2y ago

X users report unlabeled clickbait ads that you can’t block or report

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2y ago

VERGE

X users report unlabeled clickbait ads that you can’t block or report

www.theverge.com /2023/10/7/23907424/x-unlabeled-ads-posts-cant-block-report-chumbox

81 comments

Those ads don't even look like they're useful to anyone, they're like the "He figured out how to download a car. Doctors hate him!" ads from a decade ago
just why
- Bots advertising to bots, like Facebook
  
  But Elon hates bots! That’s why he bought twitter in the first place!
- Three only people who will pay to advertise to neo-nazis.
  
  The thing is, neo-Nazis are ignorant, so they're exactly the people to advertise your scam to.
- Maybe it’s a kind of dummy content for the test phase? Pretty sure too many people blocked ads and this is their solution
  
  No real brand wants to advertise on his platform anymore, so he's serving dogshit ads like this now, to the first people who pay. It's not a conspiracy
Instead of renaming it to "X," Elon magically renamed his platform to "X, formerly known as Twitter."
- It annoys me more than it should every time I read that. Like one person gets to sit down every day and make some proclamation, and now everyone else has to go along with it.
  I'm not sure what is better, but even something like "X/Twitter" might be easier than repeatedly saying "X, formerly known as Twitter"
  
  “X/Twitter”
  for short, how about
  ex-twitter
  ?
- Reminds me of the artist formally known as Prince
  
  The difference being that Prince did that change to screw his record label intentionally.
  Other differences include the facts that Prince had talent, and that some people liked him.
  
  *formerly
  But since he's known as Prince again, what you wrote is technically correct.
Hahahahhahah why are there still users there?!
- Because of the network effect.
- For some people, it's because not enough of a particular community has moved... somehow
  Some academic / research / medical communities for example. For others it's the journalists that have yet to move
- Because there are sadly a lot of Musk Cucks.
  
  Mucks.
- Because all the nazi Influences are still there
  
  And still too many artists instead of pages like deviantart, artstation or pixiv.
  vTubers of various agencies and indied also using it as a main communication platform. Youtube communities usually as a 2nd platform.
- I can't speak for all, but: porn. I have a bunch of people I follow, it's literally the only reason I still have an account. Waiting on a bluesky invite but not all have signaled migration to another platform so... I just want to see twinks in kink gear sigh
  
  DM me for a Bsky invite
  Hoping the cross-platform messaging has been fixed.
- Because there's no viable replacement.
  Before you or someone else mentions Mastodon (and probably compare it to the Reddit migration to Lemmy; I've been through this conversation before): Both Twitter and Mastodon are built on the concept of following people. If those people don't migrate to another platform, then the people following them won't migrate, either.
  But Reddit and Lemmy are built on the concept of following ideas. It doesn't matter if one person who, for example, enjoys anime, only stays on Reddit. Others who who enjoy anime may move to Lemmy and become part of one or more of the anime communities on Lemmy instead.
  Basically, the comparison isn't 1-to-1.
- I figure most don't know where else to shit post. I personally can't think of a Twitter alternative of the top of my head. Note I'm a hermit.
  
  Mastodon
- Porn. The porn side of Twitter is still intact and really quite... okay I was gonna say "wholesome" but maybe I should say "holesome"? Ehh? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhh?
  ...anyway.
  That said, a lot of adult content creators have been creating accounts on bsky once they get invites. If bsky opens up more there could actually be an exodus.
  
  Only three of my Twitter porn creators are on bs so far (out of ~100), but one of those is very... important (?) to me. He's a lanky tall hung uncut sub and nudist. Whenever I check Twitter, I'd always go to his page first.
  We only need a few creators like that to tip the scale heavily, imo. Good content, large audience, regular updates, just nudging their viewers a bit.
- Lotta artists make their living through Twitter
To be honest, the only reasonable question is: what are these people still doing on this crappy thing?
How can they report the unreportable?
- Or block the unblockable
  
  Row row fight the powah!
  
  I know you’re trying to reach
  But can’t touch the untouchable
  Put a hold on this, I DON’T BELIEVE IN MIRACLES
- Please do the needful and revert
...if they're reporting the unreportable, how is it unreportable?
- Reported.
  
  Report reported, reporter.
- i guess they report outside of twitter that there is no "report" function on Twitter itself.
My solution works fine on Android
Delete the Twitter app.
Open the site in Firefox Mobile
Open the Firefox menu and choose Install
Install uBlock Origin into Firefox
Now you have a launcher icon for Twitter that opens in Firefox and has all the ads stripped out. I believe there is even a "Twitter Control Panel" add on that will remove a lot of the remaining clickbait from the page too - what's trending etc.
- But then I'd have that terrible X logo on my phone instead of the much-less-terrible bird logo.
  I have yet to update to any version of the app that uses that logo.
- Orrr, another solution is... what, class?
  
  Use Mastadon or some other social media platform. Not always a choice and if you're stuck with Twitter you might as well ensure you're not enriching the platform.
I almost feel sorry for the mindless twits still using that platform.
- Why? They've seen what we've seen and deemed it acceptable. Let them suffer the consequences. They've earned it.
  
  People go where the people are. The people are still on twitter.
Good. Now stop using the platform. Simple as.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Mashable reports that users on X, formerly known as Twitter, have seen unlabeled ads in their feeds while scrolling through the company’s mobile apps.
When users tap them, they’re taken to other websites, with no way to block or report them.
Unlike normal ads that are just posts from company X accounts and have an “Ad” label, these new ones have no account associated with them.
If you’re just scrolling, the embedded image and clickbait-style text might make you think it’s just another post.
A “profile” picture made from the embedded image completes the illusion.
Neither I nor my colleagues at The Verge have seen the new ads in our own feeds.
The original article contains 152 words, the summary contains 112 words. Saved 26%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Downvote Musk spam.
The billionaire doesn’t need your help ensuring him and his businesses stay in the headlines every day. Don’t be a useful idiot.
I only kept the app on my phone for the rare occasion I wanted to read a full post from one linked here. Those have evaporated so it lost its last little bit of usefulness.
- nitter.net has been pretty stable lately so I have been using that instead.
The article linked also has ads I can’t block or report. This is just more “rocket man bad” crap.
- Rocket man is bad. Are you implying he isn't? Two things can be bad at once.
  
  Bad at what. I’m not quick to be so black and white in a gray world, and at the same time I don’t really care one way or the other. But it’s annoying to constantly hear complaints about things related to him when everyone else does the same shit.
- Yes. Scroll to the bottom of the article. The ads all look like related stories (“sponsored content” section on verge). That’s how most sites do it too, and actually most are way worse and look more like related news without any sponsored content indication.
  It’s nothing new. It’s as normal as google putting sponsored ads as the first page of results, which look like search results and also can’t be blocked or reported.
- X, formerly known as Twitter, is one of the largest social media platforms. To not report on a change like this that injects ads that you'd see on "news" websites with clickbaity articles would be silly.

81 comments