Meta created 'playbook' to fend off pressure to crack down on scammers

Impact of Scam Ads on Trust and Behavior

• Many commenters say repeated exposure to obvious scam ads makes them distrust all ads, including legitimate ones.
• Some report never clicking platform ads anymore, instead searching for products separately.
• Others note that most people still treat ads (e.g., in search results) as if they were trustworthy top results, implying scam tolerance remains high among typical users.

Platform Incentives and Ad Economics

• Several argue scam ads are simply more profitable: higher click-through, high margins, repeat spend from scammers.
• Genuine, useful ads and real clicks are described as a tiny slice of overall ad revenue with little business incentive to optimize for them.
• There’s a perceived “sweet spot”: remove just enough scams to prevent mass user exodus or regulatory anger, but keep the lucrative remainder.

Liability, Section 230, and Criminality

• Confusion and debate over why Section 230 would shield ad content, retail listings, or apps, not just “user speech.”
• Some stress that 230 is about civil, not criminal, liability, and that under-enforcement of existing laws is the real issue.
• Others call this a “meta‑scam” where platforms knowingly facilitate scams yet avoid consequences.

Monopoly Power, Brand Equity, and Market Structure

• One line of argument: Meta and peers show classic “monopoly/near‑monopoly” behavior—insulated from user dissatisfaction and able to normalize harmful practices.
• Counterpoint: critics overuse “monopoly”; products can be widely disliked yet still “good enough” due to switching costs and network effects.
• Some think platforms are burning brand equity; others say their market power makes that depletion slow or tolerable.

Regulation, Evasion Tactics, and Global Response

• The “playbook” is seen as analogous to VW emissions cheating: optimize to pass regulator search queries rather than actually clean up scams.
• Commenters highlight Meta’s effort to mimic regulator search terms and clean only those, characterizing it as perception management, not real enforcement.
• Several praise non‑US regulators (e.g., Japan, Europe) for pushing back where US agencies are viewed as captured or absent.

Workplace Ethics and High Pay

• Strong criticism of employees who remain, with analogies to “meat eaters” vs. “grass eaters” in corruption: active exploiters vs. passive enablers.
• Debate over whether above‑market compensation is a red flag for unethical or quasi‑criminal business models, or simply a talent strategy.

Broader “Scam Culture” and Personal Harm

• Multiple anecdotes of family members, especially elders, being defrauded via Meta platforms.
• Some frame the US as having a deep, historically rooted “scam culture” where legal and semi‑legal grifts (advertising, subscriptions, political ads) are normalized.
• Others generalize this to libertarian or anti‑regulatory politics: regulation is costly but exists precisely because of such behavior.

User Coping and Comparisons to Other Platforms

• YouTube and Google are frequently cited as similarly saturated with scammy, misleading, or borderline-illegal ads.
• Some users now treat all advertising as a negative signal and rely solely on word of mouth or organic search.
• Proposed fixes include mandatory transparent ad archives, append‑only logs, or third‑party storage—though skepticism remains that platforms would adopt them voluntarily.