Blaming algorithms obscures the true source of Facebook's ad problem: the structure of the company's ad business and the decision-making of those who run it
Will Oremus / Slate : See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Will Oremus's 2017 Slate argument lands ahead of its confirmation: he locates Facebook's ad problem in the structure of the ad business and the decisions of its executives rather than in the algorithm itself. That framing anticipated the [[a:951661|2020 finding by researchers that content-moderation policies can't fix a core problem rooted in ad targeting and algorithmically optimized content]].
The through-line runs straight into 2021 reporting: [[a:964007|MIT Technology Review documented how Facebook leadership sidelined AI experts and weakened misinformation cleanup initiatives because fixes would undercut Zuckerberg's growth goals]] — exactly the managerial-decision layer Oremus pointed at four years earlier.
First-order effects
- Accountability pressure shifts from Facebook's engineering teams to its executives: if the problem is business structure and leadership choices, patching ranking models is no longer a credible fix, and Zuckerberg's growth-first priorities become the named target.
Second-order effects
- Advertisers and policymakers gain a sharper lever — demanding changes to how the ad business is structured and incentivized rather than waiting for moderation tooling, which the 2020 research already showed treats symptoms rather than the targeting engine.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, platform-governance debate moves durably from 'bad algorithms' to incentive design: regulation and advertiser scrutiny aimed at ad-targeting economics and executive decision-making, with internal documents like those behind the [[a:972953|2021 Washington Post report that Facebook defends algorithmic ranking because its data claims to know users better than they do]] becoming the evidentiary battleground.
The trend: Critique of Facebook is migrating from blaming opaque algorithms toward the ad-business structure and growth incentives of the people who run it.