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.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
There's a New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle is a Linux AI assistant that can work with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.