Reddit banned me. So why didn’t Google and Facebook?
A week ago I revealed who was behind the newest “innovation” in email marketing:
A site that describes journalists as suckers who will succumb to the software’s pressure to get you attention:
Like a cheetah catching its prey, we will tire them out until they have no choice but to write about you.
It was me. I made the site.
I wanted to provide a spotlight on the sewer that marketing software has become. TrickAJournlist is a fake, but it sure does sound like the tools way too many of us are using to try to spread the word about ourselves. I wanted the site to start a conversation on how we can all improve as marketers. So next time before you click send on that email follow-up or schedule 10 steps in that drip campaign, maybe you’ll question if and how you’re adding value?
When I made TrickAJournalist I wanted to spread it a little before announcing who was behind it. It’d ruin the joke and surprise if I just tweeted it out myself. So, I thought about advertising to the marketing/growth hacking crowd to see what would happen.
But TrickAJournalist describes some outright questionable ways of treating people online. There’s no way anyone would let me advertise this thing. Right?
I’ve been a Redditor since it launched. But I am well aware of the flack Reddit has received about being too accepting of hate speech and other trolls.
So let’s try Reddit. They have to accept it right?
We do not allow this type of service to be promoted on our platform.
Thank goodness. I was pleasantly surprised and now almost certain no one would let me advertise TrickAJournalist.
Twitter is another place constantly ridiculed for their lack of oversight on what people post. Maybe they’ll advertise TrickAJournalist.
I created a brand new account to remain anonymous and went to start an ad. Rejected. They wouldn’t let this brand new anonymous account even start an ad.
Now, I don’t know if they would have accepted or rejected TrickAJournalist if I had started with more activity, but at least they’re careful of accepting things from clearly anonymous/throwaway accounts.
My experiment had to be over, if even Reddit and Twitter wouldn’t accept this site?
I went to Google. I was positive this wasn’t going to work. I’ve had Google ads rejected before for having too many exclamation points.
I created another brand new/throwaway account. Added my credit card. Went into Google. Made my ad.
Approved.
Let’s try Facebook. Approved.
LinkedIn? Another new throwaway account. Approved.
Reddit has gotten its fair share for being too lenient, but clearly they’re trying hard now to keep out bad web citizens. Twitter’s making an attempt as well.
What’s Google, Facebooks, and LinkedIn’s excuse? They can’t afford the human steps Reddit has implemented?
Or are Google, Facebook, LinkedIn taking the right approach? A subscriber of my YouTube channel, Chris Pederson raised a great point:
It’s a good thing that it’s easy to advertise. That would suck if Google/Facebook/etc [were] playing tastemaker.
Where’s the line? In my opinion I want more sites like Reddit, using humans to police out the garbage that doesn’t align with values the company and most of its community holds.
Or is that just begging for mass censorship especially when our media already seems controlled by too few entities?
Either way, take this as a lesson that you shouldn’t immediately trust the things you see advertised as no human has actually verified it’s safety or legitimacy.
P.S. You should follow me on YouTube: youtube.com/nathankontny where I share more about how we run a business, do product design, market ourselves, and just get through life.
