Why aren't advertisers (Microsoft, Facebook, Google) held responsible for allowing scammy adverts?
I know they allow scam adverts because it’s easy money, but why aren’t they held responsible for facilitating obvious scams? You open Edge, there’s 3 “Earn money quick” adverts. On Instagram, every 5 ads, one is a scam.
I’ve always hated advertising, but I hated it even more once I worked in advertising.
That being said, it’s unfair to advertisers. (ugh, I hate saying that, because it’s a slimy business, but this is the reality) Nobody has the time to thoroughly research EVERY business that wants to buy advertising. Also, there’s a fine line between scams and completely legal yet manipulative business.
Bill might be starting a legitimate small business and wants to advertise to get his first clients. There’s very little information available online and no reviews because he’s just starting out, but that could look like a fly by night scammer.
Joe owns a similar small business. He charges too much and he doesn’t do very good work. That’s not illegal, but people who use his services might feel like they got scammed.
Bob’s a piece of shit. He wants to take your money and give you nothing in return. He knows what an advertiser would look for to verify his legitimacy, and he makes a fake website full of fake reviews.
In this instance, the advertiser might refuse to sell to Bill, get sued for selling to Joe and spend money and time proving that he’s technically legit, and perhaps not even know that Bob’s a scammer until months after he’s taken the money and run.
I really try to caution people from accepting these "it's too much to hold us accountable for" answers. If it's too much, then cut back. Simple as that. If I am a real estate mogul and my building collapses like in Miami, do you think the local/state/federal agencies involved will shrug it off when I go "Now now now, I have far too many properties. I can't possibly be expected to be in compliance all the time. A collapse and some deaths once in a while is inevitable"? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. Yet when youtube goes "we simply have too many uploads to screen it all," we do just that!
Same goes here. If you're juggling too many advertisers, why is that our problem?
Yeah. This is why we have things called regulations.
When seatbelts and crumple zones and airbags and crash safety ratings became a thing, car manufacturers didn’t want to add any of that crap in, because, you know, it would cut into their profit margins. And then the government said “do it or you’re not allowed to sell cars”. And then all the manufacturers did it.
Something similar can theoretically be done for advertising. But it probably won’t, because regulatory capture has been normalized.
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