Facebook Nixing Sponsored Stories In April


Facebook Sponsored Stories Going Away

Facebook is getting rid of sponsored stories in April after criticism and a class-action lawsuit filed soon after the feature launched in 2011. The suit claimed the ads violated users rights by publicizing their “likes” and online behavior without compensation or the opportunity to opt-out.

For example, liking or sharing something from a massive online retailer, like Amazon, would “pin” the story to the top of a news feed, so it would be seen day after day by a user’s friends until the retailer, or Facebook, chose to let it go away.

Facebook made about $230 million on sponsored stories between January 2011 and August 2012, notes The Huffington Post. The site settled the lawsuit in August for $20 million and agreed to allow users “more control over how their content is shared.”

The decision to get rid of sponsored stories was confirmed in a blog post for developers on Thursday. Still, the spirit of the ads isn’t exactly dead. Instead, Facebook reiterated in November that it is still able to use the postings and personal information of 1.2 billion accounts for advertising purposes.

Thursday’s post explained that “social context — stories about social actions your friends have taken, such as liking a page or checking in to a restaurant — is now eligible to appear next to all ads shown to friends on Facebook.”

[Image: afagen]


Kossi

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