2020-01-09

Can you trust FaceBook? Who paid $40m for overstating their numbers by up to 900%?

By Johannes Ernst

https://reb00ted.org/tech/20200109-facebook-overstated-metrics/

Sometimes we think it’s all overstated and a matter of opinion. Surely they can’t be so untrustworthy, otherwise they wouldn’t have a business?

Well, this article with link to the settlement describes what Facebook calls an “error” in calculating how much time viewers spent watching certain videos on Facebook. As a result of which, I’m told, all sorts of media outlets moved their videos from YouTube to Facebook, and then promptly imploded because the numbers of views was much lower than expected.

Between 150% and 900%. The error, of course, was in the “up” direction.

Read.