r/technology • u/NiConcussions • 13h ago
Politics Ahead of the Midterms, Meta Has Paid at Least 29 Anti-LGBTQ Accounts for Their Posts
https://www.unclosetedmedia.com/p/ahead-of-the-midterms-meta-has-paid398
u/ZanthrinGamer 12h ago
why are billionairs all pasty skinned repressive freaks?
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u/ender8343 12h ago
I sort of agree with the sentiment that to be able to get to being a billionaire is at least a sign of a lack of empathy, if not outright sociopathic tendencies.
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u/Due_Rip9320 11h ago edited 11h ago
Any and all billionaires should be forced to pay a decent percentage of their "earnings" back to the people, their local government, and local communities. It's not healthy or sane to encourage such ridiculous amounts of money hording for just one person and their family.
And I'm not for communism or capitalism. I'm for a decent system of government that doesn't abuse it's populace. If we need to mix aspects of both to achieve that, then so be it.
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u/redaemon 8h ago
We need a wealth tax that makes it very difficult to exceed a billion dollars.
Demand creates jobs.
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u/au5lander 8h ago
But they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps!!! Nobody helped them get to where they are now!!! They deserve to reap infinite benefits because look what they’ve done for all us underachievers!!!
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u/ConfidentPilot1729 1h ago
Was it not, in part at least, one of the problem that destroyed Rome? In equality and rich people taking advantage of the lower classes and soldiers?
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u/Then-Understanding85 10h ago
Yvon Chouinard and Mackenzie Scott are the exceptions that prove the rule. They can’t give their wealth away fast enough.
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u/Elaxor 11h ago
Fascists always blame minorities. First they targeted Jews, now trans people.
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u/EddieVanzetti 10h ago
Tech bros are a strain of invasive species found in the Business Biome. Like all the other invasive species that have taken root in other fields, they push out the real denizens and starve it like the parasite they are.
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u/SpiderHomeNoWayMan 2h ago
I see it more the other way around. Tech bros are actually Wall Street types that invaded the tech biome. They're just business bros with west coast slant.
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u/imjusttipsy 11h ago
Fuck billionaires, but excess sun is super damaging to your skin, so I'd imagine they can afford top dermatologist and sun protection products.. again, FUCK BILLIONAIRES!
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u/Last-Contact2851 1h ago
Like take ur money and do cool fun shit instead
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u/ZanthrinGamer 49m ago
Right? like why did the losers with the least amount of imagination end up with all the power to do nothing interesting, and just be horrible excuses for humans.
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u/NiConcussions 12h ago
On Sept. 14, far-right influencer Chaya Raichik, known online as Libs of TikTok, attacked a Washington state high school on Facebook for displaying a Pride flag. “Hey Mercer Island High School, why does your profile photo display a mutilation flag??” she wrote, tagging the school’s account in the post and attaching a photo of the entrance.
A few weeks before, on Aug. 27, neo-Nazi webcomic artist StoneToss posted a strip that used Tim Curry’s death to mock transgender suicide rates. And earlier this month, right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson shared claims that Democrats will “transition your kids while you’re at work” and “hand out gas cards to illegal aliens.”
Meta pays these creators for making posts like these. In 2024, the tech giant unveiled a new invite-only program called Facebook Content Monetization, designed to streamline earnings for creators. Many creators celebrated the move, with some reporting a major increase in their earnings through the program.
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u/gaegurliepancake 9h ago
It's so sad how much people hate pride flags in schools, I was closeted all throughout middle and highschool, due to my bigoted parents. Seeing flags like those made me feel safe, like there was a future where I belonged.
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u/SuperbVirus2878 8h ago
There is a future where you belong.
You belong with us.
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u/gaegurliepancake 5h ago
Thankfully I no longer live with them and am out publicly now, and I am much better off because of it
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u/Winter_Swan5104 5h ago
So as someone who has not used Facebook for a decade+, is this Facebook specifically financing those right wingers or is it like YouTube payments for creators who get views?
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u/ViviKumaDesu 2h ago
both in this case, they have a invite only program, where its easier to earn money and they also have the default
but both facebook and youtube can remove their monetization
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u/SpiderHomeNoWayMan 2h ago
far-right influencer Chaya Raichik
How did a 31 year old get so boomer pilled. What is causing this "accelerated boomerism" of younger adults?
Are we undergoing a demographic shifting of magnetic poles where fewer young people are growing up without a heart, as the famous saying goes?
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u/tokenontokens 12h ago
Using Meta products is akin to smoking cigarettes that target creating cancer in your brain
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 12h ago
Why do people use Facebook and instagram still
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u/itzjackybro 11h ago edited 11h ago
It's called the network effect. Other people a person cares about are on FB/Insta, so they have to be on FB/Insta to stay in contact with them.
And yes, you could go see people in person, but that's expensive thanks to rising gas prices, poor public transportation (in most places), and ridiculous airfares, to name a few.
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u/Balmung60 10h ago
My answer to people who are on Facebook has always been "cool, I'm not, you can contact me through email or text instead"
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u/IntrepidHero42 11h ago
They have me via WhatsApp. I deleted my social media a long time ago, but I wouldn't have access to family or many friends abroad without keeping WhatsApp.
I can justify it because they can't/don't advertise to me on there. Still not happy about it.
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u/GreasyToken 7h ago
You do not need Facebook or Instagram to stay in touch with people.
That is an absolutely false premise...
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 11h ago
Phones: exist sadly in background
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u/Gorthebon 10h ago
Fun fact: International calls and texts can cost ya
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u/throwaway098764567 7h ago
look into voice over ip, some phones support it (maybe most now, i haven't bought a phone in a very long time). the call doesn't sound as great but it's not gonna cost you international fees
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 10h ago edited 10h ago
Fun fact a lot of providers now include international calls and messages in phone plans. T-Mobile sucks but they advertise it. Maybe it’s time to look in to updating your phone plan
Edit I just looked up my own obscure phone companies plan and my plan includes it as well as roaming. For $45/month
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u/Gorthebon 8h ago
Cool, there's hundreds of carriers globally so maybe your at&t does but someones provider in, let's say, Albania doesn't...
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 8h ago edited 8h ago
What part of obscure makes you think I use AT&T yo? Give me 5 minutes and I’ll find a carrier in Albania that does
Edit didn’t look very hard because it won’t give Albania results in my country. Prepaid is also an option tho. And every carrier offers some kind of international coverage whether it’s included or not it very much is an option. And Vodafone which is of one the 2 major carriers in Albania offers a “Roam Further” plan for $ 6/day if used. So Essentially as many calls as you want to make internationally for $6/day only charged if you actually use it.
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u/Jashugita 11h ago
There are still real persons in Facebook? I don't get any update for people I know.
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u/itzjackybro 11h ago
There has to be something on Facebook keeping the seniors on there. Even if it's like their favourite minionposting account.
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u/GalacticCrash 5h ago
my mom's cousin and her family are the only reason she still has facebook, i wound up deleting mine back in 2025 iirc since i didnt use it ever
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u/Zardotab 6h ago
Network effect: "We have to use crap because everyone else is using crap and our crap has to integrate with their crap. Thus, we participate in the crap orgy or else we never get any."
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u/Lifeboatb 8h ago
I have business clients who use Meta products, so I can’t dump them without losing those clients’ business. It does feel morally compromised.
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 8h ago
Ding ding ding I finally found a use case I can’t argue against. Hopefully they open their eyes soon
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u/Some_Vermicelli_3054 10h ago
This. People bitch about FaceBook (Meta), Tesla, Microsoft, etc. and yet, THEY STILL USE THE PRODUCTS. I am not an economist, but I believe that if people stopped consuming their product, it would directly affect their revenue, therefore they would fail.
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u/Hrekires 12h ago
Because unfortunately there aren't great replacements for a lot of things, like Facebook marketplace or using a local community page to keep up with local news, get recommendations on tradespeople, etc.
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u/syynapt1k 11h ago
That's just a cop out for those who don't want to stop using them.
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u/bored-at-work_ 8h ago
I’m mostly convinced that people who say stuff like this just have no friends or community connections. I find so much stuff in my local community through facebook groups that I would have never have found otherwise and I can still manage to not be addicted to it.
It’s so disingenuous to say that it’s “just a cop out”. Would another option be better? Obviously. Are those options readily available? No.
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u/Outlulz 6h ago
It's people that smugly deny how social media has changed how communities coordinate and how people contact each other. Cutting it cold turkey and going back to 1995 just excludes you from communication because everyone else isn't going to return to hanging out at the arcade and posting events on a corkboard or call you to ask a simple question or shoot the shit. But this is Reddit where it's more important to feel morally superior than to have friends or a life.
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u/Educational_Fox6899 8h ago
Thank you! I'm the same way. I would love to dump FB, but I find out about so many community events that way. It's also funny to me that people love to shit on FB while using reddit like it's not basically just as bad.
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8h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/abjectdoubt 6h ago
I live in a part of the country where lots of businesses communicate solely on their FB page, and that’s just one example. Literally can’t find contact info for services that I need if I don’t get on the platform. What am I supposed to do, just not get my roof fixed or whatever?
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u/hikeonpast 11h ago
It’s all a question of how motivated someone is to leave meta.
Marketplace -> Craigslist
Trades recommendations -> Angie’s or Yelp
Local community -> coffee shop, local newspaper website, etc.4
u/Educational_Fox6899 8h ago
This is simply not true. Many of the local social groups only post their events on FB. I'm a queer person living in a new small city. Without following some of those pages it would have been hard or impossible to build community for myself.
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u/jimbo831 5h ago
Have you used both Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist in the last year or two? Craigslist is basically useless now in my experience. For months I would do the work of listing thing in both places. I eventually stopped bothering with Craigslist when I sold about 20+ things on Marketplace only.
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u/hikeonpast 5h ago
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem. A for sale marketplace will benefit (or suffer) due to network effect. Right now, I heard that marketplace is much better. If a bunch of people got pissed at meta and started using Craigslist again, it would improve.
You’re proving my point though that people are willing to hold their noses and support a company known all sorts of evil shit, as long as they retain the conveniences that they prioritize.
I’m not attacking you here, just pointing out how amazingly sticky some of Meta’s offerings are, despite how evil the organization is.
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 12h ago
There are it’s called actual human contact. It’s gone out out style since Facebook
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u/Hrekires 12h ago
lol ok
Guess I'll just go walking around town door-to-door asking everyone if they want the dining room set I'm trying to give away. Brilliant solution.
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12h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Hrekires 12h ago
Unless they all decided to leave because you were being a dick.
Have a normal interaction with someone on the internet challenge level: impossible
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u/prettymuthafucka 11h ago
Posted on reddit.
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 11h ago
Everyone that matters to me has a spot in my phone bro. I could EASILY delete this account and feel zero remorse
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u/GODLOVESALL32 12h ago
impractical "phone bad" boomer advice. facebook might be a good platform for you actually.
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u/GreasyToken 7h ago
Why would you want to use a platform that does something like that to marginalized people?
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u/weirdlittledude 12h ago
I wanna stop using Instagram but as a small musical artist there’s basically no other app to promote your music (unless you wanna use tiktok which is a big no for me)
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u/Storm_Chaser06 9h ago
My friends and family are on the app. They share their lives as do I.
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 9h ago
Yeah but they sell you and listen in on your private conversations and the sex you may or may not have
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u/GreasyToken 7h ago
You're being farmed just like the humans in the farming towers in the Matrix.
Meta farms you so they can harvest emotion which they sell to advertisers.
You and your family are the product being sold...
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u/th3_st0rm 11h ago
I live in Thailand and FB is used extensively for small businesses and for finding housing.
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u/Samkwi 8h ago
Facebook market place is the only way you can get good deals in my country
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 8h ago
Craigslist eBay Temu thrift stores
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u/OGRumHamAddict 7h ago
Craigslist is basically unreliable now and mostly scams or spam.
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u/panaceaXgrace 7h ago
I have an account with three friends and I use the messenger because I don't have a phone. I know, who doesn't have a phone in this day and age right? Anyway, I have three "friends", my kids and one friend. I don't follow any page. I like to look at it sometimes while I'm chatting with my son just to see what garbage Facebook feeds those who have never shown interests in any pages.
I have another account I don't use anymore that was required for work chats a few years back. That one I made the mistake of accepting friend requests from old classmates and family I thought I could be FB friends with to avoid phone calls.
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u/Financial-Craft-1282 6h ago
I still use it only for a local group I'm in that's resisting some conservative BS in our city. But yeah, Facebook otherwise is useless.
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u/ViviKumaDesu 2h ago
cause people have used it for a long time, its something you also learn in buiness, trying to make people change their habits is really hard and you basically have to offer them a lot, thats why some start up products sell very cheaply and then raise their prices once people have gotten used to buying that product
people know how facebook works, they don't know how a competitor works, a lot of people don't wanna learn new things
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u/bwoah07_gp2 10h ago
I like to see what friends and family are up to.
I like one central area to follow topics and interests that I am, well, interested in.
It's not that hard to understand why people use these platforms when you put your mind to it. I use it for maybe 10-20 minutes per day? But yeah. People use it because it offers us the opportunity to do stuff like this.
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 10h ago
As somebody who cares about my own personal privacy and emotional well being. This is exactly what it’s designed for. As well as being extremely addictive. For me personally it’s not worth giving up my privacy. It’s fucking weird that the bank teller who wasn’t invited to my wedding knows I got married. Because my wife who has never met the bank teller posted it on Facebook.
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u/bwoah07_gp2 10h ago
Then keep accounts private? All my accounts on Meta platforms are set to private.
Idk why people leave everything open and public...
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u/TheOgGhadTurner 9h ago
Oh my holy fucking god. You HAVE been living under a rock. You think Facebook doesn’t collect and/or sell data from accounts set to private? Because I got news for you if you read the terms and conditions there’s a clause that states “only required data” required data is not defined which means that required data could mean anything Meta wants. Seriously. I dare you to read the terms and conditions. You’ll quickly see there is no “Private”
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u/nfefx 11h ago
No idea, ditched Fbook around 2014 and have never missed it one time. Created an insta account at some point just to see post links sent to me from friends but never use it. Never had a twitter.
Occasionally I'll give something away on Marketplace because that can still be useful, but my partner has a Fbook so she will do it.
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u/janne_oksanen 12h ago
This shit was exactly what made me leave Facebook. When after using the platform for something like 15 years Facebook decided to "recommend" anti-LGBTQ hate speech to me and put those posts in my feed.
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u/Shabadu_tu 7h ago
I’ve reported a ton of hateful anti-LGBT posts that violate Facebooks official rules and they never get taken down. We really need to pressure advertisers that use Meta.
Hit hate in the pocketbook.
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u/syynapt1k 11h ago
People won't give up their Meta accounts, no matter how evil the company is. Sad.
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u/Haunted-Circus 4h ago
They're too busy living for drama and buying other people's junk and scams off marketplace lmao.
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u/TotallyTardigrade 5h ago
Delete your Meta Accounts and boycott their products. Spread the word.
Facebook
Instagram
WhatsApp
Messenger
Threads
Meta One
Meta Quest
Ray-Ban Meta
Oakley Meta
Meta Horizon OS
Meta Horizon Worlds
Meta Neural Band
Orion
Meta AI
Llama
Movie Gen
Meta Avatars
Meta Ads
Meta Business Suite
Meta Pay
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u/je_suis_le_tick 12h ago
Just more ways to get people angry so they interact with the site more to drive up ad revenue.
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u/RottenPingu1 11h ago
Ragement = Engagement
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u/je_suis_le_tick 11h ago
Exactly. My wife's cousin works for Meta to increase engagement and it is so disappointing because she really is nice bit has such a shitty job.
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u/Serainas 10h ago
Chalk it up to the fact that there’s no way to avoid it in late stage capitalism. We all have to interact with the system enough to survive 🤷
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u/TendyHunter 4h ago
My wife's cousin works for ICE to deport immigrants and it is so disappointing because she really is nice bit has such a shitty job.
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u/MyNameIsNightPain 11h ago
So they pay people who's content receives paid ads?
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u/J_Skirch 11h ago
Yeah basically, they pay whatever gets engagement so that they can reliably continue to produce content. It's not that different from youtube monetization.
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u/crytol 11h ago
That's what I was wondering, can we get a count on how many pro-LGBT accounts have been paid? This seems like a bait article. But I guess "Meta continues to honor its contractually obligated monetization structure" doesn't get the same level of engagement.
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u/RocketRelm 11h ago
The counterargument is, of course, why do anti lgbt views get promotion and views? Why did Facebook cave to trump multiple times? If somebody said that there were thirty pro child kidnapping accounts being monetized organizing sex rings, it isn't super relevant that there would be more "disapproving", why is your infrastructure supporting this at all?
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u/crytol 10h ago
I think that's a separate conversation that I think is way more interesting to have. What processes do they have in place to vet groups and content, and why is it letting shit like this through. What can we do to regulate these guys to mitigate the profitability of the content peddling hatred and anger through disinformation?
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u/NiceTrySuckaz 8h ago
They get promoted because they get views. And they get views because people like to view them.
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u/Lifeboatb 8h ago
Yeah, but it’s more than that. For example:
Meta also states that misinformation, which they define as “content that has been rated false by a third-party fact checker,” is “ineligible to monetize,” even though the company ended their third-party fact-checking last year, leaving no clear mechanism to enforce the prohibition.
They’re happy with any form of engagement, even if it’s spreading lies that are very damaging.
(edit: formatting)
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u/flecom 8h ago
my friends business kept getting their instagram posts removed for "content policy violations", could not figure out why but then realized it was anything with a rainbow, literally made a post with "test 123" and a rainbow emjoi, bam, post removed for content violation
tldr: fuck meta
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u/BarbedCamera420 11h ago
well its metas job to keep society too divided to rise up and unseat our overlords
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u/Llamapocalypse_Now 12h ago
And this is why I do not use ANY of their products. They are untrustworthy.
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u/BananaJelloXlii 10h ago
What. A. Shock. Controversy = clicks = ad revenue. That is why your FB is inundated with unwanted groups.
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u/Forward-Amount-9961 7h ago
And every single one of these companies would support equality if it were politically expedient to do so.
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u/ryuujinusa 2h ago
Quit Facebook and everything meta 10 years ago now. Never going back. Fuck zuck.
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u/ReadyGo6828 7h ago
Meta is perverted and anti-human. People using its products and services are perverted and anti-human. Stop being perverted and anti-human, thank you.
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u/copperblood 12h ago
Friendly reminder that Zuckerberg has 2 daughters and actively uses his power and wealth to undermine marginalized communities.
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u/network_dude 8h ago
Rich people pay other rich people to tell poor people to hate other poor people.
or, this also works
Rich people pay other poor people to tell working people to hate other working people.
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u/NoaNeumann 6h ago
And the thing is, these rich monsters are literally ALL the same. Their orientation or race doesn’t grant them ANY introspection.
Ffs Thiel is gay and he’s still all for being a monster to everyone and everything. Assholes exist everywhere.
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u/Expensive_Finger_973 11h ago
Has anyone tried to also find out how many pro- LGBTQ accounts they have paid? Would be curious if they are hedging bets with this kind of thing.
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u/totallyclips 8h ago
You'd think he would support his own people not pay for shit posts against them
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u/dorkofeverything 8h ago
I would say "what about Peter Thiel" but I'm not sure Zuck really cares about anyone
I think Thiel wanted him to sell to Yahoo but idk
And whether or not it was a smart decision either way (Yahoo was kind of a miserable experience in how they treated their products) you can't really call Facebook a 'success' due to how bad their AI is and the people they ban and the fact you're dealing with network effects that naturally build on themselves
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u/Extroverted_Recluse 8h ago
No social media company should ever pay or compensate their users for posts.
It incentivizes the absolute worst of garbage content.
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u/TheseBrokenWingsTake 3h ago
And taken down hundreds of pro-Lula accounts in Brazil as a favor to pro-Bolsonaro Trump
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u/Frognaros 40m ago
Joel Kaplan is probably the reason why. He's deeply MAGA, and I would bet money that he has directed meta to stifle liberal democracy everywhere possible.
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u/Silverdragon47 11h ago
They paid for pro-LGBTQ propaganda too. Their only goal is to polarize society by constantly pouring petrol into the flames of culture war. As long as people are busy fighting eachother those bastards can cobsolidate the wealth and by that political power.
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u/tbucket13 8h ago
This is kind of stupid though because any gay content creator who makes money on meta platforms could be considered pro-lgbtq I’m sure there’s more than 29 pro-lgbtq accounts getting paid. Not that I agree with the anti but there is some people who believe gay people shouldn’t exist and that’s their opinion so they will have people on there platform who will pander to anti-gay people just like they will pander to the gay people making money off all
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u/opposing-thumb 11h ago
if engagement is the goal, they should pay anti ai accounts. remember how kirk was zh1t talking trans people before he got kirked? heres to hoping mark's stochastic profiteering attacks directed at me get him kirked.
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u/Business_Benny 5h ago
So don't use Facebook or Instagram then? Not everyone has to be pro whatever
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u/RevolutionaryFig9437 12h ago
Remember Cambridge Analytica? Not surprising.