The ads are a window into a blatantly illegal underground economy that Meta is not only failing to moderate, but is actively profiting from and injecting into users’ feeds.
But conceivably they could be enforcing the law by putting pressure on these companies to stop facilitating advertising of illegal services and thereby the flow of business. If they instead just don’t bother with that so that they can use these ads to pick out and track down the juiciest, lowest effort prosecution targets, representing a small proportion of the total market, that’s pure corruption with little to no social benefit.
To be clear I don’t actually know if this is what is going on, but if it was it would be reprehensible.
Sure, assuming that their job is filling beds in prison rather than actually reducing crime.
The job of law enforcement is enforcing the law. Enforcing the law is supposed to discourage people from breaking it.
Does it work? I would guess that it is more effective than not enforcing the law.
Is it the best way to reduce crime? I doubt it.
But conceivably they could be enforcing the law by putting pressure on these companies to stop facilitating advertising of illegal services and thereby the flow of business. If they instead just don’t bother with that so that they can use these ads to pick out and track down the juiciest, lowest effort prosecution targets, representing a small proportion of the total market, that’s pure corruption with little to no social benefit.
To be clear I don’t actually know if this is what is going on, but if it was it would be reprehensible.
I think I agree.