I need to explain the rest? Suffice to say, total social media mess, people fired, was any of this deliberate? Who knows? Based on the original posted story, Occam's razor says no.

    Regardless. Customers can be idiots and cause unwarranted complaints and rating bombing to occur.

  • They may not.

  • Not after Cambridge Analytica and the fact that Facebook moved their servers out of Europe just to avoid privacy rules.
  • ...companies like Comcast and AT&T will be excluded from this policy. Can't have the keepers of the internet fast lanes getting tetchy with their subjects.

  • If this were tied to something independent of Facebook and broadly agreed on, maybe it would work. Minimum BBB score required, for example. But if Facebook (or any of the tech giants) try to do this itself it really just invites further regulation. Commercial advertising is the primary mechanism by which the tech giants exert economic control, as between Facebook, Google/AdWords/DoubleClick, and Twitter they control something like 90% of the online advertising market.

    I don't trust Silicon Valley with that k

  • So I'll believe it when I see it.

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