Facebook and its unreliable algorithms
Author: Johan
A few weeks ago, a number of typical ads hit my Facebook timeline. Ads that lure you to a site to invest in the digital Yuan. It has only been introduced to a limited extent, but all kinds of parties offer you to invest in it in advance. Obviously with huge profits in prospect within a few weeks. Eventually, they all end up with the Yuan Pay Group founded and managed by the Chinese government. These brokers are really popping up everywhere. And just as with the Bitcoin, this has a huge appeal on scammers who are eager to piggyback on the imminent success.
You see the ad, you click on it, read it to get an idea of whether this is a scammer or not. Most of the advertisements I came across concerned rogue brokers and I reported them immediately to Facebook.
And then, something happens which is explainable but you don't expect it to happen. The Facebook algorithm detects your “interest” in these type of advertisements and then ensures that your timeline becomes clogged with even more of such advertisements. After a few days, half of my timeline was filled with ads like this. The algorithm does not detect that you report this ad after clicking on it. So the algorithm thinks you like these kinds of ads and provides you with more, similar ads.
This went on for about 10 days. Altogether, I've reported around 150 of these ads. And then, on day 11, I check my FB timeline, and within minutes I realized there were no more ads like this to be found. I have not received any kind of reports or feedback from Facebook but the algorithm has been adjusted (unlikely) or Mark has done something with this type of ads.
I wouldn't know the answer, but I am now relieved that I can once again look at messages from friends and family without being bothered by pushy scammers.
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