eharrison33 - Tumblr blog

[eharrison33]

Two crises marcomms pros didn’t expect in 2017 -- before 2017 happened ...

1. Tiki Torch having to distance itself from Nazis.

2. Facebook having to turn off it’s “self-reporting” category so advertisers couldn’t target bigots.

Ina Fried (who has been doing some great reporting at the intersection of tech and politics) had this today:

It is concerning enough that Facebook's ad system was letting buyers target people with self-described categories like "Jew hater" until ProPublica brought the issue to the social network's attention. (Facebook has now temporarily disabled the self-reported education and employer targeting fields, which is where most of the offenses occurred.)

But frightening as the current situation is, it actually raises a larger and potentially more challenging issue that looms not far on the horizon.

The big question: What about when Facebook's and Google's algorithms are good enough to know that an advertiser wants to target bigots without them needing to type in "Jew hater"?

Why this is a concern: We know about this current problem because Facebook's algorithms are still manual enough that buyers are targeting by keyword. But what about when the system is good enough to understand the kind of person someone is trying to reach, without requiring someone to type in such obviously offensive keywords?

It's issues like these that the tech industry needs to confront now, at the dawn of the machine-learning era, before our biases become codified.

Sigh.

[eharrison33]

The boys honoring Celtics past ... (at Gritty West Newton, MA)

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A wet and tuckered-out Beau. Boy, I wish he could speak English. Even rudimentary Spanish or French. (at Gritty West Newton, MA)

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#Schnoodlefest 2017 continues @lbenschwartz (at Gritty West Newton, MA)

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Beau with his brother Marcel (“Mars”) enjoying some puppy chicanery @lbenschwartz (at Gritty West Newton, MA)

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Beau and his brother Mars ... @lbenschwartz (at Gritty West Newton, MA)

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Ladies and gentlemen, we present our new puppy Beau. After a lengthy drive home we have returned and he’s checking out his surroundings.

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Night falls on Oquaga Lake ... summer out. (at Oquaga Lake)

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‘Tis a beautiful day at lake #2 (at Oquaga Lake)

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Morning on Lake Garfield (lake 1/2 today) as we continue our trek to get the pup. French press getting some coffee ready, solid morning. (at Lake Garfield)

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#LarryLegend (at Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame)

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My companions for tonight’s @greenday show ... (at Xfinity Center)

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Look who I saw at the @greenday show (at Xfinity Center)

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Going to pick up this little fella Thursday (and rolling up rugs today). A future #dogsofinkhouse #schnoodle (at Gritty West Newton, MA)

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Spent a sweet afternoon at the beach with these goofballs after a more-difficult-than-I-recall bike ride through the dunes. #itsstillsummer (at Race Point Beach)

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Curse you, MLB, they will always be the Chatham A’s ... although Anglers is a pretty sweet name ... (at Chatham, Cape Cod)

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One last hurrah #itsstillsummer - Cape Bound (at Gritty West Newton, MA)