Facebook Enabled Advertisers To Reach 'Jew Haters' (propublica.org)

ProPublica is reporting that Facebook "enabled advertisers to direct their pitches to the news feeds of almost 2,300 people who expressed interest in the topics of 'Jew hater,' 'How to burn jews,' or, 'History of why jews ruin the world.'" The organization even went so far as to test these ad categories by paying $30 to target those groups with three "promoted posts" -- in which a ProPublica article or post was displayed in their news feeds. Facebook reportedly approved all three ads within 15 minutes. From the report: After we contacted Facebook, it removed the anti-Semitic categories -- which were created by an algorithm rather than by people -- and said it would explore ways to fix the problem, such as limiting the number of categories available or scrutinizing them before they are displayed to buyers. In all likelihood, the ad categories that we spotted were automatically generated because people had listed those anti-Semitic themes on their Facebook profiles as an interest, an employer or a "field of study." Facebook's algorithm automatically transforms people's declared interests into advertising categories. [ProPublica provides a screenshot of their ad buying process on the company's advertising portal.]

"There are times where content is surfaced on our platform that violates our standards," said Rob Leathern, product management director at Facebook. "In this case, we've removed the associated targeting fields in question. We know we have more work to do, so we're also building new guardrails in our product and review processes to prevent other issues like this from happening in the future."

Comments

Re: In other words

[DNS-and-BIND]

Hey, did you know that fascism grew out of left-wing progressivism? It sounds unbelievable, but it's absolutely true. So this concept isn't really far-fetched.

Think about this: We know the name of the philosopher of capitalism, Adam Smith. We also know the name of the philosopher of Marxism, Karl Marx. So, quick: What is the name of the philosopher of fascism? Yes, exactly. You donâ(TM)t know. Virtually no one knows. This is not because he doesnâ(TM)t exist, but because the political left â" which dominates academia, the media and Hollywood â" had to get rid of him to avoid confronting fascism and Nazismâ(TM)s unavoidable leftist orientation.

So letâ(TM)s meet the man himself, Giovanni Gentile, who may be termed fascismâ(TM)s Karl Marx. Gentile was, in his day, which is the first half of the 20th century, considered one of Europeâ(TM)s leading philosophers. A student of Hegel and Bergson and director of the Encyclopedia Italiana, Gentile was not merely a widely published and widely influential thinker; he was also a political statesman who served in a variety of important government posts. How, then, has such a prominent and influential figure vanished into the mist of history?

For Gentile, people by themselves are too slothful and inert to form genuine communities by themselves; they have to be mobilized. Here, too, many modern progressives would agree. Speaking in terms with which both Obama and Hillary would sympathize, Gentile emphasized that leaders and organizers are needed to direct and channel the will of the people.

Gentile was, in fact, a lifelong socialist. Like Marx, he viewed socialism as the sine qua non of social justice, the ultimate formula for everyone paying their âoefair share.â For Gentile, fascism is nothing more than a modified form of socialism, a socialism arising not merely from material deprivation but also from an aroused national consciousness, a socialism that unites rather than divides communities.

Gentileâ(TM)s philosophy closely parallels that of the modern American left. Consider the slogan unveiled by Obama at the 2012 Democratic Convention: âoeWe belong to the government.â That apotheosis of the centralized state is utterly congruent with Gentileâ(TM)s thinking. Only Gentile would have provided a comprehensive philosophical defense that the Democrats didnâ(TM)t even attempt. In many respects, Gentile provides a deeper and firmer grounding for modern American progressivism than anyone writing today.

Re: In other words

[Cederic]

It's interesting how quickly some Jews here in America forget their more recent pasts, on the receiving end of similar abuses in Europe and elsewhere. The state of Israel is harsh towards the Palestinians

It's interesting that you don't see the second half of the first sentence as a reason against the second.

Germans didn't hate Jews, some Germans did.
Jews don't mistreat Palestinians, some Israelis do.

Just as I'll happily condemn Nazi behaviour towards Jews, I'll happily condemn Israeli behaviour towards Palestinians.

As Bestweasel highlights, that's not anti-semitism.

Re:In other words

[Mashiki]

Antisemitism is almost exclusively a feature of the right. That's because the left when it encounters it works to purge it from it's ranks.

Quite the level of bullshit there. On the left it's called BDS, and is the veneer of leftist antisemitism wrapped up in a palatable package. A single trip to a university like the University of Toronto is enough to show just how much of a lie that statement is. Not only do they embrace it, they encourage and bring out bigotry that's akin out of 1939. You can even see it within political parties in the EU. There isn't a subtle shift if "israeli to jewish" it's right there that BDS is to go after the jews.

Re:In other words

[TheRaven64]

Except for the largest antisemitic group in history, the Nazis who were decidedly right wing.

If you believe this, then you really have a very shallow grasp of history. Persecuting Jews was a popular pastime in Europe for a long time before the Nazis came along. Read The Merchant of Venice sometime to get a feel for how Jews were perceived in Shakespeare's time. Even the term Pogrom predate the Nazis by a good 40-50 years. The two largest groups that have actively persecuted Jews are Catholics and Muslims. Nazis don't even beat Russians in terms of the number of people doing the persecuting or the number of Jews killed.

Re:In other words

[Anonymous Coward]

Except for the largest antisemitic group in history, the Nazis who were decidedly right wing.

In some respects - nationalism, militarism - they were decidedly right-wing. In others, particularly their economic policies, they were decidedly left-wing. They didn't call themselves the National *Socialist* party for nothing. Consider a few of the items in their 25-point policy platform:

• We demand the nationalisation of all associated industries.
• We demand a division of profits of all heavy industries.
• We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare.
• Abolition of unearned incomes. Breaking of debt-slavery.

All of these are solidly left-wing policies. The last, in particular - abolishing any income from investments (as opposed to labour) - would only be held by the most extreme left-wing groups today.