Week 5 - Lucy - Facebook, After ‘Fail’ Over Ads Targeting Racists, Makes Changes
Facebook, After ‘Fail’ Over Ads Targeting Racists, Makes Changes Responding to evidence that its tools had allowed ads to be directed at users who used racist comments or hate speech in their profiles, Facebook said Wednesday that it would change how ads can be targeted. That its ad-targeting tools could be used in such a way was “a fail” for the company, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said in a post. She added that Facebook would add “more human review and oversight” to its automated systems to prevent further misuse. Ms. Sandberg, who was directly addressing the social network’s recent advertising issues for the first time, also said the company would do more to ensure that offensive content — including that which attacks people for their race or religion — could not be used to target ads. The announcement came after a report from ProPublica last week revealed that Facebook’s online ad tools had allowed advertisers to target self-described “Jew haters” or people who had used terms like “how to burn Jews.” The terms automatically appeared in Facebook’s ad system because people vchad apparently filled them in under “education” and “employer” on their profiles. “Hate has no place on Facebook — and as a Jew, as a mother, and as a human being, I know the damage that can come from hate,” Ms. Sandberg wrote. “The fact that hateful terms were even offered as options was totally inappropriate and a fail on our part.” Ms. Sandberg said the company “never intended or anticipated this functionality being used this way — and that is on us.” Facebook has grown into one of the world’s most valuable companies by offering advertisers the ability to quickly and easily target its users based on a vast array of information, from the type of home they live in to their favorite television shows. But the company is facing a new wave of scrutiny over how those tools can be misused, particularly after it disclosed this month that fake accounts based in Russia had purchased more than $100,000 worth of ads on divisive issues in the run-up to the presidential election. Source: New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/20/business/media/facebook-racist-ads.html?smid=fb-share
Facebook, After ‘Fail’ Over Ads Targeting Racists, Makes Changes Responding to evidence that its tools had allowed ads to be directed at users who used racist comments or hate speech in their profiles, Facebook said Wednesday that it would change how ads can be targeted. That its ad-targeting tools could be used in such a way was “a fail” for the company, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said in a post. She added that Facebook would add “more human review and oversight” to its automated systems to prevent further misuse. Ms. Sandberg, who was directly addressing the social network’s recent advertising issues for the first time, also said the company would do more to ensure that offensive content — including that which attacks people for their race or religion — could not be used to target ads. The announcement came after a report from ProPublica last week revealed that Facebook’s online ad tools had allowed advertisers to target self-described “Jew haters” or people who had used terms like “how to burn Jews.” The terms automatically appeared in Facebook’s ad system because people vchad apparently filled them in under “education” and “employer” on their profiles. “Hate has no place on Facebook — and as a Jew, as a mother, and as a human being, I know the damage that can come from hate,” Ms. Sandberg wrote. “The fact that hateful terms were even offered as options was totally inappropriate and a fail on our part.” Ms. Sandberg said the company “never intended or anticipated this functionality being used this way — and that is on us.” Facebook has grown into one of the world’s most valuable companies by offering advertisers the ability to quickly and easily target its users based on a vast array of information, from the type of home they live in to their favorite television shows. But the company is facing a new wave of scrutiny over how those tools can be misused, particularly after it disclosed this month that fake accounts based in Russia had purchased more than $100,000 worth of ads on divisive issues in the run-up to the presidential election. Source: New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/20/business/media/facebook-racist-ads.html?smid=fb-share