Facebook doesn’t give a damn whose ad goes where, so long as it means more cash in its pocket
If ever you needed more evidence to show just how irresponsible problem online advertising has become–or how totally tone deaf and blind Silicon Valley is-look no further than Facebook. Yet again, a Silicon Valley king is caught red-handed–yet again–profiting from online movie piracy.
Take a look below at the Facebook page for a notorious pirate site, Solarmovie. Not only does Solarmovie–with its 15,000+ likes–get to openly share hundreds of links to pirated movies, but Facebook–in an absurdly ironic twist–plops a paid advertisement promoting the MPAA website The Credits right alongside.
The Credits was a website designed to “to highlight the creative work that goes into making film and television,” but I can’t imagine that promotional (or educational) partnerships with online pirates was part of the plan. I understand that keywords are part of product placement, but this situation takes the cake for absurdity.
Of course in an ideal world the would-be pirates would notice the MPAA ad, visit The Credits website, and be transformed by reading the stories of all those who work behind-the-scenes to create the movies we love….but we don’t live an ideal world and the people visiting this FB page are there for one purpose, to find links to stolen movies. How exactly will the advertising “team” at Facebook explain why Hollywood’s ad dollars seem to be supporting the very pirates laying waste to its worker bees?
Of course Facebook, like its Silicon Valley brethren, cares little for the livelihoods of those working outside its realm and so continue to blithely pile up profits, redefining theft as innovation.
Facebook page promoting pirate website provides direct links to full copies of pirated movies
The other unfortunate fact is that there’s no way for me to report this page and get it removed from Facebook for its blatant illegal activity. Sure, I can report the link it posted to an illegal stream of my own movie, but ultimately doesn’t give a damn about me, or any other creator just so long as that cash keeps on a coming…