I'm banned for life from advertising on Meta. Because I teach Python.

[usonian]

https://lerner.co.il/2023/10/19/im-banned-for-life-from-advertising-on-meta-because-i-teach-python/

Looong story short:

Python is a programming language, and Pandas is: a fast, powerful, flexible and easy to use open source data analysis and manipulation tool, built on top of the Python programming language.

OK now that that's clear:

The good news? I got an answer right away from a friend on LinkedIn. He told me that he also had problems advertising his Python training courses on Meta platforms because — get this — Meta thought that he was dealing in live animals, which is forbidden.

That’s right: I teach courses in Python and Pandas. Never mind that the first is a programming language and the second is a library for data analysis in Python. Meta’s AI system noticed that I was talking about Python and Pandas, assumed that I was talking about the animals (not the technology), and banned me. The appeal that I asked for wasn’t reviewed by a human, but was reviewed by another bot, which (not surprisingly) made a similar assessment.

...


The bottom line seems to be that Meta’s AI made a mistake, a big one. (You can be sure that I’ll be using this example when I teach courses on machine learning.) The fact that both the original judgment and the appeal were handed by AI is pretty ridiculous.

But even more absurd is the fact that because I didn’t react to their ban within a certain amount of time, (Meta has a data-retention policy of only 180 days) there now seems to be no way for me to undo it. Which means that when I start to advertise my courses again — and I’m actually planning to do so in the near future — Meta won’t be seeing any of my money, whereas companies like Google, who seem to employ at least some humans in their advertising department — will.

And good luck finding humans at Google et. al.

487 comments at Hacker News. Just one sample.

A COMPUTER
CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE


THEREFORE A COMPUTER MUST NEVER
MAKE A MANAGEMENT DECISION
— IBM slide, 1979

[lapfog_1]

1. I use AI to write Python code for me

often making use of the Pandas library.

It does a credible job as long as I can describe what I want exactly.

So... AI knows that Python and Pandas are related to software. Ot at least ChatGPT3 and Bard do.

I wonder what is up with Meta???

[usonian]

4. It's probably trained on a non-computer-user database. NT

[EYESORE 9001]

5. I'm not a programmer or any other type of IT professional

but it looks to me - an interested observer - like Meta is deliberately screwing with Pandas by alerting on the word ‘Python’. Perhaps I’m displaying my ignorance, but this seems like a relatively simple fix…if they wanted to fix it, that is.

I’m not a lawyer either, but it further appears that Pandas has a case for suing Meta. For what? I don’t know. That’s the beauty of armchair lawyerin’. I can inject my personal assessment of right and wrong into business law without regard for validity.

I wonder how Monty Python fares on the Meta platform? Wouldn’t Meta have written code to distinguish? There must be thousands of similar situations involving words like that, hence my earlier mention of this being deliberate.

[Silent Type]

2. Frustrating for sure. In future software should be named with that in mind.

Name it “Love,” “Hope,” or anything close to ignore hassles.

[usonian]

3. What's worse is search. A language like ruby?

That matches everything but ruby at times, so it has to be qualified heavily.

And forget about "C" entirely.

[EYESORE 9001]

6. Bend to the will of Meta or perish within its realm. Some choice.

Obviously, Meta’s overbearing practices are influencing people’s decisions based on whether they appease Meta’s corporate sensibilities.

WWZT

What Would Zuck Think?