Instagram promoted its service on Facebook by using a screenshot of a post that included an offensive message to a female user threatening her with rape and murder, it was learned on Thursday.
The photo-sharing app, which is owned by Facebook, inadvertently promoted its product through an ad which showed the email whose subject line read: ‘Olivia, you f***ing b***h!’
The email message continued: ‘I will rape you before I kill you, you filthy whore!’
The ad was a screenshot of an email received by journalist Olivia Solon, who posted the Instagram ad on her Twitter account.
‘Instagram is using one of my most “engaging” posts to advertise its service to others on Facebook,’ she wrote.
Photo-sharing app Instagram inadvertently promoted its product on Facebook by using a screenshot of an offensive post
The ad was a screenshot of an email received by journalist Olivia Solon, who posted the Instagram ad on her Twitter account
The photo-sharing app, which is owned by Facebook, inadvertently promoted its product through an ad which showed the email whose subject line read: ‘Olivia, you f***ing b***h!’
Solon initially posted the offensive email a year ago, according to The Guardian. Her sister saw the ad appear on her Facebook page.
The ad encourages her sister to ‘see Olivia Solon’s photo and posts from friends on Instagram.’
The inadvertent ad is the result of an algorithm used by Instagram that boosts posts that generate buzz.
The original Instagram post by Solon received three likes and over a dozen comments.
The automated algorithms used by social media to inadvertently boost offensive content is generating more scrutiny.
ProPublica, a non-profit news organization based in New York, reported last week that it was possible to buy Facebook ads targeted to people who, on their Facebook profiles, had listed anti-Semitic topics in their field of study or work.
Once people put those phrases on their Facebook profiles, the topics automatically migrated onto the company’s advertising platform, as if they were education or job data that would be useful to marketers.
Facebook temporarily disabled some targeting capabilities last week in response to the ProPublica investigation.
Last week it was reported that it was possible to buy Facebook ads targeted to people who, on their Facebook profiles, had listed anti-Semitic topics in their field of study or work
Facebook announced on Wednesday that it will add ‘more human review and oversight’ to its ad-buying system. The company responded to rising criticism that automated processes have allowed people to buy discriminatory ads
Facebook announced on Wednesday that it will add ‘more human review and oversight’ to its ad-buying system.
The company responded to rising criticism that automated processes have allowed people to buy discriminatory ads.
Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said in a post on her Facebook page that the company would have more manual review of the targeting options it gives advertisers, a change that she said would strengthen the system after a report Facebook had allowed advertisers to market to self-described ‘Jew haters.’
Sandberg, who is Jewish, said in her post: ‘The fact that hateful terms were even offered as options was totally inappropriate and a fail on our part.’
Facebook should have discovered the unintended feature on its own, Sandberg added.
The company would create a program to encourage people on Facebook to report potential abuses of its ads system directly to the company, she said.
US lawmakers have separately criticized Facebook for allowing Russian operatives to buy US political ads before and after the 2016 elections.
Sandberg’s post did not mention the alleged Russian ads.