Culture
05 Apr 18

Facebook receives yet more complaints over ‘confusing’ donor feature on ads

Things go from bad to worse for Facebook, who have been forced to remove a feature that seemingly suggested to users that people on their friends list had donated to certain causes.

A user in Cork, Chryssa Dislis discovered the feature, when friends of theirs noticed they that it appeared they had donated to an American pro-life group. Dislis became concerned upon being told this, as the page in question ‘Expectant Mother Care – EMC Frontline Pregnancy Centers’ was particularly graphic. Dislis attempted to report the feature to Facebook but found there was no such feature in existence.

A Facebook spokesperson said that the feedback from users had caused them to realise the display of information was ‘confusing’ and so had removed the feature.

This comes just days after US-based pro-life trolls attacked pro-choice Facebook group ‘In her Shoes’, leaving one star ratings and sending abusive messages to members. ‘In her Shoes’ is an online space for women sharing their experiences with pregnancy and abortion under the Eighth Amendment.

Since the election of Donald Trump as US president in 2016, concerns have been raised about the social media giant’s role in the democratic process, with particular emphasis from content targeted at users remotely.

This issue was just recently raised in Hot Press; In the last issue, editor Niall Stokes challenged Facebook on its lack of transparency relating to advertisements and targeted content in the run up to the referendum on the Eighth Amendment. The open letter read in part “Can you tell Irish Facebook users what you intend to do to ensure that […] no ads purchased from outside the Irish democratic arena will be allowed in relation to the referendum on abortion, in order to ensure that Ireland is not effectively gamed by sinister, unaccountable forces outside the jurisdiction?”

Facebook have a lot to answer for.