10-30-2017, 08:49 PM
Quote:Ever since Facebook acknowledged that Russian operatives meddled in last year's presidential election by targeting ads to narrow interest groups based on divisive issues like race and immigration, the social network has promised to build in safeguards to ensure that postings on sensitive issues receive human scrutiny. The safeguards are meant to help screen out ads making use of overtly hateful categories like "Jew Haters," which was tested by ProPublica as a real filter for a hypothetical advertiser that made it past computer screening. A scan for other, albeit less inflammatory filters, shows that the social network still has its work cut out for it — around the world.Facebook's ad targeting allows for global political hot buttons - Business Insider
Consider: As of Monday, a prospective advertiser could type the keywords "Azad Kashmir" or "Free Kashmir" in the "Detailed Targeting" section of Facebook's ad targeting system and deliver ads to a potential audience of over 3.2 million people between the ages of 18 and 65-plus, respectively, across India and Pakistan, according to a test by Business Insider. Kashmir is the hotly disputed territory between the two countries. Similarly, ads targeting the words "Free Palestine" revealed the potential to reach over 1.8 million users in 21 different Arab countries, barring Syria, and Assemblea Nacional Catalana (of the Catalan National Assembly, which is leading the movement for Catalonia to secede from Spain) could reach 220,000 people. A structural, fundamentally global problem