Community of the Android app Boost for Lemmy
Using Boost for Lemmy, I got an obvious political ad from the right asking to sign a petition to scrap the gun "ban" in Canada (it's a registry not a ban).
Now I understand this is an ad but I don't appreciate having propaganda from the right injected into my browsing on lemmy. Have better ads, or let us report them.
Press the icon on the top right and select report ad or block ad
If we're talking about the little white block with a play icon on the top right, it does nothing.
EDIT: Well, I tried a few more times and you have to be very precise, the area where you can tap is very small, buy I ended up being able to report it. Thanks.
Yes, that icon. It is a bit difficult to press, due to the small size. I don't think I can make it bigger since it is rendered by Google that way.
Thanks for responding to this.
What's crazy is that a lot of times these ads don't even lead to real petitions. They lead to email capture forms which then opt the submitter into email advertising and grifting campaigns. That type of scam was very popular on Facebook just a couple of years ago. Facebook cracked down on it a little, but there are still plenty of examples in the wild.
How are you okay with ads being injected at all?
OP is using an app to browse the fediverse. Apps are not free to develop and the devs need to eat. I use sync and I'm paying for ultra so I can both support the dev and not have to see ads even though I do block ads system wide
I tolerated them when using Boost but it may soon be a thing of the past.
You can pay for ad-free Boost. It is not a lot of money. Boost is my favourite app, and in my mind it was well worth it.
Try Voyager.
I switched to Voyager and it's amazing. Plus there are no ads which is sweet.
And it's โจ open source โจ
I did some digging on these also show its an American group paying for it. I've reported the group to google a few times for other complete lies.
there's some instructions in there on how to remove all information that adsense has on you and your browsing history. After doing that i was flooded with ads for dating sites that had porn videos playing over them at a light transparency. Others have been less subtle. Reporting it at best well make it so you stop seeing the ad after a few months but everyone else still does.
I'll just pop back over to an open source solution.
"American" group with 99% Kremlin funding, I'd bet my life on it.
Sadly the developer doesn't control what ads are shown, that's entirely up to Google Ad Services and what it thinks you're susceptible to.
That's not entirely true. The publisher can still set some rules around what they want to allow, like no gambling, etc.
Boost uses Googles ad thingy so you'll have to go through the Google routes. Boost just displays them
Yeah but idiot me never had to report a Google ad before. I did try to tap the white play button in the right corner before making a post, but it didn't seem to do anything so I asked here prematurely.
if i recall correctly, the app developer can also block specific adverts too though (or at least some categories)
Have you considered using Lemmy Connect? I've been very happy with it
Connect is the first app that I used for lemmy. I switched to Boost when I kept upvoting and bookmarking stuff randomly because I was swiping sideways when trying to swipe up or down. I know it can be disabled but I wanted to try something else. Boost looked nice and I like it in general but the ads are pretty noticeable when I let them through (I could block them with adguard). I understand the devs want to earn a bit and simply use Google ads but the quality and quantity is less appealing. I might buy the ad free version of Boost but I don't like to feel pushed to do that because ads are awful, so maybe I'll go back to Connect.
There are much better apps for Lemmy without trackers and tons of permissions.
Just pay for Boost. I'm sure you spend more on coffee.
It's not the point. The point is that those 'ads" are spreading misinformation.
You see the same ones on youtube. Most of them point at Chinese propaganda (epoch times)
The ones I get on YouTube and constantly report are the ones saying the irs or government owes you thousands of dollars and they use like stock footage of celebrities with crappy ai voiceovers to trick people into falling for it.
It's more like anti-Chinese propaganda since it's owned by the Falun Gong
If I were an ad company I would make sure to check every detail of every ad, manually , one by one. Why? If something sketchy like scam are advertised, it will obviously ruin the credibility of the ad company
Yet, it seems like every digital ad company seems to not care about doing that. As a result something like this happens. I also sometimes see awful YouTube ads that are straight up a scam.
Credibility? To who? The people who you are attempting to forcefully inject information directly into the brain off? The only people they care about are cutting them checks.