The ads are a window into a blatantly illegal underground economy that Meta is not only failing to moderate, but is actively profiting from and injecting into users’ feeds.
  • riodoro1@lemmy.worldEnglish
    671·
    2 years ago

    The biggest media corporations are allowed to advertise literal crime. Meanwhile saying the word cigarette on tv will get you jail time.

    • CriticalMiss@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      65·
      2 years ago

      In the article he states that he kept clicking on those ads on purpose, in order to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

    • deranger@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      16·
      2 years ago

      Some, sure. I asked my weed dealer to show me a bit on how this works. You’d be amazed at how much dealing is done over clearnet on FB messenger, whatsapp, etc. Little to no technical security. Selling drugs online has become much more mainstream than it was during the $10 bitcoin days. Not that I’d personally use clearnet for drugs, but that’s where a ton of deals are happening. This article only confirms what I’ve already seen.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        6·
        2 years ago

        Yep, so much stuff that used to be on TOR moved to discord. Then if they are smart they use Signal or Session, but I have heard of a lot of stuff just straight on FB… it’s crazy. I guess with that many transactions, it’s a really though game of whackamole. Especially since the internet made it much easier to deal drugs without needing to hold huge quantities at once.

  • NAS89@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23·
    2 years ago

    Similarly, my YouTube shorts are filled with gambling videos and “get rich quick scheme” videos. Seems as though “do not recommend channel” blocks the channel but assumes you have some growing interest in the topic.

    I just want to watch woodworking shorts and plumbing videos T_T

    • 10EXP@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      2 years ago

      Maybe do Not Interested and then Do not recommend channel?

      Unless doing the former just hides the video immediately and doesn’t let you do the latter, in which case just call me a fool.

      • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        2 years ago

        Yeah, Not Interested hides the video just like Do Not Recommend, so you can’t do both on the same one.

        But it doesn’t really matter, because for me Not Interested is actually signaling Youtube with Hell Yeah Gimme More! and anything I say I’m not interested in I see ten times more of. So I just block channels, which does seem to work reliably, except the list of shit channels is never ending.

        Blocktube is an awesome extension, but it doesn’t run on the browser I actually sign into Youtube as myself. I run it on another browser where I never sign in to avoid a one-off or accidental video choice skewing my recommendations for the indefinite future.

        The number of gyrations required just to watch what I want to watch, and not see what I don’t want to see, on Youtube is never ending.

        EDITED a word

  • Remmock@kbin.social
    222·
    2 years ago

    ITT: People who are so quick to suggest ad blockers they miss the point of the conversation.

  • Margot Robbie@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    2 years ago

    Now here’s the exact problem with the so called “personalized” ads, that Google and Facebook serves what the advertisers think you want to see, instead of what you actually want to see.

    This is the fundamental conflict of interest which the obvious conclusion is that online banner/video advertisements doesn’t work, and has never worked, because ultimately, no matter how many times you shove ads in people’s faces via a thoughtless machine, you can’t “trick” people into liking something. What people want is thoughtful, sincere recommendations by real people, which is why we have seen the rise of sassy brand Twitter accounts being so successful for a time: because there is a real person behind it.

    (Of course, it’s really funny if you take blatant advertisment to its logical extreme, and even that seemed more effective.)

    Of course, Google and Facebook will never admit that they’ve been lying to everyone and themselves for more than a decade, because to do so is to admit that their entire business of Web 2.0 was built on an absurd and illogical premise of again, if you show people ads for things they never asked for a thousand times, then you can brainwash them into liking something.

    In other words, Google and Facebook’s entire advertisment business model, if you really think about it, is really no different than pick-up artist logic, and. They. Just. Won’t. Go. Away.

  • TheLurker@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    2 years ago

    Are you telling me if I remove all my ad blocking infrastructure I’ll get ads for drugs?

    Hmm maybe I need to rethink my network design. 🤔😆

    • theangryseal@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 years ago

      I may or may not have acquired exactly the acid in those pics.

      I definitely did not.

      Or did I?

      It looks identical actually and I’m willing to bet it came from the same place.

      If I actually had it that is.

  • Astroturfed@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    2 years ago

    Drugs or Chinese scam products. Had a friend tell me he ordered something that never showed up, turned out they sent these super cheap toothbrushes in the mail and then tried to use that tracking info as proof he received what he bought. They just allow anyone who will pay to advertise illegal shit, scams, whatever it’s the wild West.

  • mindbleach@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    142·
    2 years ago

    This shit’s going on in centralized big-name websites, while Lemmy instances fret about discussing piracy and ban people for being impolite to bigots.

    I fucking hate the modern web.

  • 30mag@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    2 years ago

    My facebook ads are almost always drugs. microdose ketamine study, psilocybin mushroom kits, CBD/THC gummies, online doctor visits for generic Lexapro…

    • EnderWi99in@kbin.social
      2·
      2 years ago

      Yeah I get a lot of those as well. Anxiety, ADHD, and autism stuff mostly. I keep shooting down the ads as I suffer from none of these things. No idea why it keeps pushing that crap.