Wired reveals that Meta recorded at least $30.3 million in ad revenue between July 2018 and April 2022 from fake account networks. More than 22 million was spent by just seven networks.
New trolling pan from Meta. Wired indicates that the American group recorded at least $ 30.3 million in advertising revenue between July 2018 and April 2022 from networks since removed from its platforms, these protesting “coordinated inauthentic behavior”.
Behind this convoluted formula hide false accounts aimed at manipulating public debate, in particular by using misleading or even totally false information. These networks are primarily run by governments, independent groups, and PR and marketing companies.
Russia, the main provider of fake accounts
Of that $30.3 million, more than $22 million was spent by just seven networks. The biggest came in the form of a $9.5 million global campaign linked to the media group — opposed to the Chinese communist regime — behind the American newspaper Epoch Timesknown for his conspiracy theories and misinformation.
Additionally, of the 134 campaigns involving paid ads that Meta identified and removed, 56% targeted the population of the country the campaigns originated from. Only 31% of them were aimed solely at a foreign audience, ie users located outside the country of origin of the network. Russia accounted for the highest number of ads on the networks that Meta identified as violating its rules and subsequently removed. The United States, Ukraine and Mexico were the most targeted countries.
These revelations will not help Meta’s affairs, mired in scandals and controversies since the Cambridge Analytica affair in 2018. In search of a new lease of life, the American group sees most of Mark Zuckerberg’s most loyal lieutenants, in the image of Sheryl Sandberg, leaving the ship.
Moreover, the group’s turn towards the metaverse does not inspire much optimism as it hopes to commercially exploit this parallel world in the area it masters best, namely targeted advertising. In this context, the Californian company, whose economic model is based almost exclusively on advertising revenue ($115 billion in 2021) is ready to divert certain technologies from its virtual reality headsets for advertising purposes.