The logo of the social network Facebook.

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Facebook knew its user numbers were unreliable and artificially high, but ignored the problem in order to generate more advertising revenue, companies say, according to legal documents released Wednesday.

"These are revenues that should never have been had because they were based on false data," said an employee in an internal email.

The social media giant has been facing a group lawsuit since 2018, launched by a company.

The plaintiffs say the platform's executives knew that its so-called “Potential Reach” measure overestimated the potential audience for advertising campaigns, but did not seek to rectify the situation so as not to lose revenue.

The California-based company derives the overwhelming majority of its revenue from the sale of targeted advertising space to advertisers.

Prices vary based on many criteria, starting with the number of users likely to see the campaign.

“Facebook knew that the problem was largely caused by fake accounts and duplicates.

(…) Managers prevented employees from repairing the problem because they thought that 'the impact on income (would be) significant', ”the complainants detail.

86 billion dollars of business manager in 2020

They quote the person in charge of "Potential reach" evoking revenues that Facebook "should never have had" and another who wonders "how long we can get away with the overestimation of the (audience) reach".

“These documents were selected to match the story told by the complainant.

'Potential reach' is a campaign planning tool that is never used to bill advertisers, ”responded Joe Osborne, a Facebook spokesperson.

"It's an estimate and we clearly explain how it is calculated on our advertising interface"

In March 2019, the social network changed the measure of potential reach, which is no longer based on active users but on the number of people who have seen an advertisement on one of the firm's products during the thirty days. elapsed.

In 2020, the group achieved nearly 86 billion dollars in turnover, and generated more than 29 billion in profits, up 58%.

According to eMarketer, the platform family is expected to reach 96.6 billion net advertising revenue in 2021, or 24.4% of the global market.

Google, the number 1 in this market, and Facebook, the number 2, face lawsuits from the federal authorities for abuse of a dominant position.

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