The social network Facebook tolerates scammers, hackers and disinformation agents, because they bring it money. BuzzFeed News came to such a conclusion after its собственного расследования.
Analysts project that in 2020 Facebook will bring in $80 billion in ad revenue. Part of this comes from potentially fraudulent advertisements for cryptocurrency, investment and conspiracy projects, fake news, extremist movements and counterfeit COVID-19 cures.
“Facebook will take any cent it can get for anything; it doesn’t matter what happens on the platform,” sources told BuzzFeed News, adding that safety for Facebook has always ranked second to revenue growth.
The publication analyzed internal Facebook documents and spoke with current and former employees. They said the social network relies on outsourcing moderation to third-party contractors who are paid $18 an hour and fully obey the company’s instructions.
“Despite all the statements about artificial intelligence, the main solution to the moderation problem is to outsource it to someone who may not have much experience,” said former Google employee Tim Hwan, author of the book “The Crisis of Low-Quality Attention.”
According to BuzzFeed News, the company asked some contractors to ignore large fraudulent schemes and account hacks while “Facebook earns money from advertising.”
“Moderators can be instructed to ignore a hacked ad account if the ads placed there by the scammers are paid for using a valid method, and not with stolen cards,” the investigation notes.
Before the US elections, Facebook deliberately loosened political ads moderation, raised the allowable daily budgets, and allowed reinstatement of accounts previously disabled for violations.
The social network actively collaborates with advertisers from China, where Facebook has been blocked since 2009. In 2018 alone they принесли Facebook $5 млрд, which made the PRC the second-largest advertising market for the platform after the United States with revenues of $25 billion. At the same time, a third of ads from China violate at least one platform advertising rule, BuzzFeed News adds.
“China is China, but we want to earn money there,” said a source familiar with Facebook’s ad moderation.
Another black market for Facebook advertising is Vietnam, where for many years agencies’ ad accounts have been hacked en masse to run ads, including those of a terrorist nature. In 2018 Facebook’s Vietnam revenue amounted to $1 billion, what portion of this came from hacked accounts is unknown.
Facebook spokesperson Osborne, in a comment to BuzzFeed News, disputed the idea that the company profits from fraudulent advertising. He said the social network spends heavily on protecting its platform from misleading and low-quality advertising.
Facebook noted that more than 35,000 people work on trust and safety issues, but declined to provide a figure focused on ensuring the honesty of advertising.
Back in June, Pavel Durov accused Facebook and Instagram of profiting from his name. He said the platform’s moderators readily approve fraudulent ads allegedly from the Telegram Open Network.
In February, Qatari billionaire Visam al-Manа filed a lawsuit against Facebook for failing to promptly respond to advertising for a fraudulent cryptocurrency project using his photograph.
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