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Re:Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech by bluefirebrand on Friday June 11, 2021 @04:45PM (#27478244)
Facebook the website and Facebook the advertising giant are kinda different things though.

By which I mean that Facebook does not make $trn by supplying likes shares messages and posts.

Re:Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech by cwkoss on Friday June 11, 2021 @05:44PM (#27478874)
I find it very curious how facebook's advertisements (especially on instagram) seem to have a lot more products that are cheap commodity Chinese products, whitelabeled by a glitzy 'startup' brand, and add a 500%+ margin. Very often a quick search can find identical items (maybe without a brand label) on Aliexpress for a fraction of the price.

Google search and on-site ads can be annoying and of questionable relevance, but I rarely see items that are so egregiously ripping off consumers. I dont see this much on twitter promoted tweets either.

What is it about facebook's ad business that encourages such a high proportion of overpriced garbage? Is it the mediums focus on pictures and video that makes these sales work? Is the audience just dumber/less savvy and so these platforms are the only places with enough suckers to do this successfully?

TikTok's sponsored videos seem to be falling into a similar trap to a lesser extent - the markup is less extreme for the few I've looked at out of curiosity.

Do Google and Twitter have some process for quality control to keep the garbage out that Facebook does not? Or is the medium the primary reason for this perceived difference?

Re:Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech by HeyLaughingBoy on Friday June 11, 2021 @06:52PM (#27479486)
The answer's probably a lot simpler than you think. Dropshipping is hot these days for the "I'm an internet entrepreneur" crowd and the "How To Dropship Guides for $19.99" are all pushing Facebook ads and buying from AliExpress. The readers likely don't even know that there are alternatives: they're just following a script.

The rapid churn when people realize it's harder to make money than it seems means that there is always a new set of people pushing whatever crap is hot that week.

Re:Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech by cwkoss on Friday June 11, 2021 @06:39PM (#27479378)
In conclusion, I think facebook's advertising arm is likely much more societally damaging than other platforms, and - so long as it continues at current quality level - I would celebrate its demise.
Re:Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech by dalbasal on Friday June 11, 2021 @04:57PM (#27478391)
Perhaps. anchor it wherever you feel it should be anchored, and ask the same question. Whatever it is that FB does isn't scarce.

We would also not lack for ways of selling whatever advertisers on FB are selling. They would be different without FB. Different parties would or wouldn't benefit... Connecting consumers to businesses is not scarce.