#033: Brainwashed to click Ads
Facebook wants to know you. And Facebook wants to be the place where you go to talk to friends and family.
To do so, Facebook collects data. A lot of it. And then it uses that data to find new connections in your social graph, and suggest new people to you may know. The problem is, Facebook collects so much data, and has become so good at it, that their algorithms can suggest people that it shouldn’t. Children whose father or mother left when they were little, only to suddenly show up in People You May Know. A sperm donor having the child born from his donation show up as someone he might know. How Facebook Figures Out Everyone You’ve Ever Met is a story of how invasive Facebook is willing to be to suggest people to you.
Of course, Facebook isn’t doing this because it likes connecting people. We humans are social animals, and if Facebook is the place where all your friends and acquaintances hang out, you’re more likely to join up as well, serving Facebooks actual goal: To show you ads, and have you click them. Facebook isn’t alone in this, of course. We’re building a dystopia just to make people click on ads. Just because we want everything on the internet to be free to use, we’re willing to give away not only our own privacy and information, but other peoples too, wether they want to or not.
This is unlike well-known dystopias, like in George Orwell’s 1984, where people lose their privacy to keep a dictator in power. No one in popular literature seems to have foreseen ad clicking as a worthwhile cause to give up your privacy.
Even worse, because Facebook is so intent on showing you ads and having everyone on its platform, others can abuse it. And it’s not just the US election, Facebook’s Problems Abroad Are Far More Disturbing. In many poorer countries, where internet access is not commonly available or affordable, it partners with local telecom providers to provide free access to Facebook. And then is the way misinformation and propaganda spreads, like in Myanmar, where anti-Rohingya sentiment is fueled in part by misinformation and doctored photos on Facebook.
And it’s not just Facebook that is exploited. Other big sites like YouTube are also being exploited by unscrupulous people to get at ad money. Their most recent target are children’s series, creating algorithmically created videos that exploit YouTube’s “Up Next” algorithm. And even children who are using YouTube’s app for children then get shown disturbing videos. It’s indicative of something being wrong on the internet in general.
All this has lead to calls that We must not let Big Tech threaten our security, freedoms and democracy. Is free stuff really worth all that?