Problem not under control after all: Facebook supports Nazis as an advertising target group
Anyone who wants to reach far-right extremists through Facebook ads still has an easy time of it in early 2019. That’s because the largest social network allows users to target audiences based on terms such as «Heinrich Himmler,» the names of neo-Nazi bands, or Mussolini’s Fascist Party, according to the L.A. Times.
In 2017, Facebook had actually promised that moderators would check every targeting category in the fight against hate messages. The company has admitted that there is obviously some catching up to do here.
Facebook earns well from advertising, with revenues of 55 billion dollars in 2018. This is not least due to the fact that marketers can target their advertising on the social network to users who are interested in certain topics. In a test, the L.A. Times found that any number of relevant terms can still be used to select target groups - from Nazi greats such as Göbbels, Mengele or Himmler to the neo-Nazi punk band Skrewdriver. The system also suggests suitable keywords that could boost right-wing reach in Germany and elsewhere, such as the fashion brand "Thor Steinar", which is considered an extreme right-wing symbol, and the AfD's ongoing topic of "refugees".
"What they're describing, which is how a clear hateful idea or narrative can be amplified to reach more people, is exactly what they said they didn't want to do," Oren Segal, head of the Center of Extremism at Anti-Defamation, criticized to the newspaper. After a scandal involving anti-Semitic targeting terms in 2017, Facebook had actually promised to take action against such relevant advertising categories. In August 2018, the company also proudly announced that it had deleted over 5,000 problematic targeting terms.
In fact, however, most of the terms found in the current newspaper research violate the current Facebook guidelines, as company spokesman Joe Osborne confirms. "While we're constantly reviewing our targeting options, we clearly need to do more, so we're taking a broader look at our policies and detection methods," he promises. This would be important, not least for legitimate media, as test advertising has often been linked to contributions from media such as CNN and the BBC, but also from Breitbart is displayed - an apparent connection for users.
In fact, the testing of terms for targeted advertising on Facebook still seems to be a major construction site. The ball was set rolling by a musician from Los Angeles, who then contacted the L.A. Times has contacted. According to the artist, he had entered "black metal" in Facebook's advertising portal and then automatically received the suggestion to also use "national socialist black metal" as a targeting term. (pte)
