{"id":14015,"date":"2019-01-23T17:32:52","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T17:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/facebook-agrees-to-do-more-to-tackle-scam-ads-after-celebrity-defamation-lawsuit.html"},"modified":"2019-01-23T17:32:52","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T17:32:52","slug":"facebook-agrees-to-do-more-to-tackle-scam-ads-after-celebrity-defamation-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/facebook-agrees-to-do-more-to-tackle-scam-ads-after-celebrity-defamation-lawsuit.html","title":{"rendered":"Facebook agrees to do more to tackle scam ads after celebrity defamation lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook <\/a> has agreed to plough more resource into combating the use of its advertising platform by scammers, saying it will do more to tackle scam ads that use well-known public figures to try to trick consumers.<\/p>\n

It plans to launch a dedicated scam ad report button in the UK, slated to go live in around three months\u2019 time, as well as set up a specialist, locally-based team to monitor ad reports, keep an eye on scammer trends and generally work on getting celebrity-exploiting scam ads taken down more quickly than its current AI-aided ad review systems have been doing.<\/p>\n

The new measures were announced in a joint press conference<\/a> with UK consumer advice personality, Martin Lewis, who launched a defamation lawsuit against Facebook in\u00a0April<\/a>, saying the social network giant had failed to stop scammers using his image on scores of ads that aimed to swindle consumers, thereby damaging his reputation.<\/p>\n

Some of the ads had tried to use Lewis\u2019 image to promote crypto scams.<\/p>\n

Lewis filed suit after becoming frustrated by the scale of scam ads bearing his image and Facebook\u2019s tepid response to the problem its platform has created \u2014 telling the Guardian<\/a> last year: \u201cWhat is particularly pernicious about Facebook is that it says the onus is on me, so I have spent time and effort and stress repeatedly to have them taken down.\u201d<\/p>\n

He confirmed today that he\u2019s dropped the lawsuit after Facebook agreed to make changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were over 1,000 on Facebook in a year. And the way that the company acted then wasn\u2019t good enough, so I had to resort to [taking legal action],\u201d he said during the press conference, adding that he had wanted to see \u201ctangible real change to the number of scam ads on the platform\u201d, so was happy to drop the lawsuit because he believes the new report button will do that.<\/p>\n

\n

I’ve today agreed to drop my campaigning defamation lawsuit against Facebook regarding scam ads in return for it to<\/p>\n

a) Donate \u00a33m to set up Citizens Advice Scam Action in May
b) Introduce (unique to the UK) a scam ads reporting button monitoring teamhttps:\/\/t.co\/TyGkQfpQCe<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Martin Lewis <\/a> (@MartinSLewis) January 23, 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Facebook has also agreed to provide funding to help get a citizens scam advice service up and running in partnership with UK consumer advice charity, Citizens Advice<\/a>. Lewis said he was delighted with that outcome.<\/p>\n

The social network giant, which took in\u00a0$13.73BN in revenue last quarter<\/a>, said it will donate cash and Facebook ad credits to the value of \u00a33 million over the next three years to help set up the new scam advice bureau within the charity.<\/p>\n

This will be called \u2018Citizens Advice scams action project\u2019 (aka Casa), and the pair said it will aim to provide information and support to consumers who are concerned they are being targeted by or have fallen victim to a scam.<\/p>\n

Facebook\u2019s support for Casa breaks down into \u00a32.5M in cash over the next two years, and \u00a3500,000\u2019s worth of ad credit coupons for ads on its own platform, which it said will be distributed in tranches over the next three years.<\/p>\n

There was little detail on exactly how Casa will operate at this nascent stage but given the ad credit donation its work will\u00a0presumably include running scam awareness ads on Facebook \u2014 funded (initially) by Facebook itself.\u00a0Ergo, part of the company\u2019s donation will be ploughed straight back into its own ad business.<\/p>\n

Pressed on whether its approach with an ad report button still puts too much onus on consumers to have to protect themselves from scams being spread on Facebook\u2019s platform, its regional director for Northern Europe, Steve Hatch, claimed it does already take down \u201chuge amounts of these ads\u201d but admitted its ad review systems are \u201cnot perfect\u201d \u2014 hence the company seeing value in introducing a button for direct user reports of dodgy ads.<\/p>\n

For his part Lewis said he had never wanted to have to go to court but said his intention had rather been to draw attention to the problem and pressure Facebook to do more. He said he was therefore pleased it had agreed to do more to tackle scam ads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis button is only in the UK. This is not Facebook worldwide. This is unique to the United Kingdom that has not been done anywhere else and it is a direct result of this scam ads campaign. And I\u2019m actually very grateful to Steve and his team here in the UK for pushing this on what is normally a global organization that works in a global way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Albeit, to be clear, Facebook is not accepting legal liability for scam ads. And there\u2019s no suggestion that any existing victims of the scam ads which bore Lewis\u2019 image are going to be in line for any direct compensation from Facebook for their losses.<\/p>\n

Asked directly about the compensation point, Hatch sidestepped the question, saying Facebook is focusing on what more it can do to stop scammers from defrauding people in the first place.<\/p>\n

Also pressed on why it had taken a lawsuit by a celebrity consumer champion to get it to do more, he said: \u201cThis is an area we\u2019ve focused on for a very, very long time. But what [Lewis] has really pushed us towards is this specific focus about the use of public images and celebrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the new measures are UK only for now, Hatch suggested Facebook might look to expand the approach elsewhere if it proves successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve started in the UK,\u201d he said in response to another question. \u201cLike any system if we find it works \u2014 and we sincerely hope that it does, we think we\u2019ve got the right amount of focus, we think we\u2019ve got the right amount of investment behind it \u2014 it\u2019s very imaginable that we would take this out to other markets. But what we want to make sure is we\u2019re getting this right.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said it would be important for Facebook to find the right partner to work with in other markets, as it\u2019s doing with Citizens Advice in the UK.<\/p>\n

While Lewis sounded happy to end his publicity focused legal battle against Facebook, having won some tangible concessions from the company, he warned that unchecked scam ads persist on other platforms, and said he is \u201cnot ruling out another lawsuit if things don\u2019t improve\u201d\u2013 namechecking Google <\/a> and Yahoo as two of the other platforms now in his sights.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last few weeks I have again been plagued by scam adverts. A few of them have been on Facebook and when we\u2019ve told Facebook they\u2019ve taken them down very quickly. I can\u2019t expect more. I accept that the technology isn\u2019t perfect. What I want is proactive response, good team set up and them being taken down quickly. But that\u2019s not the case with Google,\u201d he said, adding that the problem is even more difficult to combat where Google is concerned given it\u2019s more difficult to know where the ads are being served, as they can be served across even more touchpoints.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe they\u2019re not even giving us a direct contact at the moment,\u201d he added, discussing Google\u2019s response to complaints his team has filed about scam ads bearing his image. \u201cWe\u2019re just having to go through the normal reporting channels, that everything goes through, even though I\u2019m a major target of scam ads. By the nature of what I do, by both being on television and the subjects that I talk about \u2014 and being relatively trusted on that subject \u2014 means that my click through rate, apparently, for scam ads is really good!\u201d<\/p>\n

We reached out to Google and Yahoo <\/a> for a response to Lewis\u2019 comments. (Disclosure: TechCrunch\u2019s parent, Verizon Media Group\/Oath, is also the parent company of Yahoo.)<\/p>\n

A Google spokesperson told us:<\/p>\n

\n

Because we want the ads people see on Google to be useful and relevant, we take immediate action to prevent fake and inappropriate ads. We have a\u00a0tool<\/a>\u00a0where anyone can report these ads and these complaints are reviewed manually by our team. In 2017, we removed 3.2 billion bad ads and we\u2019re constantly updating our policies as we see new threats emerge.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A Verizon Media spokesperson also sent us the following statement:<\/p>\n

\n

Deceptive and misleading ads are not acceptable, and we expect our partners to comply with all laws, regulations and our policies, which prohibit this activity. We block ads in violation of our policies, as well as bad actors who work to circumvent our human and automated controls. The landscape of bad actors is continually evolving and we are committed to evolve with it to help keep our platforms and users protected.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe big problem that we face is that [online advertising] is a\u00a0Wild West,\u201d Lewis\u00a0continued, saying the problems he\u2019s faced extend to \u201cmany other online advertising tools\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an absolute Wild West with people sitting all over the world, and with very little regulation, no criminal enforcement \u2014 because frankly the Met Police are not going to go to whatever these country these people are in and arrest them, and that\u2019s the problem with online advertising. Hence why I\u2019ve targeted the platform to say the only thing we can do\u2026 is deny them the oxygen of publicity and deny them access to the individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want online advertisers to see this as a warning shot across their bows,\u201d he also said, calling on Google and the online advertising industry as a whole \u201cto start to take responsibility\u201d, adding:\u00a0\u201cReal people are seeing their livelihood taken away, their life savings taken away. People are losing money that they need to live on by irresponsible advertising protocols. It\u2019s about time other firms stood up, took responsibility, improved their reporting protocols and started to give money to Citizens Advice scam action.<\/p>\n

\u201cScam adverts make people distrust advertising. So this isn\u2019t just an issue for the people who put the adverts out there but any company who does advertising in the UK legitimately, trying to get their message across, this is diluting what you are doing. So the advertising industry as a whole \u2014 not just the platforms \u2014 need to try and make sure this stops. Otherwise you\u2019ll get close to the point where someone like me says never trust an advert online.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue of direct compensation for consumers scammed via online platforms is a matter for policy makers and regulators to work on, he added.<\/p>\n

This report was updated with comment from\u00a0Verizon Media\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The case against behavioral advertising is stacking up<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/wBlnGX4vQ80\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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