Wednesday: Facebook sparks another privacy brouhaha. Thursday: Facebook axes Iranian disinfo bods. Fancy that!

Weathering the blowback from two other missteps this week, Facebook found time on Thursday to provide yet another update on the removal of propagandists from its platform, this time from Iran. The social ad biz's announcement coincided with a press call on which handlers twice stressed that Nathaniel Gleicher, head of FB's …

[W.S.Gosset]

< Trump >

"Dammit! Why can't I LOG IN!?!"

[RunawayLoop]

The non-story story

And so the obvious non-story here is it's ok to be predatory and/or exploit teens if you're a corporation making money off it.

Are law enforcement or higher ever going to step in to situations like these? Unlikely methinks.

[veti]

Re: The non-story story

That's a giant non-sequitur. This particular story doesn't say anything about corporations (except Facebook), or teens for that matter.

Why should it? It also doesn't say anything about Brexit, or the Rohingya, or the Rwandan genocide of 1994, but that doesn't make it reasonable to infer that silence implies approval of all those things.

[Mark 85]

Re: The non-story story

It does seem like that if some group/agency/country is spending big bucks on FB, then all will be overlooked. The below quote seems make that point.

Less than $30,000 was spent on ads promoting pro-Iran content and eight related events were organized

[Winkypop]

FB better be careful

With this level of fakery and abuse, even the bad guys will be looking for a new platform soon.

[WeaselBreath]

What's FB?

Deleted my FB account years ago. I'm really surprised they are still in business. All the cool kids have gone back to using CB radios, as the level of privacy from using them is far superior the experience on FB. Please "Like" my post.

[W.S.Gosset]

Re: What's FB?

10-4, CB WB

[the Jim bloke]

You only need be concerned by the "well funded" adversaries

Actual private individuals cant afford to play at FBs table.

And they know these 'adversaries' are well-funded, because they have been in an ongoing commercial relationship with them...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Less than $30,000 was spent on ads"

FBExec: "How much did they spend?"

FBMinion: "Less than 30K"

FBExec: "Beggars! Boot 'em out - if they don't spend at least 3M!"

[DropBear]

"In May last year, Facebook estimated that between three per cent and four per cent of active Facebook accounts in Q1 2018 were fake. That number has since gone up, which could be a result of better detection or increased account registration."

I would think that number going up would definitely not be indicative of better detection...

[iron]

"almost 800 accounts... 356 accounts...162 accounts on Instagram"

Is this that thing Americans call math? Because according to my maths 356 + 162 = 518 which is nowhere near "almost 800".

[Nick Kew]

Beats the post office

So Facebook are getting rid of trolls.

While the post office does nothing about them. Just this morning they delivered junk called "Wetherspoon News", full of very nasty propaganda and explicitly designed to stir up violence, and taking lessons from 1930s Germany.

[It depends.....]

Re: Beats the post office

Thanks Nick - I didn't realise that they could get Free Refills on any Tea or Coffee all day, every day in 1930's Germany until your post. Very informative!

[Doctor Syntax]

"not any of the other scandals reporters might be inclined to ask about"

Maybe he didn't have any info about anything else. Their internal communication apps have inexplicably stopped working.