Skip to Content
logologo
AI Incident Database
Open TwitterOpen RSS FeedOpen FacebookOpen LinkedInOpen GitHub
Open Menu
Discover
Submit
  • Welcome to the AIID
  • Discover Incidents
  • Spatial View
  • Table View
  • List view
  • Entities
  • Taxonomies
  • Submit Incident Reports
  • Submission Leaderboard
  • Blog
  • AI News Digest
  • Risk Checklists
  • Random Incident
  • Sign Up
Collapse
Discover
Submit
  • Welcome to the AIID
  • Discover Incidents
  • Spatial View
  • Table View
  • List view
  • Entities
  • Taxonomies
  • Submit Incident Reports
  • Submission Leaderboard
  • Blog
  • AI News Digest
  • Risk Checklists
  • Random Incident
  • Sign Up
Collapse

Incident 220: Facebook Mistakenly Blocked Small Business Ads

Description: Facebook’s AI mistakenly blocked advertisements by small and struggling businesses, after the company allegedly leaned more on algorithms to monitor ads on the platform with little review from human moderators.

Tools

New ReportNew ReportNew ResponseNew ResponseDiscoverDiscoverView HistoryView History

Entities

View all entities
Alleged: Facebook developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed small businesses on Facebook.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
220
Report Count
4
Incident Date
2020-11-11
Editors
Khoa Lam
Applied Taxonomies
CSETv1, GMF, MIT

CSETv1 Taxonomy Classifications

Taxonomy Details

Incident Number

The number of the incident in the AI Incident Database.
 

220

Notes (special interest intangible harm)

Input any notes that may help explain your answers.
 

Primarily small to medium-sized business owners were affected.

Special Interest Intangible Harm

An assessment of whether a special interest intangible harm occurred. This assessment does not consider the context of the intangible harm, if an AI was involved, or if there is characterizable class or subgroup of harmed entities. It is also not assessing if an intangible harm occurred. It is only asking if a special interest intangible harm occurred.
 

maybe

Date of Incident Year

The year in which the incident occurred. If there are multiple harms or occurrences of the incident, list the earliest. If a precise date is unavailable, but the available sources provide a basis for estimating the year, estimate. Otherwise, leave blank. Enter in the format of YYYY
 

2020

Date of Incident Month

The month in which the incident occurred. If there are multiple harms or occurrences of the incident, list the earliest. If a precise date is unavailable, but the available sources provide a basis for estimating the month, estimate. Otherwise, leave blank. Enter in the format of MM
 

11

Date of Incident Day

The day on which the incident occurred. If a precise date is unavailable, leave blank. Enter in the format of DD
 

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

7.3. Lack of capability or robustness

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. AI system safety, failures, and limitations

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident OccurrenceFacebook's AI-fueled attempt to block bad ads is hurting legitimate small business owners — and its 'pay-to-play' customer support is leaving them stranded ahead of the holiday shopping season+2
Facebook’s AI mistakenly blocks ads of struggling businesses; tech giant issues apology
Facebook's AI-fueled attempt to block bad ads is hurting legitimate small business owners — and its 'pay-to-play' customer support is leaving them stranded ahead of the holiday shopping season

Facebook's AI-fueled attempt to block bad ads is hurting legitimate small business owners — and its 'pay-to-play' customer support is leaving them stranded ahead of the holiday shopping season

businessinsider.com

Facebook’s AI mistakenly blocks ads of struggling businesses; tech giant issues apology

Facebook’s AI mistakenly blocks ads of struggling businesses; tech giant issues apology

republicworld.com

Facebook's AI mistakenly bans ads for struggling businesses

Facebook's AI mistakenly bans ads for struggling businesses

post-gazette.com

Facebook’s AI is mistakenly banning some small business’ ads

Facebook’s AI is mistakenly banning some small business’ ads

fortune.com

Facebook's AI-fueled attempt to block bad ads is hurting legitimate small business owners — and its 'pay-to-play' customer support is leaving them stranded ahead of the holiday shopping season
businessinsider.com · 2020

In mid-March, even as it encouraged its full-time employees to work remotely, Facebook's largely contract-based content moderators were still required to be in the office. Amid public pressure, Facebook eventually sent them home as well, sa…

Facebook’s AI mistakenly blocks ads of struggling businesses; tech giant issues apology
republicworld.com · 2020

Facebook Inc. recently issued a statement apologizing to small businesses for mistakenly blocking their ads. In a bid to curb ‘infodemics’ or misinformation and keep a check on policy violators, the company has appointed Artificial Intellig…

Facebook's AI mistakenly bans ads for struggling businesses
post-gazette.com · 2020

New York-based businesswoman Ruth Harrigan usually sells her honey and beeswax products in souvenir shops. But with COVID-19 pausing tourism, she’s been almost entirely dependent on Facebook ads to drive online sales.

On Nov. 11, this new f…

Facebook’s AI is mistakenly banning some small business’ ads
fortune.com · 2020

New York-based businesswoman Ruth Harrigan usually sells her honey and beeswax products in souvenir shops. But with Covid-19 pausing tourism, she’s been almost entirely dependent on Facebook ads to drive online sales. On Nov. 11, this new f…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
Previous IncidentNext Incident

Research

  • Defining an “AI Incident”
  • Defining an “AI Incident Response”
  • Database Roadmap
  • Related Work
  • Download Complete Database

Project and Community

  • About
  • Contact and Follow
  • Apps and Summaries
  • Editor’s Guide

Incidents

  • All Incidents in List Form
  • Flagged Incidents
  • Submission Queue
  • Classifications View
  • Taxonomies

2023 - AI Incident Database

  • Terms of use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Open twitterOpen githubOpen rssOpen facebookOpen linkedin
  • 5fc5e5b