[HN Gopher] Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat g...
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Facebook is bombarding rightwing users with combat gear ads. See
for yourself
Author : ciconia
Score : 32 points
Date : 2021-01-26 22:09 UTC (51 minutes ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| phendrenad2 wrote:
| It won't matter. The cause and effect are reversed. They're
| getting ads because many are actively buying weapons and armor,
| fearing that the government is going to become authoritarian
| communists or something. At least, that's what I understood from
| talking to right-wing friends.
| luxuryballs wrote:
| Yep and if they turn out to be right then I'll be glad they
| were staying vigilant on behalf of the rest of us.
| zepto wrote:
| The communists are only trying to save us from the facists!
| seany wrote:
| It's a weird thing since I have to imaging people that might buy
| that kind of thing already have it, or would be searching for it
| on other forums ( I have ).
| wtf_is_up wrote:
| This is not surprising or really noteworthy, is it? It seems to
| be some confirmation of FB targeting working as expected.
| jdan wrote:
| Shouldn't it be "advertisers are targeting rightwing Facebook
| users with..."? I was under the impression that it was the
| advertiser who chooses the target audience.
| jabroni_salad wrote:
| I'm not completely sure this is just political people. Up until
| recently I only got ads for kickstarter doodads and airtable, but
| then it suddenly switched to gun stuff. I don't browse any
| firearm or political communities, haven't bought stuff, don't
| watch firearm youtube videos, haven't even been window shopping.
|
| There were 5 million new gun owners last year. I think the ad
| networks just view it as a highly probable click since so many
| people are suddenly showing interest in firearms that weren't
| before. Especially for people like me... I am white and rural.
| leftwinger wrote:
| I am a far leftist who runs a 500+ liked antifa page. I also only
| see the body armor ads.
| JulianMorrison wrote:
| So basically Facebook is like, you and you, fight! Also buy our
| weapons.
| nickpinkston wrote:
| Interesting - can anyone else confirm this?
| smt88 wrote:
| > _" A few months into maintaining my Trump online identities, I
| started feeling that I needed to buy guns. I knew it was
| irrational and impractical given my lack of training and urban
| lifestyle. Nonetheless I was convinced I needed them. When I told
| my girlfriend, her perplexed response made me realize how deeply
| my mind had been manipulated by my pro-Trump Facebook feeds."_
|
| Exactly the kind of effect Facebook is selling, though not always
| firearm-related, of course.
|
| The perfect advertising machine is a mind-control machine. It
| makes you want things you didn't want before with 100%
| effectiveness.
|
| To the extent thay Facebook spends billions a year on building
| such a machine, we should believe that they have seen some
| success beyond a traditional advertising channel (such as TV
| ads).
| slibhb wrote:
| Funny, when I read that part my reaction was "this has to be a
| joke".
| InitialLastName wrote:
| Most of the smartest people of my generation have dedicated
| their lives to building super-computers to point at peoples'
| brains and make them want to buy things.
|
| I suppose it's marginally better than fractionally growing
| somebody else's pile of money.
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(page generated 2021-01-26 23:01 UTC)