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Re:YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads by FirmwareBurner on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @09:05AM (#38612205)
> (I'm in Canada) The reply was it didn't break any policy. When ads are the primary source of revenue, there's zero incentive to police the platform

TL;DR:

If you're a major on-line ad distributor like Google/Meta, and broadcast malicious ads to consumers, then you should be liable for them according to local laws just how TV and radio broadcasters are liable for the same thing.

Long argument:

Sure those ads don't break Youtube/Google's own internal policy (why would they, they're an ad company reporting to their shareholders), but what about breaking the nation's/Canada's policy on ads? I bet there might be some fines there to be handed out. Hear me out.

If such scams aren't legally allowed on licensed national TV and radio channels or printed media, otherwise the broadcasters and publishers would face crippling fines, then why do we as government agencies allow Youtube to get away with broadcasting these scams to its viewers?

Sure, Youtube is not a licensed TV broadcaster but maybe we should start regulating them partly as such, similarly how the EU's Digital Markets Act aims to fix current major digital gatekeepers and make them as compliant as physical markets.

I mean, one of the main reasons big-tech has reaped such insane profits is that the same regulations that apply to traditional physical businesses like brick and mortar markets and media broadcasters, did not apply to them because they operated on the unregulated Wild West that was the internet, while also extracting all the global profits that come from operating on such a global scale except with none of the costs assigned to local legal regulatory compliance that operating physical business have.

So now it's time to patch these digital loopholes and have big-tech operating in the ad space just as accountable as the rest of the businesses, considering their size, outreach and therefore influence on the gen-pop. Google's not a scrappy start-up anymore, they can definitely afford to police the ads they serve according to the local laws, considering their size, workforce, ML tech and profits. Same with Meta and their ad network.

Re:YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads by vannevar on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @09:50AM (#38612845)
If you're a major on-line ad distributor like Google/Meta, and broadcast malicious ads to consumers...

It's actually worse than that. If they were neutrally broadcasting, they'd at least have the argument that they were conceptually just a common carrier providing a neutral conduit between advertisers and consumers. But they are actively selecting which ads to present to which consumers---with respect to scam ads, they are preferentially sending scams to the people they believe are most likely to fall for them, and profiting as a result. They are not neutral conduits, but active participants in the underlying fraud.

Note that Section 230 only means they are not treated as a publisher or speaker of the fraudulent offer. That does not mean that they could not be held liable for an independent act in furtherance of the fraud, such as identifying vulnerable targets in collusion with the scammers and preferentially presenting the fraud to those targets.

Re:YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads by FirmwareBurner on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @10:07AM (#38613096)
Indeed, you're right, I missed that. Big-tech's targeted advertising tech makes their scam ads way more dangerous to the targeted individuals, than similar scams broadcasted blindly to gen-pop on radio and TV.

It's kind of like the difference between a WW2-era dumb bomb and a modern GPS & laser-guided smart bomb. Way more deadly at the same payload.

Re:YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads by epgui on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @11:00AM (#38613936)
While I wholeheartedly agree with you, I suspect explaining that to an older judge would be difficult.
Re:YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads by MarkusQ on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @11:25AM (#38614309)
Why? There are lots of examples of people who knowingly do things to aid and abet a primary criminal offense getting charged as accessories. Fences, bookies, pimps, pushers, shills, etc. This isn't a new pattern, and certainly wouldn't be a new idea to an older judge.
Re:YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads by cool_dude85 on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @09:43AM (#38612751)
For what it's worth, I've noticed a proliferation of scam ads on the radio over the past few years. Go to this website and get free cash now kind of stuff.
Re:YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads by rolph on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @11:17AM (#38614193)
this could just as easily been pirate, or legitimate broadcast. that would be a new take on scams, to use SDR to spoof a station, and broadcast scam materials as the big end of the funnel to a scam url.
Re:YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads by FirmwareBurner on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @09:44AM (#38612769)
Where? In Europe I haven't heard any scams on radio.
Re:YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads by cool_dude85 on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @10:14AM (#38613210)
In the US, Florida specifically.
Re:YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads by FirmwareBurner on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @10:52AM (#38613800)
While I don't live in the US, my experience with advertising there while visiting Miami was pretty crazy to say the least.

I heard it before when playing GTA Vice City on the in game radio and thought it's just satire, but no, it's actually pretty accurate. "Ask your doctor..."