Facebook Bars Advertisers from Altering News Headlines
September 14 2017 - 2:19PM
Dow Jones News
By Jack Marshall
Facebook on Thursday said it will stop allowing advertisers who
promote news articles on the site to modify the headlines and
descriptions that appear with them, a practice that some publishers
say misrepresents their work.
The social network's change came after The Wall Street Journal
contacted the company, pointing to examples of such ads.
In June, Facebook said it would prevent its users from modifying
news article headlines, descriptions and images when posting links,
as part of a broader push to crack down on the spread of false or
misleading information.
But the change didn't apply to paying advertisers, who continued
to have the ability to alter these "link previews" through
Facebook's ad platform.
The Journal found examples of how marketers had used the tactic
to subtly reposition press coverage about their companies or
products. In many cases the changes didn't appear drastic, and the
advertisers say they were meant to enhance clarity, not mislead
readers.
But the changes were enough to make some publishers
uncomfortable. It wasn't clear how widespread the practice was.
A recent ad for mattress company Casper linked to a Business
Insider article using the headline "How Casper is Revolutionizing
the Way We Sleep." But the Business Insider article the ad linked
to carried the headline "I bought a bed from the Target-backed
'Warby Parker of mattresses' and I'll never buy one in stores
again." It didn't say anything about Casper "revolutionizing"
sleep.
Similarly, BuzzFeed published an article in 2016 about a
toothbrush called Quip, with the headline "I Tried The Hipster
Toothbrush That's All Over Facebook And TBH I Loved It".
Quip subsequently purchased Facebook ads linking to the BuzzFeed
article, but edited the headline to remove the word "hipster" and
"TBH", which is an acronym for "to be honest."
Some publishers say they're worried their content is being
presented to consumers in ways they have no knowledge of and no
control over.
"Our audience trusts and values our product reviews and
editorial for their authenticity, so anything that violates the
integrity of that content is concerning to us," a BuzzFeed
spokesman said, adding that the company's legal department had
contacted Quip to ask it to refrain from editing its headlines in
Facebook ads in future.
Other advertisers besides Casper have also posted edited links
to Business Insider articles in their Facebook ads in recent weeks.
Business Insider declined to comment.
In a statement, a Facebook spokesman said advertisers will no
longer be able to modify news headlines in this way. "While they
should be able to edit links pointing to their own material, they
shouldn't be able to edit headlines on stories they didn't create,"
the spokesman said. "Advertisers will still be able to edit
headlines in links when they point to their own content, and we
have strict policies in place that prohibit misleading ads."
Publishers will also continue to be able to modify the social
headlines for their own articles.
For advertisers, editing link previews enabled them to position
editorial coverage about their companies in the best light
possible. It also allowed them to carefully optimize the wording of
headlines for maximum impact as they typically would with most
advertising they purchase.
A Casper spokeswoman said the company decided to alter the
headline in the link preview because Business Insider's version
didn't explicitly mention the Casper brand, and because it was
truncated when it appeared in the news feed because of Facebook's
character limits.
Shane Pittson, a growth marketer at Quip, said the company
edited the BuzzFeed link preview for similar reasons. Without the
ability to edit link previews it would be less willing to spend
money on ads promoting publishers' content because those posts are
often "unusable in their natural form," Mr. Pittson said.
Write to Jack Marshall at Jack.Marshall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 14, 2017 14:04 ET (18:04 GMT)
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