Anything interesting happen today?

Inspiration, move me brightly

With all that’s happening in Washington— from (yet another) impeachment to preparations for Biden’s inauguration to the National Guard sleeping in The Capitol as they get ready to defend the seat of our legislative branch from the threat of Americans—as well as some personal stuff (a couple job interviews; potty-training the three-year-old and helping the six-year-old with asynchronous learning today), I find myself today short on time and ideas. Apologies.

But one thing I do want to note: Yesterday, I published a piece in Vice about the role content recommendation companies play in the spread of disinformation. We look, rightfully, at the power the social media platforms and bad-faith news networks have in creating, distributing, and monetizing disinformation and conspiracy theories. And we’re starting to look more closely, or at least should, at how ad tech also has a seat at the table.

After the piece posted, I heard from Adam Singolda, the CEO of Taboola. He told me that after a recent review of The Federalist’s content, Taboola terminated its relationship with the media outlet. This was welcome news.

The Federalist is one of the leading far right media outlets, one that has a twisted and often incendiary sense of reality:

• Leftists Are Colonizing Red Towns Like Mine, And Local Republicans Are Clueless

• Federalist Staff: Big Tech Totalitarianism Runs Deeper Than Controlling Social Media

• No, Donald Trump Did Not Incite An Insurrection: Democrats and their media allies are milking a tragic riot for all it's worth.

• Yes, The Eagles Should Have Fired Doug Pederson Over Tanking

This is just from today.

We know the media, all points across the spectrum, play a big role in establishing how we as a society operate; how we think; how form our values and opinions. Researchers looking at media effects theories—Uses & Gratification; Cultivation; Social Judgement; etc—have decades of data and analysis on how television and print media leave an impression on us. In the post-truth/post-Trump era, we also need to look at how the digital advertising delivery mechanisms have affected us.

In October, we talked about the efficacy of digital advertising and the fallacy of the “does it work” question.

The architecture that delivered those ads work just fine, if not perhaps demonically. Just ask your uncle who is now a QAnon adherent because Facebook and Twitter’s algorithm constantly surfaces conspiracy theories, or your high school friend who has become radicalized because he once went down a YouTube hole, never to come back. Microtargeting in this sense, then, works. Perhaps too well. 

The plumbing does what it’s supposed to: deliver content in all its forms to your screen. And ad-tech companies, especially staring at an angry Democratic Congress, are starting to pump brakes. Look at Google, which Axios reports today, is blocking “all political ads.”

Google informed its advertising partners Wednesday that beginning Jan. 14, its platforms will block all political ads, as well as any related to the Capitol insurrection, "following the unprecedented events of the past week and ahead of the upcoming presidential inauguration," according to an email obtained by Axios.

Facebook, too, is singing a different tune, as yesterday it said that “News articles that do not contain new original reporting or analysis will now receive less distribution in News Feed.”

While this may seem like sticking a finger into a leaking dam, it’s better than where we were a week ago.

Content recommendation companies are part of this equation, too, and it is good that a company can listen to critics and work to fix its errors.

Publishers, I know it’s hard to turn down easy incremental money from ad tech, but you can’t preach the journalistic cliches of ‘speaking truth to power’ ‘with neither fear nor favor’ when the ad-tech companies you partner with help fuel the disinformation web. You may hit your quarterly revenue numbers, but at what cost?

Igor Bobic @igorbobic

Stunned. Just stunned.

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Steely Dan, “Only a Fool Would Say That”

Some interesting links:

For brands:

• Sephora’s plan to combat racial bias: Fewer security guards, more Black-owned brands and new protocols (Washington Post)

• Airbnb to cancel all D.C. reservations during inauguration week (Washington Post)

• J&J likely to seek EU approval for Covid-19 vaccine in February (Reuters)

For misinformation:

• Online misinformation that led to Capitol siege is 'radicalization,' say researchers (Reuters)

For media corruption:

• Voice of America CEO Accused Of Fraud, Misuse Of Office All In One Week (NPR)

For TV specials:

• Biden team plans inauguration night celebrity TV special (Politico)

For media criticism:

• Four years ago, I wondered if the media could handle Trump. Now we know. (Washington Post)