Sponcon Disclosure Lessons from Teen Vogue’s Facebook Article Controversy

As the lines between journalism and advertising become increasingly blurred, media companies must be on high alert for potential pitfalls around the failure to properly disclose sponsored content. The proper characterization of content as commercial advertising, and the proper disclosure of such sponsored content, has drawn the scrutiny of both the Federal Trade Commission and the National Advertising Division in recent years. Teen Vogue’s equivocation on whether an uncritical article on Facebook’s role in the 2020 election amounted to sponsored content provides many lessons from which other media companies should learn. Earlier today, Teen Vogue published an article titled, “How Facebook Is Helping Ensure the Integrity of the 2020 Election.” The Twitterverse was set abuzz, because it seemed to be overly laudatory of Facebook and did not contain any critical questioning. Commentators found the questions posed and the tone of the article surprising in light of Facebook’s role in the 2016 election and its recent public pronouncement regarding its approach in 2020. “Interesting pivot for Teen Vogue here to… Facebook PR?” tweeted Steven Perlberg, a freelance writer formerly with BuzzfFeed News and The Wall Street Journal, while Molly Jong-Fast of The Daily Beast described the article as “so sketchy.” Approximately an hour after it was posted, Teen Vogue added a prominent disclosure below the headline, stating, “Editor’s note: This is sponsored editorial content.” In a... Continue reading at 'Folio Magazine'

[ Folio Magazine | 2020-01-09 00:40:34 UTC ]
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Government Requests for Facebook User Data Rose 7% in the Second Half of 2018

Facebook received 110,634 government requests for user data in the second half of 2018, up 7% from 103,815 in the first half of 2018, according to its latest Transparency Report, which was released Thursday. The social network said the uptick in the second half of last year was normal compared... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2019-05-23 23:00:44 UTC ]
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Facebook says it is more aggressively enforcing content rules

Facebook also said its automated detection software that eliminates illicit content is improving: It now automatically detects and removes more than half of the hate speech on its platform. Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal

[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2019-05-23 21:53:49 UTC ]
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Facebook shuts down billions of fake accounts

Social media giant says it has seen a "steep increase" in the creation of abusive, fake accounts. Continue reading at Stuff

[ Stuff | 2019-05-23 21:23:34 UTC ]
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The Amount of Fake Accounts Removed From Facebook This Year Nearly Equals Its Number of Total Active Users

Facebook disabled more than 2 billion fake accounts on Facebook in the first quarter of 2019 alone, nearly the same amount of total monthly active users the company has, the company said Thursday in a report about how it is enforcing its platform rules. The company pulled almost 2.2 billion fake... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2019-05-23 20:09:09 UTC ]
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Mark Zuckerberg brushes off 'break up' during Facebook safety check

Facebook issued its latest report on enforcing decency standards on the social network Thursday, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the opportunity to criticize calls for the company to be broken up by regulators. In its "Community Standards Enforcement Report" posted online, Facebook provided... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-23 19:54:32 UTC ]
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Facebook: Another three billion fake profiles culled

Mark Zuckerberg hits back at calls to break up Facebook, as it reveals it removed a record number of hateful posts. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2019-05-23 19:06:33 UTC ]
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Men Outnumber Women by Far in News Photos Posted to Facebook

If you look at images posted to Facebook by news organizations, you are far more likely to see men than women, according to a new study from Pew Research Center. Pew analyzed images posted (publicly) to the social network by 17 national news outlets between April 1 and June 30, 2018, using a... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2019-05-23 18:45:42 UTC ]
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Some Facebook content reviewers will focus solely on hate speech

Facebook isn't just interested in cracking down on fake accounts. While discussing the firm's latest Community Standards Enforcement Report, company VP Justin Osofsky revealed during a call that the social network will run a pilot program where some... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2019-05-23 18:11:00 UTC ]
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Vanity Fair does Star Wars, the Vogue thief, Esquire’s editor to exit: Publisher’s Brief

Welcome to the latest edition of Ad Age Publisher’s Brief, our roundup of news from the world of content producers across digital and print. Got a tip? Send it our way. Joining us late? Here’s the previous edition. Hooray! Somebody’s gonna sell a lot of print media! OK, to Star Wars nerds, but... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-23 18:07:02 UTC ]
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Men Appear Twice as Often as Women in News Photos on Facebook

A new study of the images accompanying news stories posted publicly on Facebook by prominent American news media outlets finds Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2019-05-23 17:30:15 UTC ]
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Facebook removes 3 billion fake accounts in 6 months

Facebook removed more than three billion fake accounts from October to March, twice as many as the previous six months, the social networking company said Thursday. Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2019-05-23 16:32:45 UTC ]
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Facebook catches 3 billion fake accounts, but the ones it misses are the real problem

The company, which reports 2.39 billion monthly active users, says it zapped 3 BILLION fake accounts in two quarters alone, and that it caught only “most of them.” Facebook held a press call today to report to the world that it has removed 3 billion fake accounts during the last quarter of 2018... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2019-05-23 15:50:14 UTC ]
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Change UK pays for Facebook ad blitz amid dismal EU poll ratings

Party is comfortably biggest spender on online election ads, as other parties hold backChange UK has run a last-minute Facebook advertising campaign to try to shore up its support amid dismal poll ratings for the European elections, but most other parties have mostly avoided large spending on... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-05-23 05:00:40 UTC ]
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Why some experts say it's time for Twitter and Facebook to ban anti-vaccination posts

As measles cases continue to rise in Canada and the U.S., experts are calling on social media platforms to ban anti-vaccination posts, saying the risks to public health created by misinformation outweigh the right to free speech. Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2019-05-22 08:00:00 UTC ]
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Far-Right Propaganda Floods Facebook Ahead of EU Elections

Fake accounts spread white-nationalist messages and amassed larger followings than actual far-right parties before being taken down, according to a new report. Continue reading at Wired

[ Wired | 2019-05-22 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Far-right Facebook groups 'spreading hate to millions in Europe'

Avaaz uncovers 500 accounts using fake news to spread white supremacy messageA web of far-right Facebook accounts spreading fake news and hate speech to millions of people across Europe has been uncovered by the campaign group Avaaz.Facebook, which is struggling to clean up the platform and... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-05-22 04:00:20 UTC ]
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Facebook and Google Pressured EU Experts to Soften Fake News Regulations, Say Insiders

Google and Facebook pressured and “arm-wrestled” a group of experts to soften European guidelines on online disinformation and fake news, Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2019-05-21 15:02:38 UTC ]
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If anyone can give us a real Facebook alternative, it’s Apple

You’d like to leave Facebook, but there’s nowhere to go. A new social network from a company with a proven reputation for privacy isn’t such a crazy idea. Facebook is so big, and its reach so wide, that few rival networks even get out of the starting gates, much less gain the critical mass of... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2019-05-21 09:00:08 UTC ]
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