For those of you who are unaware of what Facebook is, it essentially is a social media platform that is free to use. Users are able to befriend and interact with other users on the platform exchanging photos and messages in a free discussion space. While the platform itself is free, Facebook makes money by selling advertising space to companies in the form of banners and video ads.
In September of 2016, Facebook admitted that the views that videos were getting including those with advertisements were being overestimated. They had also come out saying that they were aware of the overinflated statistics since 2015 however advertisers were still being charged the inflated price.
The main bug and statistic that was being conveyed incorrectly to advertisers was the duration of viewership for their videos. The statistic didn’t account for people that viewed the video for less than 3 seconds however people who chose to ignore it all together did count hence the inflated analytics.
Because of these misleading statistics a small handful of companies are now suing Facebook for fraud and unfair business conduct. The case against Facebook includes the fact that the company was aware of this problem since 2015 and did nothing to resolve the issue.
When the companies contacted Facebook a year later after they were aware of the inflated numbers, one of Facebook’s engineers replied that there had been no progress on the issue.
While the evidence seems real and fitting, Facebook have responded saying that the lawsuit is without merit and that they will be moving to dismiss the claims of fraud.
Raphael Garcia is just getting his start a reporter. He attended a technical school while still in high school where he learned a variety of skills, from photography to car mechanics. Raphael also helps keep The Marketing Folks social media feeds up-to-date.
