
First proof that Facebook dark ads could swing an election - kawera
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2142072-first-proof-that-facebook-dark-ads-could-swing-an-election/#.WXu0_tfF-U4.twitter
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soared
Meh. No one needs proof that advertising works, especially for political
campaigns. There isn't even proof mentioned at all though. They made 4
different ads and tried to target people political beliefs indirectly. It
worked. Big surprise, you can guess someone's political beliefs based on other
psycho/demographics.

They could've also just found a list of voters or party affiliations, paid a
company to augment that list with addresses/emails/etc, then uploaded it
directly to facebook and targeted only those people.

The article even refuted that the test results indicate voting habits, "we
should be careful not to equate a short-term decision to share or like a post,
with long-term political views"

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Problems with this article aside, newscientist would appear to be a reputable
site by its name, but it is asbsolutley not.

The title says "dark ads". "dark" is never used in the article, and the term
is pure clickbait. Dark posts are just another name for an unpublished post
that is used as an ad. Not nefarious in the least bit.

"Building blocks of alien cells found on Saturn’s largest moon" is the article
currently featured on the homepage. Sounds like a legit sciencey article.

~~~
Gigablah
I'm not sure if you knew this, but newscientist is a long-running magazine
with heavy international circulation.

~~~
soared
This was my first time seeing the site. If it used to be good, it looks like
its gone down hill to me.

