I think there is an arms race with content moderation that even if the instance is not themselves trying to monetize, clever and unscrupulous ad agencies will slip ads into feeds under the guise of actual content. I think it’s a big reason Reddit went to shit even before it went public.
How do you separate a user who innocently includes McDonald’s into a post or comment from someone doing so with the intention of driving revenue? (Do you want some fries now?)
It’s probably already the case now just the ‘ads’ are mostly all political shit. Same idea just with a top-down political agenda rather than driving sales. They have all the public fediverse data to base their strategies on already.
I think this issue is just handwaved away with “oh go to a different instance” but we’re here for content ultimately and not all instances have what we’re looking for. Ad agencies are going to be able to adapt to a changing landscape like that because it’s literally their full time jobs/careers.
I think you’re right. The line blurring between corporate sponsorship and community support is pretty difficult to determine. If someone wants to build a community around a particular video game or movie or television show, of course the corporation that publishes it benefits from a bunch of positive discussion about it. But at the same time, that corporate-owned product is part of our shared culture, and a legitimate topic to discuss in a forum like this.
And it’s not even necessarily pure corporate stuff, either. There are nonprofit and trade and governmental organizations that rely on advertising for public messaging: a tourism board promoting their location as a good vacation spot, an agricultural trade group promoting recipes using their specific product, a government health department drive encouraging vaccinations, etc. They pay for ads through conventional outlets while also promoting their interests on social media.
It’s just an ecosystem. We should be aware that there are those who would seek to influence us here, whether for money or politics or other motivation, and navigate these spaces with that in mind.
