Reddit, AI spam bots explore new ways to show ads in your feed

#For sale: Ads that look like legit Reddit user posts

“We highly recommend only mentioning the brand name of your product since mentioning links in posts makes the post more likely to be reported as spam and hidden. We find that humans don’t usually type out full URLs in natural conversation and plus, most Internet users are happy to do a quick Google Search, ReplyGuy’s website reads.

  • chiliedoggEnglish
    arrow-up
    127
    arrow-down
    0
    ·
    6 months ago
    link
    fedilink

    The law requires YouTubers to identify sponsored segments. I don’t see why that shouldn’t also be applied to social media posts.

    • hayes_English
      arrow-up
      81
      arrow-down
      0
      ·
      6 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      The law does apply to social media posts.

      The social media company has to mark sponsored content and give users the means to do so themselves (when the partnership is between the user and a third party rather than the social media company).

      Unfortunately it’s hard to prove and profitable to lie.

      • Black_GulamanEnglish
        arrow-up
        19
        arrow-down
        0
        ·
        6 months ago
        edit-2
        6 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        social media corporations can be made liable under the law, well how about here in Lemmy, where the instance owner may not even know that companies are creating bots and posting discrete advertisements, or hiring trolls/shills to advertise for them?

      • 2deckEnglish
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        0
        ·
        6 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        Is it difficult to prove that’s what’s explicitly being sold in this case?

        • pumpkinseedoilEnglish
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          0
          ·
          6 months ago
          link
          fedilink

          It’s hard since it could theoretically also be an actual user who used that website themself.

    • ObiniceEnglish
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      0
      ·
      6 months ago
      link
      fedilink

      The law requires YouTubers to identify sponsored segments.

      In which countries, though? That’s a key point that seems missed from a lot of responses discussing “the law”.

      Laws vary quite significantly from nation to nation, and without that key context, there’s not much that can be garnered.

      • conciselyverboseEnglish
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        0
        ·
        6 months ago
        link
        fedilink

        The US, for one, which pretty much makes it apply universally anywhere on YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc, as they’re all US companies.