<story><title>Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts</title><url>https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facebook-profits-military-gear-ads-capitol-riot</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rreichel03</author><text>As an anecdote, since July they&amp;#x27;ve started showing me ads for body armor almost nonstop whenever I actually open the app.  Just the other day it was a body armor ad then an ad for a tactical communication earpiece.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nataz</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m seeing adds for illegal pistol and rifle suppressors (aka &amp;quot;silencers&amp;quot;) only barely disguised as &amp;quot;fuel filters&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;solvent traps&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;The companies selling the suppressor kits claim they are legitimate auto parts. They clearly aren&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;Some people have claimed that it would be legal to buy these if you applied for a license to manufacture a suppressor, but good luck arguing that in federal court, especially since these are manufactured in China. Both the import of these goods, and buying without the correct federal license are felonies....&lt;p&gt;And yet they are all over Facebook. And people are buying them.&lt;p&gt;Here is the crazy thing. I enjoy shooting as a hobby, and could understand if FB chose to show me adds for legitimate firearm accessory companies.&lt;p&gt;I am &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; a car guy.&lt;p&gt;Either FB add targeting is terrible, or they can connect the dots between these obviously illegal &amp;quot;solvent traps&amp;quot; and people who are interested in firearms.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t a post made by a random FB user, it&amp;#x27;s an ad on their ad network on their platform. At what point does FB facebook become culpable?</text></comment>
<story><title>Facebook Has Been Showing Military Gear Ads Next to “Insurrection” Posts</title><url>https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facebook-profits-military-gear-ads-capitol-riot</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rreichel03</author><text>As an anecdote, since July they&amp;#x27;ve started showing me ads for body armor almost nonstop whenever I actually open the app.  Just the other day it was a body armor ad then an ad for a tactical communication earpiece.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bitbuilder</author><text>As another anecdote, I&amp;#x27;ve had the same ad targeting for this last week or so. (Which is really unfortunate timing.) At some point I must&amp;#x27;ve clicked on the wrong article while seeing what the &amp;quot;other side&amp;quot; was up to. And now my feed is full of tacticool insurrectionist chic.&lt;p&gt;The most disconcerting to me was an ad showcasing a &amp;quot;tactical hooded trench coat&amp;quot;[0], with the model holding an AK in the FB ad. I mean, nobody is going hunting, or defending their home, with their &lt;i&gt;tactical hooded trench coat&lt;/i&gt;. Seemed pretty squarely targeted at the aspiring insurrectionist crowd.&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;#x27;t get me wrong, I&amp;#x27;m all for letting people buy whatever strange clothes they want. If I have any point here it&amp;#x27;s that maybe FB doesn&amp;#x27;t get to claim the moral high ground when they&amp;#x27;re pushing ads using AKs as props, targeted at the crowd that stormed the capital (also, they need to fix their algorithm if they&amp;#x27;re pushing them to me).&lt;p&gt;[0]&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;gallery&amp;#x2F;bxcK7zb&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;imgur.com&amp;#x2F;gallery&amp;#x2F;bxcK7zb&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>