27 Nov 2018
Should Internet platforms disclose to advertisers when their ads sponsor illegal activity?
Why do advertisers keep sponsoring illegal activity on big Internet platforms such as YouTube and Facebook? The Big Tech platforms are running so many copyright-infringing copies, cryptocurrency scams, state-sponsored campaign finance violations, and even CSAM, that it’s hard to understand why so many good brands are still there.
A big part of the problem is that even though platforms do invest
a lot of time and money in removing illegal activity, the
advertisers never know. If you’re a CMO or business owner making
decisions about where to spend your ad budget, your experience of a
highly customized social platform is completely different from what most
of your brand’s customers see. An exec or entrepreneur sees business
class Facebook
or business class YouTube
full of ads from
high-bidding advertisers who want to sell high-margin items such as
conferences and SaaS subscriptions. Marketing decision-makers don’t see
the bad stuff that their customers do. Advertisers pay the bills for
illegal activity because they lack the information they would need to
stop doing so.
It’s time for Internet platforms to stop hiding this information.
When a platform blocks or restricts distribution of content, require disclosure to the advertisers affected. (link goes to my notes for an upcoming meeting about this. There’s a GitHub link on the page, suggestions welcome.)