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Facebook May Ban Bad Businesses From Advertising (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the bad-hombres dept.

Facebook will now let you file a complaint about businesses you've had a problem with if you bought something after clicking on one of their ads. If enough people complain about a business, it could lead to Facebook banning the company from running ads. The Verge reports: The new policy is rolling out globally starting today, and it's meant to help Facebook fight back against another type of advertising abuse on its platform. Facebook says it's trying to combat "bad shopping experiences," which can cost customers and make them frustrated with Facebook, too. Facebook is particularly interested in a few problem areas: shipping times, product quality, and customer service. This isn't just a matter of misleading advertising: if a company regularly provides bad service, products that don't meet buyers' expectations, or just frustrates consumers, they risk getting in trouble with the platform.

It appears that Facebook will send notifications to users to ask about their experience if it detects that they've purchased something after clicking on an ad. You'll also be able to find those companies and leave feedback on the Ads Activity page. Facebook says it will inform businesses about negative feedback and try to pinpoint problems that a large number of customers are having. If customer feedback doesn't improve after a warning, Facebook will eventually start to limit how many ads a company can run. If it continues long enough, they can be banned.

8 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. What could possibly go wrong? by nonBORG · · Score: 1, Insightful

    A new level to a DDOS attack.

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    You can't handle the truth! - Because I don't post left all my comments get modded down, bye bye Karma.
  2. Yes, I would like to file a complaint . . . by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    . . . against Facebook, and their business practices about collecting and selling data about folks who are not associated with their business.

    Maybe if enough people file complaints against Facebook, they will take some action against themselves.

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    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    1. Re:Yes, I would like to file a complaint . . . by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I take it this is mostly in jest (not that what you say isn't true) but I think it does raise the point of something like this happening where some business (not necessarily Facebook) receives a lot of reports from an angry mob. That kind of action is right up the alley of the average "Kony 2012" internet slacktivist on Facebook.

      Facebook isn't completely stupid, but there's no way they're in a good enough position to evaluate these kinds of reports accurately or fairly. I suspect that some bad companies will get passes because they're well connected and know how to grease palms and some other legitimate companies that get broadsided by this won't be large enough for Facebook to care.

  3. Let the brigading begin! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's open season on businesses you disagree with. It worked for posts, comments and videos. Why not businesses? Report brigades, ho!

    1. Re:Let the brigading begin! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      All this is going to do is hide shady brick-and-morter businesses. The internet ones will just re-brand every 30 days (like the stores that sell counterfeit clothing, wedding dresses, and such do) and have a clean slate again.

      While I will applaud the idea behind this, the actual effort will require more than just "banning a business" but banning an entire marketing douchnozzle company from being able to place any ads for ANY of their clients.

  4. It's a trap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    What a wonderful way to trick users, errr, suckers into giving FB feedback on ads!

  5. Many bad products are from stupid customers. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am not saying there are bad companies that produce crap. But if you look at Amazon bad reviews on products most of them are from people who got a product to solve a problem that there was no advertising to say it was even remotely going to solve.
    This $400 dell laptop runs the most modern games kinda choppy. It is utter crap compared to my $3000 desktop system I made last year.

    Or the people don’t understand the difference between a professional product vs a home product. Your linksys home router vs a Cisco switch for a data center. The home router is orders of magnitude cheaper and it has more features.
    Or people getting an expensive camera with lenses that do not autofocus. For most average picture taker your phone will get better pictures. But for the professional photographer they can get real art from this complex phone.

    People often will get the cheapest crap they can find expecting it to work like the premium version, or pay top dollar for an item that is meant for professionals that require sill and training to use.

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    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:Many bad products are from stupid customers. by Kokuyo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think there are much worse examples. One of them would be people leaving a 1 star review because shipping was bad. I have yet to figure out in what way that is the fault of the product.