News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Apple's Power Move to Kneecap Facebook Advertising Is Wor... by thow-58d4e8b on Friday September 24, 2021 @05:38AM (#28640305)
One aspect that shouldn't be lost - the implicit framing of the platforms being "under attack" by the bots is wrong - the bots are likely a net positive for the platforms - they're very much complicit with the fraud, or at least condone it. They sell views and clicks - if bots create more views and clicks, so be it. It's the advertisers who bear the cost.

Taking Facebook as an example:

Creating an account, linking Oculus Quest to it and leaving the account dormant - accounts locked en masse.

US account that logs in from Indonesian IPs, never posts anything, likes 5000 random things ranging from a shampoo to a cafe in a small Ohio town, to the new shirts of an Albanian soccer club - in Facebook's view that's a perfectly legitimate account.

Re:Apple's Power Move to Kneecap Facebook Advertising Is Wor... by gleenn on Friday September 24, 2021 @10:27AM (#28642888)
The people bearing the real cost are the people trying to sell products with ads. Facebook more or less sets up the system to pass that cost along.
Re:Apple's Power Move to Kneecap Facebook Advertising Is Wor... by Nextgrid on Friday September 24, 2021 @10:58AM (#28643341)
To be fair the cost of ads varies based on demand; advertisers wouldn't pay more than the ROI they're seeing from their ads, so the prices have the cost of ad fraud somewhat priced in?
Re:Apple's Power Move to Kneecap Facebook Advertising Is Wor... by BiteCode_dev on Friday September 24, 2021 @11:03AM (#28643410)
Most marketing departments I've met don't check their ROI. They request budget, spend it on campaign, then make power points to tell the rest of the company that they were successful.
Re:Apple's Power Move to Kneecap Facebook Advertising Is Wor... by carbine on Sunday September 26, 2021 @12:41PM (#28662302)
Dunno who you’ve worked with but in 2021 that’s patently false. Optimizing Facebook ad performance for ROAS is a precise science. Marketing budgets are heavily scrutinized and hard to defend precisely because of dismissive attitudes like this, so you better believe most marketers are working their tails off to measure and deliver ROI.
Re:Apple's Power Move to Kneecap Facebook Advertising Is Wor... by im3w1l on Friday September 24, 2021 @08:18AM (#28641351)
Maybe in the short term it works like that, but ultimately a platform's value comes from its real users. And bots make the platform less attractive to real users.
Re:Apple's Power Move to Kneecap Facebook Advertising Is Wor... by funcDropShadow on Friday September 24, 2021 @08:32AM (#28641473)
But Facebook, like most social media platforms, is addictive, so it is not obvious that in the long term a reasonable usage of them will emerge.
Re:Apple's Power Move to Kneecap Facebook Advertising Is Wor... by lotsofpulp on Friday September 24, 2021 @09:55AM (#28642377)
Lack of movement in sales after paying Facebook for advertisements will emerge, and that will certainly be noticed.
Re:Apple's Power Move to Kneecap Facebook Advertising Is Wor... by dghlsakjg on Friday September 24, 2021 @12:02PM (#28644222)
You may overestimate the sophistication of ad buyers, and underestimate the ability of Facebook to convince buyers that their ads are working
Re:Apple's Power Move to Kneecap Facebook Advertising Is Wor... by lotsofpulp on Friday September 24, 2021 @01:12PM (#28645204)
The increased ability to track the efficacy of ads is the value of the tracking that the internet enabled, hence the value of Facebook. Hampering this ability to match ads to purchases reduces the price these ads can be sold at, it is what the whole article and situation are talking about.
Re:Apple's Power Move to Kneecap Facebook Advertising Is Wor... by alisonkisk on Friday September 24, 2021 @11:07AM (#28643467)
Movies make billions of dollars from users who don't contribute any content. As long as users consume content, who cares who makes it?