Twitter apologises for letting ads target neo-Nazis and bigots, including transphobes

[snowblight]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51112238

Your point being???

My search keywords don’t include ‘transphobic’

They include ‘erasure’ ‘definition’ ‘legal rights’ ‘women and girls’.

Keywords Emmeline Pankhurst would use. Big difference.

That's ok for me then as I don't consider myself a transphobe or search for the tag "transphobic". All is well.

Who are 'Hope not Hate?' Never heard of them. But I would like to know who they are and whether they have a specific ideological agenda

The anorexia example is concerning. For example, a cosmetic surgeon could target ads to teenagers using words like “affirmative treatment”, “top surgery” or “binding”. Another concern for the exploitation of vulnerable children.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention snowblight.

EH????

Well that's the end of Posie Parker's advertising campaign.

”Our investigation found it possible to target users who had shown an interest in keywords including "transphobic", "white supremacists" and "anti-gay".”

So they’re going to stop targeting ads at TRAs, possibly neo-nazis?

Because I’m fairly sure the groups who would be using the key words quoted the most would be genderists, etc.

I don’t think people generally will care that they are not being advertised at.

Well that's the end of Posie Parker's advertising campaign.

I thought it was always just by accident that she's; sometimes pictured standing next to those types?

Whatever you were trying to do here Snowblight, you failed.

Because I’m fairly sure the groups who would be using the key words quoted the most would be genderists, etc.

This! You'd end up targeting a bunch of aggressive assholes who are busy trying to get someone sacked for saying that women give birth, or whatever. It's such a silly article.

Though I have to say, the thought of what would happen if people who use the word "transphobe" were targeted with "transphobic" ads is absolutely hilarious and I almost hope someone tries it.

Their finding about the potential to target teenage girls with eating disorders - and the testimonial that this may be already happening - is by contrast genuinely concerning.

Fuck the BBC for burying that finding in the middle of the article.

Social media profiling uses all user activity to assign interests, not just what words you search for.

It’s what you click on, watch, share, comment on, like, follow, slow down for as you scroll, what websites you visit while on a device that’s logged in to that platform, the words you use in private messages.... all of it.

When we sign up for the service, we agree to all this tracking.

There are big problems with intentional bias in targeted ads (eg certain jobs being targeted to men only, or with an upper age limit, or excluding those who live in certain postcodes)

The social media platform algorithms know an awful lot more about us all than most people realise. Not because we tell them in as many words, but because they are using incredibly powerful computational resources to crunch the data.

Political ads, foreign interference, campaigning groups, it’s on a massive scale, and really hard for the platforms to stamp out properly without preventing other advertisers from being able to spend their money on ads with that platform.

My point being, it’s complicated, and way worse than most people have any idea about, and if you think Twitter, Facebook et al don’t have you pegged into a whole lot of boxes, you’re kidding yourself.

Or maybe you’re a super geek using hyper-careful super-vigilance to remain un-tracked. In which case maybe they don’t have you pegged other than as someone to watch carefully because you’re highly likely to be up to no good with that level of caution.

The eating disorder targeting is despicable. Lowest of the low.

There are lots of industries targeting vulnerable people to sell to. It’s a bit like when the mobility scooter people go door knocking at the retirement bungalows, picking the most dilapidated looking homes first, and up selling them to a funeral plan. Only now it’s on much bigger scales, and it’s way cheaper to do, so more nasty fuckers can get in on the game.

Ok,long and short of it
Twitter, like ALL social media platforms, Facebook Mumsnet, Tumblr whatever use

Hope Not Hate, an anti-extremism charity, said it feared that Twitter's ads could become a propaganda tool for the far-right.

Long and short of it
Twitter, like ALL social media platforms, Facebook Mumsnet, Tumblr whatever use algorithms so advertisers can target users based on their topics of interest.

Hope Not Hate, an anti-extremism charity, said it feared that Twitter's ads could become a propaganda tool for the far-right

The technique is used right now as a propaganda tool across all political leanings.

The far left.
The neoliberal
The far right
The feminist
The anti-racist
The racist
The conspiracy theorist
The climate campaigner

These algorithms are not exclusively influencing the far right alone.

This article is typical of BBC bias. Only looking at the situation from one angle.

I'm wondering what sort of things the OP thinks us "bigots" might get targeted adverts for? Witches hats? Green biros? Harry Potter Studio Tours?

Books with female protagonists?
T shirts with dictionary definitions on them?

Or dictionaries.

Biology books

I can only assume that trans activists must be snowed under with ads.

This article is typical of BBC bias. Only looking at the situation from one angle.

Perhaps because that's Hope Not Hate's angle?

(I used to follow them and was on their email list, but found them too extreme and far-left).

www.hopenothate.org.uk/

"Deplatforming works: let's get on with it"

Fuck the BBC for burying that finding in the middle of the article.

Do I love the way Mumsnetters get past the BS to the pointy point? Yes I do.