The New Ethics of Digital Advertising
The Social Dilemma, one of the films making the Netflix list of the top 10 most watched in the US this week, is the latest documentary to warn us of the increasing dangers of advanced technology and it’s power to control our lives. While its parade of former Facebook and Google executive gives us a somewhat frightening glimpse behind the scenes of these tech companies, it does manage to highlight many of the ethical concerns involved in social media advertising.
Clearly, as these platforms have evolved, our relationship to them has changed and so has their business model. As the documentary points out, it may be about time to shine the spotlight onto how brands use social media to sell products and generate revenue for the platforms that display them.
Much of The Social Dilemma focuses upon how the current digital ad-based revenue model thrives on user engagement, which is subject to the whims and manipulations of these giant tech and social media platforms. We’ve reached the point where social media apps feed us more engaging content to keeps us tethered to our devices in order to push products and ideas upon us. The documentary demonstrates how companies use personalized content to manipulate our emotions and make us more vulnerable to the ads and promotions of profit-seeking brands.
How We Arrived Here
It might help to go back a few years to where it all began. In 2009, Facebook started advanced ad targeting, which allowed businesses to select language and geographical options for their ads. These kinds of filters were especially helpful for advertisers who didn’t want to show ads to people who couldn’t understand them or where their products weren’t available.
Fast forward to just over a decade later to a digital advertising landscape in which advertisers show ads according to a whole laundry list of metrics. In addition to language and geography, they now target users’ age, gender, interests, and behavioral patterns among others. Consequently, this kind of ad targeting has generated enormous revenues for platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
It isn’t just social media platforms that are at fault, however. Google, the world’s largest search engine actually tailors its results according to the user. As the documentary makes clear, if you search for the term “climate change,” the results will be different depending on your search history and other data Google has collected about you. In other words, it’s like Wikipedia serving up different results depending on the user and his or her location.
Motivated by Profit
The film leans heavily on commentary from former employees at Google, Twitter, and Facebook to make its point. Nevertheless, one cannot help but question the supposedly wholesome intentions of people like Justin Rosenstein, who headed the team that built the Facebook ‘like’ button. He claims they were driven by a desire to “spread love and positivity in the world” while ignoring, or at least downplaying, the part that maximizing profits played.
Another of the tech executives interviewed on camera, Tristan Harris, a former designer at Google, argued in an internal memo that the company’s products had become harmful and addictive. He wanted Google to take responsibility and to commit to changing its methods. Nevertheless, his epiphany highlights one of the more sobering truths about large companies and profits. Even if these tech companies acknowledge the harm they are doing, the incentive to maintain the business model that enriches them overshadows any impetus for change.
Social Media Marketing Mixes Personal with Professional
When digital advertisers use intimate personal info acquired from user accounts to target their potential customers, they mix personal and professional interests in a new and unprecedented way. For this reason, it’s important to question whether social media marketers are using this information ethically.
Without a doubt, one of the reasons for the success of social media marketing is its ability to use relevant, personal data to zero in on a target market. But just because tech platforms have access to information about people’s hobbies, relationship status, and shopping history doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s always okay to use it.
Moreover, the real danger surfaces when people are fed false information to keep them engaged because it generates more money more than the truth. While nothing is inherently wrong with digital advertisers using information to find people who might want their products, we have reached the point where the financial incentives often outweigh the well-being of the consumer.
Although people are still responsible for their actions, companies and brands need to be more concerned with the motives behind their content and how it affects the consumer. While social media marketing can be used effectively to reach consumers looking for specific goods and services, brands and tech platforms face an increasing responsibility to balance their interests against the genuine interests of the consumer and the impact the content they serve may have upon individuals and society as a whole.