Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
230 Unhurty?
The US Supreme Court held oral arguments on Tuesday in the case of Gonzalez v. Google, which challenges the Section 230 legal protections for companies that host user-generated content. In the suit is the family of a victim of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, which were committed by men radicalized in part by YouTube videos.
However, based on the questioning, the plaintiffs have not convinced enough – or perhaps any – of the justices that a more narrow interpretation of Section 230 would be feasible without creating a major cascade of lawsuits for crimes that were inspired or planned by online posts, CNN reports.
Large social media platforms would be deluged for sure, and would pump the brakes on algorithmic content distribution. But others would test cloud services that host content and publishers or digital media companies that have live user-generated commenting or messaging.
“You are creating a world of lawsuits,” says Associate Justice Elena Kagan, even if most of those suits are dismissed before reaching court. “Really, anytime you have content, you also have these presentational and prioritization choices that can be subject to suit.”
Verified, Bona Fide
Meta debuted Meta Verified, a $12 monthly subscription for Facebook and Instagram, starting in Australia and New Zealand.
General users and accounts can now pay for a blue verification badge, customer service and greater reach and visibility for posts.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh tells Ad Age that Meta Verified may net between $2 billion and $3 billion per year. Aside from the promised viral boost, customer service is quietly a draw because user and advertiser account reviews have been an absolute disaster for the past couple of years, as accounts were frozen without recourse.
Elsewhere in social network land, Tumblr’s in-app revenue jumped 125% since it jokingly offered two blue checkmarks for $8 (and 10 for $40) in November, TechCrunch reports. Which means that the parody is perhaps the most relatively strong revenue driver.
As for Twitter, which started the paid blue check craze, the beleaguered social platform hasn’t been able to generate much subscription revenue. Twitter has taken drastic measures, like only allowing two-factor authentication to subscribers, which sacrifice quality for 99% of users for another wafer of subscription revenue.
The SSP RIP
In recent weeks, AdExchanger has documented a series of painful layoffs and closures that hit ad tech, particularly in the SSP category: Magnite, Yahoo, TripleLift and EMX, to name a few.
That trend isn’t done yet, though, with news that last week Criteo had a round of cuts as well. Unlike others that have done major layoffs, Criteo hasn’t acknowledged the cuts publicly or provided any context in terms of the number of people let go or particular business units affected. Digiday reports that Criteo let go of as much as 8% of overall headcount.
Criteo’s belt-trimming could also be a prelude to a sale, according to Digiday. But it’s hit by the same headwinds as the rest of the SSP market, with margins being compressed – if not erased – by large platforms that span the whole supply chain and don’t charge for the SSP intermediary.
Criteo PR could not be reached for comment, according to Digiday. (AdExchanger can confirm the same.) Or perhaps they were let go.
But Wait, There’s More!
The new subscription bundle. [The Rebooting]
The struggle for the soul of the B Corp movement. [Financial Times]
TikTok expands access to its research API to nonprofit academic institutions in the US. [TechCrunch]
‘There is too much impunity’: Carbon offsets present an emerging risk to advertisers. [The Drum]
What a podcasting industry slowdown means for advertisers. [Marketing Dive]
