As FTC starts asking questions about that mega-deal with Google to train AI

Well, look at that. Ads disguised as posts.

    • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
      421·
      8 months ago

      Sort of. At least on old reddit, sponsored posts were in a light blue box. Now it sounds like they have a little gray “sponsored” somewhere on it.

    • db2@lemmy.worldEnglish
      161·
      8 months ago

      Steve doesn’t care as long as he can extract money before the repercussions hit. That’s why he didn’t care about alienating so many people that volunteered their time and energy, he’s counting on their being enough momentum to get through the IPO so he can steal take the money he thinks he’s entitled to… he doesn’t give a single shit what happens after because he won’t be there and will just blame everyone else.

  • philpo@feddit.deEnglish
    1161·
    8 months ago

    Another reason I really look forward for them being sued in Europe - This is a highly illegal practice in the EU and has already brought sizeable penalties for various other media outlets, both conventional and online.

    And weeks ago the Dutch and German consumer protection agencies as well as the GDPR ombudsman already commented that they are looking into Reddit (Reddit has it’s European office in Amsterdam).

    That will be fun.

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6214·
      8 months ago

      Which is why they’re now under investigation from the FTC.

      edit: FTC not FCC edit 2: looks like they’re being investigated about AI, not ads.

      • ZeroCool@slrpnk.netEnglish
        282·
        8 months ago

        Which is why they’re now under investigation from the FCC.

        Ummm, no, they aren’t. They’re under investigation by the FTC for their deal that allows Google to train AI on user content. The FCC is not conducting the inquiry and it has nothing to do with these ads.

        It’s really annoying that people can just make things up and it gets upvoted because nobody actually reads the damn articles.

  • Krauerking@lemy.lolEnglish
    801·
    8 months ago

    You know what’s wild?

    I have seen them replace the top comment on a post with an ad.
    Literally still have all the responses to it that are now completely out of place, but treating it like it’s naturally in there. And also it means the top comment (which might have been a bot anyways) has just been taken over by reddit and used to sell ad space.

    • xantoxis@lemmy.worldEnglish
      30·
      8 months ago

      That is wild. Are you sure it’s not the author of that comment editing their post to become an ad? Screenshot?

      • Krauerking@lemy.lolEnglish
        41·
        8 months ago

        No I think it’s some kinda of fucked up bug from them trying to have the first auto scroll spot be the presented as and it taking over the space of the top comment. Like this.

      • Cataphract@lemmy.mlEnglish
        16·
        8 months ago

        My partner still visits reddit on mobile (the communities they want just are not here and they don’t like to post), I know when showing me something we’ve clicked on a post to have to scroll past a “Presented” comment (ad), the communities stickied bot comment, then we finally get to the first real comment only for it to be some highly upvoted joke comment. Sprinkle in bots and native ad’s, I seriously don’t understand still putting up with it. It’s like saying a shopping complex is still a social hot spot like a mall was back in the day.

  • 50_centavos@lemmy.worldEnglish
    651·
    8 months ago

    More of their bullshitery. I had the audacity to use my browser to click a reddit link.

      • T156@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        8 months ago

        As does putting .i on the end, to use the compact interface.

        The links are a bit spotty nowadays, and some of the newer features don’t work quite right, but it otherwise works a treat for most things.

      • FlihpFlorp@lemm.eeEnglish
        4·
        8 months ago

        Just curious, because typing Reddit in at the end of searches magically makes the exact niche result you need appear, how do you open a post in old Reddit?

        • PeroBasta@lemmy.worldEnglish
          12·
          8 months ago

          There are FF addons that can do that for you. Otherwise you have to manually change the www into old.

          • FlihpFlorp@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            8 months ago

            Oh really that easy

            Someone else mentioned front ends to limit tracking and stuff so imma check that out too

        • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.netEnglish
          61·
          8 months ago

          I’d be more likely to recommend you install a plugin like libredirect and use an alternative frontend to Reddit like libreddit. Get visibility into posts, spread your load across three alternative front end instances to avoid rate limiting, starve reddit of the tracking data they’re trying to direct people to their preferred front end for

    • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.worldEnglish
      141·
      8 months ago

      Yup, they’re forcing people towards the app because it allows them to collect telemetry data. Your browser walls them off so they can’t data mine your device, but the app gives them full control. It’s why so many services and companies have switched to apps instead of mobile sites; An app allows them to collect and sell your data.

  • Diplomjodler@feddit.deEnglish
    551·
    8 months ago

    The former mod of /r/jailbait has everything under control. The IPO is going to be a huge success, no doubt about it.

    • NineMileTower@lemmy.worldEnglish
      613·
      8 months ago

      Of all the dumb shit he does, being a mod of r/jailbait is so stupid to bring up. At that time you could make anyone a mod of a subreddit.

      • Sonicdemon86@lemmy.worldEnglish
        192·
        8 months ago

        And yet he stayed as a mod until they were forced to shut that subreddit down. He could have left at any time, yet he didn’t. So how is it stupid to bring it up?

  • SteefLem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    501·
    8 months ago

    Also all the things they (reddit) claim in this article i call BS. Specially so close to the ipo.

    • driving_croonerEnglish
      44·
      8 months ago

      This is how it’s looks. No notification anywhere that is an ad post.

      • DrCake@lemmy.worldEnglish
        34·
        8 months ago

        Jesus Christ, 1.5k upvotes on an ad. I know it didn’t say it explicitly but it does read very much like an ad

          • huginn@feddit.itEnglish
            34·
            8 months ago

            100% chance

            Reddit would not let actual sentiment be shown, which is part of why the comments are locked (archived). If you’re an advertiser they’ll bend over backwards to please you. Guaranteed.

            5 years ago people were down voting ads to oblivion. Now? They’ve got controls for that.

            • Krauerking@lemy.lolEnglish
              4·
              8 months ago

              Oh man I miss when down voting an ad actually worked. That was such a funny movement for a second before they fixed that.
              But yeah all those up ones are definitely fake and just a way to make it feel more real. The Jesus ads still don’t show any up otes since they aren’t paying for that feature I guess.

          • 50_centavos@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            8 months ago

            Pretty sure the votes don’t work on the ads. Why would they, every ad would get down voted into oblivion and not show up on people’s feeds. It reminds me of the fake comments on Facebook ads. “Pre-ordered my shwami blankets, can’t wait!”

      • Sibbo@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        101·
        8 months ago

        Yeah this is really scary. Maybe the golden thing on the top right is supposed to be the marking? But this is clearly not clearly marked. Should be easy to sack in a court.

        This may be on purpose though. They communicate to their future shareholders that they will do everything - legal and illegal - to make profit and pay dividends.

    • InquisitiveApathy@lemm.eeEnglish
      171·
      8 months ago

      Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but this referenced ad post is over a year old. There’s been “organic” guerilla marketing by advertisers on Reddit for almost a decade now. How is this relevant to the recent changes?

      • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.worldEnglish
        131·
        8 months ago

        The context is in the article posted. This was one of the early experiments for the new ad platform. Looks like they did some simple test by coordinating things manually, then once they validated the concept, they spent the year building out a platform and interface for advertisers.

        • InquisitiveApathy@lemm.eeEnglish
          3·
          8 months ago

          Ahhh I had a bit of a, didn’t read the article, moment and that was the missing context for me. I appreciate you clarifying!

        • _number8_@lemmy.worldEnglish
          52·
          8 months ago

          even lemmy has astroturfing. i guarantee reddit’s push to tighten API usage etc was partially to ensure only paid / approved astroturfing was possible

          • sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            102·
            8 months ago

            Lemmy has astroturfing? Where??? The Linux bros? They just seem like they REALLY love Linux (and good for them, everyone needs hobbies).

    • squid_slime@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      8 months ago

      Wtf is up with the comments… They’re all congratulating the marketing to for a good campaign? Saying they’re buying the shit.

  • laxe@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    8 months ago

    Gotta juice up those numbers before IPO so executives can sell their stock and leave others to hold the bag

  • ‮redirtSdeR@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    8 months ago

    if you replace the www.reddit part of the link with farside.link/libreddit it will send you to a random frontend instance.

    this means no ads, no js, no trackers, and probably none of this.

    to do this you’ll need a browser extension. try this one: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirector/ (couldn’t find this one for chrome but you can choose another)

    if you used the extension i gave you you can import below as a plaintext in the settings.

    redirect.txt 
    {
    "redirects": [
        {
            "description": "",
            "exampleUrl": "https://www.reddit.com/r/example",
            "exampleResult": "https://farside.link/libreddit/r/example",
            "error": null,
            "includePattern": "https://www.reddit.com*",
            "excludePattern": "",
            "patternDesc": "",
            "redirectUrl": "https://farside.link/libreddit$1",
            "patternType": "W",
            "processMatches": "noProcessing",
            "disabled": false,
            "grouped": false,
            "appliesTo": [
                "main_frame",
                "sub_frame"
            ]
        },
        {
            "description": "",
            "exampleUrl": "https://old.reddit.com/r/example",
            "exampleResult": "https://farside.link/libreddit/r/example",
            "error": null,
            "includePattern": "https://old.reddit.com*",
            "excludePattern": "",
            "patternDesc": "",
            "redirectUrl": "https://farside.link/libreddit$1",
            "patternType": "W",
            "processMatches": "noProcessing",
            "disabled": false,
            "grouped": false,
            "appliesTo": [
                "main_frame",
                "sub_frame"
            ]
        }
    ]
}