Facebook attacks Apple in full-page newspaper ads, claiming upcoming iOS 14 changes that limit data gathering and targeted ads are bad for small businesses
and they should have the choice to allow that or not.” https://twitter.com/... @fbnewsroom : We're standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere. #SpeakUpForSmall https://about.fb.com/... Ralph Henson / @ralphhhenson : @Kantrowitz @mat . In Apples case, it IS and has ALWAYS been about privacy. Facebook and Google make money selling ADS. Apple makes monty selling hardware and apps. . Joe Rossignol / @rsgnl : This upcoming prompt in iOS 14 is 100% reasonable to me, so it's hard to side on Facebook with this one. What is the solution for small businesses that will see their revenue impacted, though? Too bad, so sad, because privacy is ultimately more important? https://twitter.com/... Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : It's easy to beat up on Instagram (Reels!) but the point about small business is absolutely true - something like 2/3 to 3/4 of Facebook and Google advertisers are small businesses who never advertised before, and certainly not with this efficiency https://twitter.com/... Rat King / @mikeisaac : Facebook blasting Apple over Apple's upcoming privacy changes in iOS14 in plain, public view. I question whether FB's message — that clamping down on data for ad targeting will hurt small businesses — is going to land with people, or backfire. https://www.facebook.com/... @mkarolian : I run one of the largest free news websites in New England. We are virtually 100% dependent on digital advertising and this message from Facebook is totally bunk. Hyper-personalized ads primarily benefit Facebook, not “sports blogs” or “cooking sites” https://twitter.com/... Roger McNamee / @moonalice : I marvel at the clumsiness of FB's PR. By running full page ads that are transparently disingenuous will call attention to a change that Apple itself has barely mentioned. https://www.theverge.com/... Lara O'Reilly / @larakiara : I think the most interesting part of Facebook's big anti-Apple advertising/PR/lobbying push today is that Axios made the video for Facebook's microsite (if you open the full pic you'll see it says “made in partnership with Axios) https://www.facebook.com/... https://twitter.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Exactly. And not just opt-in to sharing with advertisers but opt-in to share with Facebook, too. Major regulator has found a majority of Facebook's data collection happens when users are on other companies' apps/websites and not even intending to interact with Facebook. https://twitter.com/... @blackamazon : They won't let organize my TL, prioritize my interests, volunteer data or make any conscious preferences but sure it's Apple https://twitter.com/... @emdubin : Absolutely insane. “We need to make businesses completely reliant on personalized ads or else we'll choke their reach so we can continue to harvest user data” https://twitter.com/... Carole Cadwalladr / @carolecadwalla : I'm sort of fascinated in what is happening inside @nick_clegg's department at Facebook. In the week, that FTC launches major legal challenge, FB's response is a knocking campaign against Apple that the entire internet thinks is deeply fraudulent https://twitter.com/... Casey Newton / @caseynewton : Facebook is going to lose the public argument over Apple's new privacy pop-ups. But that doesn't mean there isn't an important story here about one company's ability to unilaterally reshape the digital economy on its own terms https://www.platformer.news/ ... https://twitter.com/... Dave Pell / @davepell : Big tech companies are so big that the only thing that can threaten them is big tech companies. https://twitter.com/... @alexlindsay : Facebook is telling us that Apple should not protect our privacy so that they can sell us more stuff with ads. I'm not sure that is a “modern” argument. @rmac18 : A Facebook executive said to employees yesterday at a company-wide meeting that “transparency and accountability” are at the heart of everything they do. In the spirit of that, they should have no problem with a notification like this from Apple. https://twitter.com/... Allen Holub / @allenholub : Cry me a river. Apple to prevent Facebook and others from collecting your personal data without your permission. Facebook objects! Shocking. Facebook criticizes Apple's iOS privacy changes with full-page newspaper ads https://www.theverge.com/... Roger McNamee / @moonalice : @ShiraOvide @jacknicas @MikeIsaac @ShiraOvide I wonder if Apple needs FB as much as FB needs Apple. If FB apps go away, Apple users can use a browser to access FB. (I do this for privacy reasons.) If iPhones are not available for its apps, FB loses access to a lot of data that it collects with apps. Roger / @iamtherog : This is, frankly, some disgusting, cynical shit from Facebook. Apple is trying to implement software that prevents apps like Facebook from collecting private user data like location and browsing history and Facebook is LYING and saying it's about the “freedom of the internet.” https://twitter.com/... Jeremy B. Merrill / @jeremybmerrill : Let's just count our blessings, at least Facebook didn't accuse Apple of doing a Cambridge Analytica by disclosing the workings of Facebook's iOS app. 🙄 Sam Biddle / @samfbiddle : this is genuinely one of the most cynical things I've ever read https://twitter.com/... Brad Sams / @bdsams : Facebook...protector of the small businesses Top ten joke of 2020 https://twitter.com/... @amy_siskind : I made the switch to Apple's Big Sur OS and am hoping it spells the end of Facebook - or at least hobbles their profitability model severely. https://twitter.com/... @kfury : Imagine the horrors of an Internet where cooking websites ran ads for utensils and gourmet ingredients instead of that Hello Kitty vibrator you looked at once on Amazon that your friend thought you'd get a kick out of and now blazons the ad spaces of every page you visit. https://twitter.com/... Jappa / @jasperboerstra : All these big companies pretending they care about small businesses is the biggest joke ever. Remember who your true allies are! *it's not facebook or burger king https://twitter.com/... Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : 8/ If Facebook wants to make a case to the general public in support of personalized ads, it should make clear that freemium apps are absolutely dependent on them. That FB wants to protect small businesses is risible and somewhat absurd beyond the extent that those SMBs pay FB Kent Bye VoicesOfVR / @kentbye : The next phase of battle between Apple & Facebook. Apple now discloses all the ways Facebook app tracks you & asks for opt-in consent. This disrupts FB's surveillance capitalism model, which they say will kill small businesses in #SpeakUpForSmall campaign: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Adam Mosseri / @mosseri : Read more about the impact of Apple's iOS14 policy and its implications here: https://about.fb.com/... (3/3) Wolfie Christl / @wolfiechristl : Never ever believe any giant corp that claims to ‘stand up for small businesses’ #badpropaganda https://twitter.com/... Glenn Fleishman / @glennf : Facebook, in front of the house with a megaphone: “The only person you are hurting is your family by not letting me speak directly to them.” Apple: { installs more soundproofing, additional locks } Glenn Fleishman / @glennf : Facebook angry that Apple has locked the front door and won't let them barge in to talk to the children any more. Alex Hern / @alexhern : I wish Facebook would just tell us how much privacy we're supposed to give up to help small businesses. @joshuajames : “The end justifies the means”, Facebook Edition. https://twitter.com/... @jeremiahjw : If Facebook cares so much about small businesses suffering during this pandemic they should take the money they're spending on these ad campaigns and give it to small businesses as free advertising credit. 💅🏼 https://twitter.com/... Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : 1/ Three big revelations: - Facebook will expose the ATT prompt to users; - Facebook will treat app-to-web campaigns with the same privacy rigor as app-to-app campaigns; - Facebook will work with MMPs around conversion value management. Jason Kint / @jason_kint : this may be Facebook's worst read of a room EVER. Facebook comms pushing out propaganda one week after a landmark antitrust lawsuit on behalf of near every US state. Let's use small biz/voices during a pandemic and information crisis to try to stop Apple's privacy protections!!! https://twitter.com/... @fboversight : Feeling a little bit ✨exposed✨ @Facebook? https://twitter.com/... Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert : I am still analyzing Facebook's updated iOS14 guidance published today (overview article coming tomorrow), but biggest two takeaways: 1) app->web advertising will be impacted in the same way as app->app, and 2) I was wrong: FB is working with MMPs for conversion value management @liviamcapital : $FB vs $AAPL is one to watch over the next decade. I love both so it's hard to pick a side, but I truly believe $FB is providing the tools to help millions of small businesses survive. That impacts people, families, & communities. So important. https://www.facebook.com/... John Markoff / @markoff : I'm going with backfire https://twitter.com/... Donie O'Sullivan / @donie : This is probably the smartest thing Facebook has done to justify its surveillance capitalism business model. Using owners of small businesses to talk about how personalized ads are important to their business. https://www.facebook.com/... https://twitter.com/... Brendon Bigley / @brendonbigley : i want to goof on this facebook print ad but uber / lyft JUST ran an extremely successful (and expensive!!) propaganda campaign using a combo of old and new media ads to disintegrate workers rights https://twitter.com/... Will Strafach / @chronic : reminder: Apple is not preventing anyone from doing anything, they are simply telling them to ask permission to track and to disclose what data is collected. https://twitter.com/... Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz : You don't find it a little convenient that Apple's main marketing message is a direct attack on the biggest threat to iMessage, a major lock in for its devices? https://twitter.com/... @dhh : Lord knows I have my problems with Apple, but Facebook - of all fucking companies - taking a “why won't you think of the small business” line to defend its privacy plundering ways is nauseating 🤮 https://www.theverge.com/... Alex Kantrowitz / @kantrowitz : Gotta love this Facebook vs. Apple fight. They're telling us it's about privacy and small business. That's bullshit. The two are locked in a war between messaging apps and are trying to kneecap the other side. https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/... Nilay Patel / @reckless : The Facebook / Apple fight over tracking is interesting, but Facebook's argument that small biz will be affected is strange. Actual marketers like Cadillac CMO @melgrady are pretty sanguine - here's what she told me on this week's DECODER: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/... Ben Sandofsky / @sandofsky : Facebook calls Apple anticompetitive, one week after 48 states file lawsuits to break up Facebook. Read the room, you guys. Read the room. https://about.fb.com/... Matt Stoller / @matthewstoller : It's true that Facebook engages in unfair tactics, but Apple is collecting the same data themselves while blocking FB from getting it. I don't think anyone should be able to use this data, neither Apple nor Facebook nor any powerful platform. It's not their confidential data! https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Bloomberg
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook has opened a public-pressure campaign rather than a technical one: the first full-page newspaper ad frames Apple's upcoming iOS 14 prompt as an attack on small businesses, and a second ad the next day escalates the rhetoric to 'change the internet as we know it.' The framing choice matters because Facebook's own revenue depends on the data gathering Apple is restricting.
First-order effects
Facebook is trying to shift the cost of Apple's App Tracking Transparency decision onto Apple's reputation before the feature ships, while positioning itself as the defender of small-business advertisers who rely on targeted ads.
Apple faces a framing fight it did not seek publicly, but its hardware-and-apps revenue model means it can absorb the criticism without changing course on the iOS 14 prompt.
Second-order effects
Experts cited in follow-up coverage conclude the feature will damage Facebook's core business by limiting its data collection across 85K+ iOS apps — meaning the ad campaign is a leading indicator of real ad-measurement losses, not just PR noise.
Small-business advertisers become the swing constituency: some SMB owners who advertise heavily online later say Facebook was right that the changes hit them disproportionately, giving Facebook's argument independent validation.
Third-order effects
If operating-system-level privacy prompts become the default gate on ad targeting, the structural split hardens between hardware-funded platforms that can restrict tracking and ad-funded platforms that must absorb the loss — with regulators likely watching how each side wields 'small business' and 'privacy' as competing justifications.
The trend: Privacy controls are migrating from opt-in settings to OS-gatekeeper defaults, forcing ad-funded platforms to litigate their business model in public.
So Facebook plans to run a second anti-Apple ad tomorrow. This one will claim Apple is trying to stop the internet from being free. Here's some draft text
Personalized ads are an important tool for small businesses to identify and connect with their customers in a way that only big budgets allowed before. This is particularly important right now, given all the challenge that small businesses face. (1/3)
The king of privacy theft, @Facebook, is running ads attacking @Apple, the leader in privacy protection. All because Apple is shifting to an opt-in system from an opt-out system for users to allow data sharing with advertisers. FB must fear folks won't opt in. I wonder why.
Privacy must be respected in building advertising tools, and we're focused on transparency and control. But privacy doesn't need to come at the expense of the livelihoods of small businesses and developers. (2/3)
Apple's response, complete with a graphic Apple created: “We believe that this is a simple matter of standing up for our users. Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not.” …
I run one of the largest free news websites in New England. We are virtually 100% dependent on digital advertising and this message from Facebook is totally bunk. Hyper-personalized ads primarily benefit Facebook, not “sports blogs” or “cooking sites” https://twitter.com/...
@Kantrowitz @mat . In Apples case, it IS and has ALWAYS been about privacy. Facebook and Google make money selling ADS. Apple makes monty selling hardware and apps. .
This upcoming prompt in iOS 14 is 100% reasonable to me, so it's hard to side on Facebook with this one. What is the solution for small businesses that will see their revenue impacted, though? Too bad, so sad, because privacy is ultimately more important? https://twitter.com/...
Facebook blasting Apple over Apple's upcoming privacy changes in iOS14 in plain, public view. I question whether FB's message — that clamping down on data for ad targeting will hurt small businesses — is going to land with people, or backfire. https://www.facebook.com/...
I marvel at the clumsiness of FB's PR. By running full page ads that are transparently disingenuous will call attention to a change that Apple itself has barely mentioned. https://www.theverge.com/...
It's easy to beat up on Instagram (Reels!) but the point about small business is absolutely true - something like 2/3 to 3/4 of Facebook and Google advertisers are small businesses who never advertised before, and certainly not with this efficiency https://twitter.com/...
I think the most interesting part of Facebook's big anti-Apple advertising/PR/lobbying push today is that Axios made the video for Facebook's microsite (if you open the full pic you'll see it says “made in partnership with Axios) https://www.facebook.com/... https://twitter.com/.…
Exactly. And not just opt-in to sharing with advertisers but opt-in to share with Facebook, too. Major regulator has found a majority of Facebook's data collection happens when users are on other companies' apps/websites and not even intending to interact with Facebook. https://t…
I'm sort of fascinated in what is happening inside @nick_clegg's department at Facebook. In the week, that FTC launches major legal challenge, FB's response is a knocking campaign against Apple that the entire internet thinks is deeply fraudulent https://twitter.com/...
Absolutely insane. “We need to make businesses completely reliant on personalized ads or else we'll choke their reach so we can continue to harvest user data” https://twitter.com/...
Facebook is going to lose the public argument over Apple's new privacy pop-ups. But that doesn't mean there isn't an important story here about one company's ability to unilaterally reshape the digital economy on its own terms https://www.platformer.news/ ... https://twitter.com/…
Facebook is telling us that Apple should not protect our privacy so that they can sell us more stuff with ads. I'm not sure that is a “modern” argument.
A Facebook executive said to employees yesterday at a company-wide meeting that “transparency and accountability” are at the heart of everything they do. In the spirit of that, they should have no problem with a notification like this from Apple. https://twitter.com/...
Cry me a river. Apple to prevent Facebook and others from collecting your personal data without your permission. Facebook objects! Shocking. Facebook criticizes Apple's iOS privacy changes with full-page newspaper ads https://www.theverge.com/...
@ShiraOvide @jacknicas @MikeIsaac @ShiraOvide I wonder if Apple needs FB as much as FB needs Apple. If FB apps go away, Apple users can use a browser to access FB. (I do this for privacy reasons.) If iPhones are not available for its apps, FB loses access to a lot of data that it…
This is, frankly, some disgusting, cynical shit from Facebook. Apple is trying to implement software that prevents apps like Facebook from collecting private user data like location and browsing history and Facebook is LYING and saying it's about the “freedom of the internet.” ht…
Let's just count our blessings, at least Facebook didn't accuse Apple of doing a Cambridge Analytica by disclosing the workings of Facebook's iOS app. 🙄
I made the switch to Apple's Big Sur OS and am hoping it spells the end of Facebook - or at least hobbles their profitability model severely. https://twitter.com/...
Imagine the horrors of an Internet where cooking websites ran ads for utensils and gourmet ingredients instead of that Hello Kitty vibrator you looked at once on Amazon that your friend thought you'd get a kick out of and now blazons the ad spaces of every page you visit. https:/…
All these big companies pretending they care about small businesses is the biggest joke ever. Remember who your true allies are! *it's not facebook or burger king https://twitter.com/...
If Facebook cares so much about small businesses suffering during this pandemic they should take the money they're spending on these ad campaigns and give it to small businesses as free advertising credit. 💅🏼 https://twitter.com/...
8/ If Facebook wants to make a case to the general public in support of personalized ads, it should make clear that freemium apps are absolutely dependent on them. That FB wants to protect small businesses is risible and somewhat absurd beyond the extent that those SMBs pay FB
Facebook, in front of the house with a megaphone: “The only person you are hurting is your family by not letting me speak directly to them.” Apple: { installs more soundproofing, additional locks }
The next phase of battle between Apple & Facebook. Apple now discloses all the ways Facebook app tracks you & asks for opt-in consent. This disrupts FB's surveillance capitalism model, which they say will kill small businesses in #SpeakUpForSmall campaign: https://www.theverge.co…
1/ Three big revelations: - Facebook will expose the ATT prompt to users; - Facebook will treat app-to-web campaigns with the same privacy rigor as app-to-app campaigns; - Facebook will work with MMPs around conversion value management.
this may be Facebook's worst read of a room EVER. Facebook comms pushing out propaganda one week after a landmark antitrust lawsuit on behalf of near every US state. Let's use small biz/voices during a pandemic and information crisis to try to stop Apple's privacy protections!!! …
I am still analyzing Facebook's updated iOS14 guidance published today (overview article coming tomorrow), but biggest two takeaways: 1) app->web advertising will be impacted in the same way as app->app, and 2) I was wrong: FB is working with MMPs for conversion value management
$FB vs $AAPL is one to watch over the next decade. I love both so it's hard to pick a side, but I truly believe $FB is providing the tools to help millions of small businesses survive. That impacts people, families, & communities. So important. https://www.facebook.com/...
This is probably the smartest thing Facebook has done to justify its surveillance capitalism business model. Using owners of small businesses to talk about how personalized ads are important to their business. https://www.facebook.com/... https://twitter.com/...
i want to goof on this facebook print ad but uber / lyft JUST ran an extremely successful (and expensive!!) propaganda campaign using a combo of old and new media ads to disintegrate workers rights https://twitter.com/...
reminder: Apple is not preventing anyone from doing anything, they are simply telling them to ask permission to track and to disclose what data is collected. https://twitter.com/...
You don't find it a little convenient that Apple's main marketing message is a direct attack on the biggest threat to iMessage, a major lock in for its devices? https://twitter.com/...
Lord knows I have my problems with Apple, but Facebook - of all fucking companies - taking a “why won't you think of the small business” line to defend its privacy plundering ways is nauseating 🤮 https://www.theverge.com/...
Gotta love this Facebook vs. Apple fight. They're telling us it's about privacy and small business. That's bullshit. The two are locked in a war between messaging apps and are trying to kneecap the other side. https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...
The Facebook / Apple fight over tracking is interesting, but Facebook's argument that small biz will be affected is strange. Actual marketers like Cadillac CMO @melgrady are pretty sanguine - here's what she told me on this week's DECODER: https://www.theverge.com/... https://twi…
Facebook calls Apple anticompetitive, one week after 48 states file lawsuits to break up Facebook. Read the room, you guys. Read the room. https://about.fb.com/...
It's true that Facebook engages in unfair tactics, but Apple is collecting the same data themselves while blocking FB from getting it. I don't think anyone should be able to use this data, neither Apple nor Facebook nor any powerful platform. It's not their confidential data! htt…
Facebook cares about small businesses so much that they'll require them to spend $250k on ads every year to even know how effective they are https://twitter.com/...
Astroturfy messaging aside, it's interesting that Facebook's actual objection is that iOS will show users a “discouraging prompt” that requires them to opt into data collection. (It's “discouraging” because it lists the types of data Facebook collects.) https://twitter.com/...
Big picture: Facebook and Apple have real animosity that dates back to the Steve Jobs era (go google Ping if you're curious). But they are also deeply connected: Apple's customers certainly expect to have access to FB, Insta, Whatsapp on their phones.
iPhones are becoming “digital face masks” ... they protect others as well as you. Surveillance capitalism has been unfettered for a decade ... by giving consumers “opt in” control over who gets their data, Apple is shifting the power, providing an oasis. https://twitter.com/...
So this fight is a real one - Apple's changes can definitely affect Facebook's ad revenue, especially its ad network on other sites - but not an existential one - Facebook's core ad business won't be changed by this.
Facebook telling people to “speak up for small” just days after the government sued it for buying or killing small companies and becoming too big...... https://twitter.com/...
translation: Facebook ads will be less effective—and thus businesses large and small will pay Facebook less for them—if Apple stops Facebook from surveilling what you do on your iPhone. https://twitter.com/...
Facebook running these ads in WSJ, WaPo and NYT today decrying Apple's upcoming IDFA enforcement (explainer here: https://www.cnbc.com/...) Also has a new site about the change encouraging small businesses to “speak their mind”: https://www.facebook.com/... https://twitter.com/..…