Back to the Future
Back to the Future
Facebook has become a huge colossus in the advertising industry, sucking the air out of the ad market and seizing a gigantic market share with their low prices and fine-tuned demographic targeting. This tremendous surge has led to large profits and millions of paying ad customers. One customer that might not be paying for long is Unilever, a vast consumer conglomerate with properties like Lipton and Ben & Jerry’s. At the Interactive Advertising Bureau's annual leadership meeting in Palm Desert, California, Unilever spokesman Keith Weed denounced social media companies like Facebook for what he called an “erosion of trust”.
Dear Reader,
Facebook has become a huge colossus in the advertising industry, sucking the air out of the ad market and seizing a gigantic market share with their low prices and fine-tuned demographic targeting. This tremendous surge has led to large profits and millions of paying ad customers. One customer that might not be paying for long is Unilever, a vast consumer conglomerate with properties like Lipton and Ben & Jerry's. At the Interactive Advertising Bureau's annual leadership meeting in Palm Desert, California, Unilever spokesman Keith Weed denounced social media companies like Facebook for what he called an "erosion of trust" [1]. Although he had several comments about transparency and truthfulness, some of his strongest words were about what he called, "…an environment where our consumers can't trust what they see online." In what sounds like an ultimatum, he added, "Unilever will not invest in platforms that do not protect our children or which create division in our society."
The problem, of course, is the role Facebook and other big social media companies play in spreading false information. Many experts believe the fake news epidemic may have influenced the 2016 US election. Where did all this bad information come from? From shadowy, fake accounts, and it took months after the election to even sort out what the ads were and where they started.
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