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Facebook Faked Viewer Metrics By As Much as 900%

Accepted submission by canopic jug at 2019-10-14 08:36:04 from the if-the-gains-outweigh-the-penalty-it-becomes-business-as-usual dept.
Techonomics

Facebook vastly exaggerated the number of viewers it had on its video platform in order to lure producers away from compting platforms like YouTube. Facebook's exaggerations were off by 150% to 900% [hollywoodreporter.com] from the actual figures, and apparently knew it at the time. Facebook is proposing a settlement of a meagre $40 million to avoid facing larger penalties. Fines or not these exaggerations, or more precisely, lies, contributed to crippling or eliminating several video-oriented areas of activity.

According to a brief in support of the settlement, Facebook would pay $40 million to resolve claims. Much of that would go to those who purchased ad time in videos, though $12 million — or 30 percent of the settlement fund — is earmarked for plaintiffs' attorneys.

The suit accused Facebook of acknowledging miscalculations in metrics upon press reports, but still not taking responsibility for the breadth of the problem. "The average viewership metrics were not inflated by only 60%-80%; they were inflated by some 150 to 900%," stated an amended complaint.

Earlier on SN:
Facebook Discloses Additional Advertising Metric Miscalculations [soylentnews.org] (2016)


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