Just over three months ago, the scenes from the U.S. Capitol insurrection were surreal.

It looked familiar, only out of place -- like a far-right Facebook group superimposed on a Capitol green screen. As one news anchor after another expressed shock, I kept involuntarily muttering, then yelling, the same thing: What did you think was gonna happen?

The #StopTheSteal groups behind the insurrection openly began organizing on Facebook. For years, Facebook and YouTube have helped nurture extremist movements. Why? Because it’s a feature, not a bug of their toxic business model of surveillance advertising.

Even though social media platforms shape public discourse, they’re also free for us -- which is to say, we are not their customers. We are only valuable insofar as we serve their actual business -- and that business is surveillance advertising.

It’s all about Facebook’s bottom line. Even after Facebook banned militia groups on their platforms, they still allowed advertisers to target people who were “interested” in them with offers of military tactical gear, including body armor and rifle enhancements. Banning militias doesn’t get to the root of the problem. We need to ban surveillance advertising. Spread the word online using the links of your choice below:

Facebook, which earned a record $86 billion in 2020, made 98% of its revenue from selling these ads. Combined with Google (which owns YouTube), the two tech giants control over 60% of the U.S. digital-ad market, and their dominance rests on mountains of user data.

These companies track our every move to build digital dossiers -- everything you’ve ever clicked, what you’re doing on other apps and sites, even your offline behavior. Then they curate the content you see -- not just ads, but your newsfeeds, recommendations, notifications, and trends, using profit-driven algorithms that determine what will keep you clicking, so they can serve you more ads and collect more of your data.

It’s not just creepy. The algorithms disproportionately amplify hate and disinformation, because that’s what generates the most engagement. The more of our attention they capture, the more of it they can auction off to advertisers. That’s the business model.

The real costs of the business, however, are incalculable, as we saw on January 6.

Thanks for speaking out with us,

Jesse
Co-founder
Accountable Tech