{"id":17804,"date":"2020-03-26T18:07:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T18:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rbsitsoftwaresolution.com\/blog\/its-still-easy-to-find-coronavirus-mask-ads-on-facebook.html"},"modified":"2020-03-26T18:07:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T18:07:54","slug":"its-still-easy-to-find-coronavirus-mask-ads-on-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/its-still-easy-to-find-coronavirus-mask-ads-on-facebook.html","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s still easy to find coronavirus mask ads on Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ads for face masks are still appearing on Facebook, <\/a> Instagram <\/a> and Google, according to a review of the platforms carried out by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP). This despite pledges by the platforms that they would stamp out ads which seek to profit from the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Facebook said on March 6<\/a> that it would temporarily ban commerce listings and advertisements for medical face masks, in an effort to combat price-gouging and misinformation during the COVID-19 crisis.<\/p>\n

Google <\/a> followed suit a few days later<\/a>, saying it would temporarily ban all medical face mask ads \u201cout of an abundance of caution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The risk of online misinformation exacerbating a global public health crisis has been front of mind for policymakers in many Western markets. Meanwhile front-line medical staff continue to face shortages of vital personal protective equipment, such as N95 masks, as they battle rising rates of infection.<\/p>\n

There has also been concern that online sellers are attempting to cash in on a public health crisis by price gouging and\/or targeting internet users with ads for substandard masks.<\/p>\n

Early l<\/a>ast week<\/a> two senators urged the U.S.\u2019 FTC to act, blasting Google for continuing to allow ads for face masks to be shown to internet users.<\/p>\n

A week later and ads are still circulating.<\/p>\n

The TTP \u2014 a research project by the nonprofit Campaign for Accountability<\/a>, a group which focuses on exposing misconduct and malfeasance in public life \u2014 reported finding web users still being targeted with face mask ads on Google this week.<\/p>\n

It also conducted a review of Facebook and Instagram, and was able to find more than 130 pages on Facebook listing masks for sale, including some using the platform\u2019s e-commerce tools.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne Facebook Page called \u2018CoronaVirus Mask\u2019 offers a \u2018respiratory mask collection,\u2019 with prices ranging from $32 to $37, and uses Facebook\u2019s \u2018Shop\u2019 feature to display its merchandise and allow people to add purchases to their cart,\u201d it writes in a blog post<\/a>. \u201cFacebook\u2019s \u2018check out on website\u2019 button then directs users to complete the purchase on the seller\u2019s website.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFacebook pages that use WhatsApp <\/a> to establish contact with buyers are employing a tactic commonly used by wildlife and other traffickers, who often display goods on Facebook and then arrange the actual purchase through WhatsApp encrypted messages. The Facebook Page \u2018Surgical Face Mask For Sale,\u2019 for example, has a video showing boxes of medical masks and the seller\u2019s WhatsApp number scrawled on a piece of paper,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

\u201cA visit to one of these Facebook pages often triggers recommendations for other pages selling face masks, a sign that the platform\u2019s algorithms are actually amplifying the reach of these sketchy sellers. TTP, without logging into Facebook, went to the page for \u2018Corona Mask Shop\u2019 and was served up \u2018Related Pages\u2019 for \u2018Corona Mask 247\u2019 and \u2018Corona MASK on sale.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

TechCrunch conducted our own searches on Facebook today and while some obvious search terms returned no results a little tweaking of keywords choice and we were quickly able to find additional pages hawking face masks \u2014 such as the below example grabbed from a Facebook page calling itself \u201cFace Mask Manufacturer.\u201d<\/p>\n

From this page Facebook\u2019s algorithm then recommended more pages \u2014 with names like \u201cMedical Masks\u201d and \u201cDispo mask for sale\u201d \u2014 which also appeared to be selling masks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The TTP\u2019s review also found mask ads circulating on Facebook-owned Instagram.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Instagram account for @coronavsmask reads, \u2018Act now before it\u2019s too late! GET your N95 Respiratory Face Mask NOW!\u2019 It only has a single post but already counts over 6,300 followers,\u201d it wrote. \u201cAn account created on March 14 called @handsanitizers_and_coronamask includes over a dozen posts offering such products.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also found \u201cseveral\u201d Instagram accounts that sell drugs had begun to incorporate medical face masks into their offerings.<\/p>\n

At the time of writing Facebook had not responded to our request for comment on the findings.\u00a0Update:\u00a0<\/strong>The company has now sent this statement, attributed to a Facebook spokesperson:<\/p>\n

\n

Facebook is focused on preventing exploitation of this crisis for financial gain. Since COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency, Facebook has removed millions of ads and commerce listings for the sale of masks, hand sanitiser, surface disinfecting wipes and COVID-19 test kits. While enforcement is not perfect, we have put several automated detection mechanisms in place to block or remove this material from our platform.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In further searches the group was reproduced examples of Google\u2019s third-party advertising display network serving ads for face masks alongside news stories related to the coronavirus \u2014 an issue highlighted by Sen. Mark Warner <\/a> in a tweet last week when he blasted the company for \u201cstill running ads for facemasks and other coronavirus scams.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Why is @Google<\/a> still running ads for facemasks and other coronavirus scams? <\/p>\n

Despite promises from the company, all it takes is one Google search for “coronavirus” and “mask” and this is what you get. pic.twitter.com\/2UsqviuQzt<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) March 18, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cThe Facebook mask pages were searched and collected on March 17-18 using the terms \u201ccorona mask,\u201d \u201cN95\u201d and \u201csurgical mask\u201d in Facebook\u2019s search function,\u201d a TTP spokesman told us when asked for more info about its review. \u201cOf the more than 130 pages identified, 43 were created in the month of March, more than a dozen of those just days before TTP ran the searches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the same level of data from Instagram\/Google. Instagram\u2019s search function does not lend itself to the same search ability; it doesn\u2019t bring up a list of accounts based on a single term like Facebook\u2019s search function does. With Google, our goal was to show examples of Google-served ads; those were identified in news stories on March 18,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

We reached out to Google for comment on the findings and a spokesman told us the company has a dedicated task force that has removed \u201cmillions\u201d of ads in the past week alone \u2014 which he said had already led to a sharp decrease in face mask ads. But Google said \u201copportunistic advertisers\u201d had been trying to run \u201can unprecedented number\u201d of these ads on its platforms.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Google\u2019s statement:<\/p>\n

\n

Since January, we\u2019ve blocked ads for products that aim to capitalise on coronavirus, including a temporary ban on face mask ads. In the past few weeks, we\u2019ve seen opportunistic advertisers try to run an unprecedented number of these ads on our platforms. We have a dedicated task force working to combat this issue and have removed millions of ads in the past week alone. We\u2019re monitoring the situation closely and continue to make real-time adjustments to protect our users.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Google declined to specify how many people it has working to identify and remove mask ads, saying only that the taskforce is made up of members from its product, engineering, enforcement and policy teams \u2014 and that it\u2019s been set up with coverage across time zones.<\/p>\n

It also said the examples highlighted by TTP are already over a week old and do not reflect the impact of its newest enforcement measures.<\/p>\n

The company told us it\u2019s analysing both ad content and how they\u2019re served to enhance its take-down capacity.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/kmx7SvI8qws\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ads for face masks are still appearing on Facebook, Instagram and Google, according to a review of the platforms carried out by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP). This despite pledges <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-17804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t