Instagram Reels flooded with violent videos before Meta says it fixed error

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/27/instagram-reels-violent-videos

by c420 • 1 year ago

15 7 1 year ago

For a while I kept getting soft-porn-adjacent videos. Of girls in very skimpy clothing doing "challenges". Non-stop. Effective strategy to get the dad and granddad eyeballs.

AFAICT, internet advertising doesn't work (I never click on any ads). Anyone have theories on how Meta is making so much money (the reason for its insane valuation)?

fsflover• 1 year ago

AFAICT, internet advertising doesn't work (I never click on any ads). Anyone have theories on how Meta is making so much money (the reason for its insane valuation)?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_advertising#Benefits_of...

pcbro141• 1 year ago

Because internet advertising works.

snovymgodym• 1 year ago

Meta makes money hand-over-fist (Mainly from FB and Insta) because:

1. Internet advertising works. I don't click on ads either, but other people do.

2. Social media feed advertisements happen to be pretty effective, and the average person is more receptive to them than other formats, e.g. a YouTube ad that interrupts the video they're trying to watch or a popover ad that blocks an article they're trying to read.

3. Meta has a very mature product for businesses to show ads in a targeted fashion. Half the world's population uses some Meta product every day, so the reach is unparalleled.

globular-toast• 1 year ago

You don't have to click. If you see an ad then you are now aware of that brand/product. That's enough.

marginalia_nu• 1 year ago

Meta (like Google) doesn't make money from your clicks, it makes money selling advertisement slots to companies that want your clicks and impressions.

That's the point that allows advertisements to be so woefully mis-targeted: Meta doesn't as far as I understand make more money because an ad leads to actual sales.

spiderfarmer• 1 year ago

Meta and Google absolutely make way more money if campaigns are effective, because the advertisers will continue throwing massive amounts of money at them. Once the effectiveness subsides, things will go downhill fast. That’s the main reason Google bought Urchin analytics back in the day, to make sure website owners could measure the effectiveness.

Instagram Reels flooded with violent videos before Meta says it fixed error

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