1y ago

Most of My Instagram Ads Are for Drugs, Stolen Credit Cards, Hacked Accounts, Counterfeit Money, and Weapons

www.404media.co Most of My Instagram Ads Are for Drugs, Stolen Credit Cards, Hacked Accounts, Counterfeit Money, and Weapons

The ads are a window into a blatantly illegal underground economy that Meta is not only failing to moderate, but is actively profiting from and injecting into users’ feeds.

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1y ago

Most of my Instagram ads are for drugs, stolen credit cards, hacked accounts

www.404media.co /instagram-ads-illegal-content-drugs-guns-hackers/

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132 comments

The biggest media corporations are allowed to advertise literal crime. Meanwhile saying the word cigarette on tv will get you jail time.
- Smoke
  
  Are you smoking yet?

Wtf does their browser history look like to be getting those sorts of ads?!
- In the article he states that he kept clicking on those ads on purpose, in order to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.
  
  I would be very curious to see the algorithm adapting to that:
  User: click on shrooms ad
  AI: Oh he likes shrooms with his cocaine! Let's try a marijuana to snort with his cocaine.

ITT: People who are so quick to suggest ad blockers they miss the point of the conversation.

Easy, just delete Instagram.
- Well, Instagram did just that for my little book publishing company. I signed up for a business account in the hopes of selling some books, putting up some ads, and posting a few updates, only to get a fucking PERMABAN during fucking SIGNUP.
  So you are right and it really is super easy.
  
  (ffs i should’ve sold drugs damnit)

Similarly, my YouTube shorts are filled with gambling videos and “get rich quick scheme” videos. Seems as though “do not recommend channel” blocks the channel but assumes you have some growing interest in the topic.
I just want to watch woodworking shorts and plumbing videos T_T
- Maybe do Not Interested and then Do not recommend channel?
  Unless doing the former just hides the video immediately and doesn’t let you do the latter, in which case just call me a fool.
  
  deleted by creator
- I just got an extension that removes shorts. I tried blocking channels, saying I wasn't interested, pressing the thumbs down button, but it would still show trash like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate.

im getting the wrong type of ads lol
- Yeah I just get fed with bullshit on ADHD and Autism nonstop.

This shit's going on in centralized big-name websites, while Lemmy instances fret about discussing piracy and ban people for being impolite to bigots.
I fucking hate the modern web.
- You don't hate the modern web. You hate people.
  
  No I definitely hate many disparate elements of the modern web. Browsers are controlled by an advertising giant that can't even operate a decent search engine anymore. Legislators are still trying to demonize pornography, of any kind, as if two adults fucking in private is child exploitation... somehow. Every website that centralized disparate forums / galleries / chatrooms simultaneously went pants-on-head crazy in a panicked frenzy to make N+1 dollars.
  I also hate people who demand "be polite!" without viciously cracking down on actual trolls saying stupid shit to bait blunt correction. And those trolls, obviously. It doesn't have to be exclusive. There's plenty to go around.

Now here's the exact problem with the so called "personalized" ads, that Google and Facebook serves what the advertisers think you want to see, instead of what you actually want to see.
This is the fundamental conflict of interest which the obvious conclusion is that online banner/video advertisements doesn't work, and has never worked, because ultimately, no matter how many times you shove ads in people's faces via a thoughtless machine, you can't "trick" people into liking something. What people want is thoughtful, sincere recommendations by real people, which is why we have seen the rise of sassy brand Twitter accounts being so successful for a time: because there is a real person behind it.
(Of course, it's really funny if you take blatant advertisment to its logical extreme, and even that seemed more effective.)
Of course, Google and Facebook will never admit that they've been lying to everyone and themselves for more than a decade, because to do so is to admit that their entire business of Web 2.0 was built on an absurd and illogical premise of again, if you show people ads for things they never asked for a thousand times, then you can brainwash them into liking something.
In other words, Google and Facebook's entire advertisment business model, if you really think about it, is really no different than pick-up artist logic, and. They. Just. Won't. Go. Away.
- Turns out though you can absolutely trick them into believing conspiracy theories with social media ads.
  
  Learn the TRUTH about this thing you’re already primed for by your bias!
  click
  Holy crap! He’s a alien! U cud tell frum the eyez! 👁️👁️👀👽
  
  You can absolutely trick people into liking drugs too
- Pretty much every industry works by tricking people into liking things.
  Like the razors with four+ blades on them, people buy them cause the commercials say "more blades is better".
  People wouldn't seek out extra blades if they weren't tricked into liking it. They are objectively worse than single blade razors.
  
  Exactly. If it didn't pay off these companies wouldn't keep shoveling money to Facebook and Google to show their ads time and time again. Marketing is expensive. If it didn't at least break even then nobody would be doing it anymore by now. Obviously it works, otherwise I wouldn't ever know what the fuck a squarespace or a goddamn raid shadow legends is.
- The ads that I mind the least and the ones I find the most effective are sponsors for creators that I like. Short sponsor segments really don't annoy me as much and I have actually tried a couple products that have advertised that way.
  That said, almost all of them sucked in the end but that's another subject entirely.

You're clearly a known customer for those products :p The algorithm is never wrong..

Drugs or Chinese scam products. Had a friend tell me he ordered something that never showed up, turned out they sent these super cheap toothbrushes in the mail and then tried to use that tracking info as proof he received what he bought. They just allow anyone who will pay to advertise illegal shit, scams, whatever it's the wild West.

lucky 😮‍💨 all mine are weight loss scams and laptop deals

Pixelfed
- Ain't that many thots there. Could be a good it bad thing.
  
  U saying there's an untapped market? 😏

Are the drugs any good?
- Mine is all for phone cases. How do I get the ads for drugs?
  
  Al the author, he clearly knows.

Aren't those ads personalised to your browsing history?
- Should that be a reason to get adds for illegal things? … at all?
- Tangently...you read one gay rights article and suddenly your ad feed is filled with hot single dads in my area...
  
  Nice 👍
- They are personalised by the "bucket" that data collection companies like Google or Facebook placed you into based on profiling. Browsing and search history is only one of the factors that is taken into account when you are profiled, there are myriad more ways to collect data about you.
  And then what ads you see is determined by what advertisers think your "bucket" wants. If you are male in your 20s living in rural USA and advertisers think that males in their 20s living in rural USA are interested in guns, then that's what you will see - even if you never clicked on gun ad or searched for guns on Google.
- Personally whenever I go to Instagram all I get are cat videos and ads about "targeted mushrooms" and kava drinks...
  It all checks out ¯(ツ)_/¯
- Or you just happen to live in an area with many addicts.

If I pay more can I get some ads for drugs, money, and weapons?

I'm trying to kick an opiate habit and seeing that I can buy them on Instagram is not helping
- If it helps, there's a 99.9% chance they just take your money and not send any drugs
  
  That's exactly why I've never actually tried one of these things. I had someone on Reddit message me once and give me a dude's telegraph info and it was so obviously a scam.
  The dude asked what I wanted and I said something really vague and he immediately said "okay how many" without clarifying. Then when I didn't respond, he sent a screenshot of allll his notifications from messages he was getting from "happy customers"

I don't see a problem. Shroom time babey
- You don't see a problem when Instagram's target market is teens and young people?
- Did you miss the part where the ads were offering things like stolen credit card info and unregistered firearms, too?

So basically the silk road moved to Instagram & Telegram... pretty ballsy, I wonder how much of it is honey potting?
That's a pretty good deal for a hot Nina with all the fixings... also I see a lot of fentanyl pills in those listings.
- Didn't those fake oil carts that were getting people sick come from Instagram? The ones with vitamin D oil as filler
  There are still a bunch of darknet markets though, it's two different demographics buying at each
  
  Yeah, there will always be dark markets. But it's nothing like, nor do I think it ever will be like it was in its hay day. I don't check regularly, but last I looked these markets have nothing close to the user base of even the days of agora/dream/Wallstreet. You could buy quantities of stuff at user level for real cheap. As they started cracking down, it all started to turn into bulk because no one wanted to deal with transaction frequency risk, I suspect it's the same today.

Preamble to the shitty internet bills that will get passed on a holiday weekend at 2am?

says something

Where I live it's largely the same though on facebook marketplace and not on instagram. Counterfeit money, weapons (which are almost completely illegal where I live, even basic non-lethal things like pepper spray and tasers) and more than anything prostitution. The thing is, these are "sponsored ads" which are all supposedly screened and approved manually. Also you can report them and Facebook won't take them down.
Before someone suggests it cause I've seen this response a couple times in this thread already: No, I am not searching those things or related products on Facebook or elsewhere on the web.
Also Met's estimate that only 1 out of every 2000 ads violates their policy is straight up laughable. There's no way they themselves believe that. I would say at least 25% of the ads I see are of this nature. Literally dozens a day.

All my Twitter ads are just about AI images.
- Which is especially funny, given the countdown until that's no longer a market. It's like using a refrigerator to sell ice.

We thought they would use crime prediction for putting us to jail, but instead they just advertise

Well sir. Given that the algorhythm designed for procuring that content is literally the best at its job bar none. And having also had personal experience with this. One of two things or both is happening. #1 you like to partake in partying and you seek that out sometimes. And the software knows that. #2 you associate with drugs dealers who are in your social media circles.
Let's be clear. This content isnt shown to you just because. Its being shown to you because you have displayed a pattern of seeking where these items come into play or you talk to people who regularly engage in this.
I'm a 28 year old man. I have never been shown a targeted advertisement for feminine hygiene products. Also I had never seen advertisements on social media for literal drugs and shit until I went thru a phase where I developed a pretty bad coke habit for a while and had a lot of dealers in my phone.
- It could just be that they work in a kitchen.
- You assume that the algorithm works perfectly. It does not. Sometimes, the data points it connects on people is "male person living in Kansas" and just serve you ads with those keywords. Which means one day you see an ad for Cheerios, the next day you see an ad for your local crystal meth store.
- You should read the article.
- I'm sorry, but I don't buy that 100%. To an extent maybe, but there are ads that get presented to me sometimes that is just wild out of the blue and I'm like what the fuck. I didn't do anything to suggest. I might like this at all. So I can understand what this person saying

stop following rap/hip-hop artists

Asking tech giants to start policing people sounds like it can get bad really quickly…but at the same time letting them do nothing also sounds terrible
- That's an interesting take.
  These companies are accepting money from criminal enterprises to advertise criminal enterprises.
  You don't need them to police people, you need them to stop being overt criminals themselves.
  
  Exactly. Meta is an accomplice to all these crimes! Why do so many of the folks in this thread and elsewhere fail to realize that?!
- How the fuck is vetting the ads on their platform "policing" people?

You sound like you love to see ads, otherwise why the fuck are you not blocking them using extensions?
- I don't use Instagram altogether, this isn't about me. The main audience of Instagram (and other Meta platforms) are teens, whom you should not expose to such advertisements. Some are not tech literate and are capable of blocking Meta's ads on a DNS level or with some other trickery. Look at the broader audience, this isn't a "Me" post.
  
  No relation to Instagram, this is about the internet as a whole, no one ever should be online without at least 5 adblocking extensions.
- You sound like you didn't read the article. This not about seeing ads or not, it's about large corporations allowing and making profits off advertising criminal activities.
  
  allowing and making profits off advertising criminal activities.
  You mean the same ones that could be easily blocked by extensions so none of us would be talking about it right now and giving them more clicks? you clearly missed the point.
- You can't block ads in a app. This should be common knowledge.
  
  Joke is on you, stop using the app.
  
  Instander.
  
  You can just patch it
- The post title is the title of the article, where an investigative journalist intentionally manipulates the algorithm to produce this result. If he used an ad blocking extension, he'd be unable to hold Meta accountable for what they are doing.
  So maybe calm down about that given the context, and perhaps establish the context before you decide to click reply.

132 comments

Pixelfed