There's a dust-up over an AI ad from Bookshop.org. But they didn't use AI; Meta's ad platform automatically created an AI "variation" of the original, non-AI content.
I went to disable this crap in our Shiraki Press ad account, and got served a popup *demanding a reason why*.
Fuck Meta for this. Consent matters. We've just pulled all paid advertising from their platforms.
I'll have more this Friday on The Hellscape: https://buttondown.com/thehellscape
Oct 17, 2026, 7:44 PM@joshsutphin Damn, that is absolutely disgusting. I'm second-hand angry now, fuck.
@xgranade It feels hard to justify yeeting Meta into the sun when running an online business, but I'm building an increasingly solid case that their supposed reach and monopoly on attention simply don't inure to the benefit of most businesses or creators any more, thus nullifying all claimed advantages. I look forward to the day when I can confidently pull the plug on their entire rotten ecosystem and know the business will remain healthy.
@joshsutphin
> I look forward to the day when I can confidently pull the plug on their entire rotten ecosystem and know the business will remain healthy.
I'm torn between “why did businesses ever hand over such control to Meta (or Google, or any other #AdTech parasite), this extractive monopoly was the obvious direction from the start?!”, versus the fact that trying to advertise a small organisation or product is always fraught and compromised.
But we really must kill off the advertising monopolies, and make illegal the sociopathic practices; the #enshittification is long entrenched.
@bignose @joshsutphin I know of 2 orgs who pulled all ads from their online presence and only use patreon or similar. They try to go away from youtube and use patreon, but YT is still a big solid presence. No ads on youtube, no ads on their website. And the website got blazing fast after removing all ads.
And when you go to https://www.universetoday.com/ you will notice there is no cookie popup.
@joshsutphin Thank you for publishing somewhere with an RSS feed. It’s really great because I don’t use email to subscribe to newsletters.. only RSS feeds so thank you for picking something with fantastic RSS support
@WeirdWriter I really really want RSS to survive 🙏
@joshsutphin Oh, I think I found an error in your landing page. The subscribed via RSS link appears to be broken because when I tap it, my RSS reader says an RSS fee cannot be located, but if I share the ButtonDown page itself my RSS reader has no issues locating the feed
@WeirdWriter Hmm, I wonder if @buttondown is doing some server side URL translation or something that's getting lost in the click handler for your particular reader.
(It worked for me with NewsBlur, but that could also be silently falling back to RSS discovery.)
@joshsutphin @buttondown Ah probably! I thought that RSS link was manually linked, so I can send an email to support when I get to a computer, but it would be helpful if you could write to support also
Hi there!
Thanks for mentioning us with this issue. Would you mind sharing what RSS app you were using when the error occurred?
Lire on iOS but it's connected through Miniflux https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lire-rss-reader/id1531976425 @buttondown @joshsutphin
Thanks! We'll look into why this happened. 💙
@joshsutphin no longer a debate, though I appreciate the note that the details were changing:
https://bbc.com/audio/play/w3ct999d
Sigh, no transcript.
@joshsutphin @resuna
Overcast (my go to) and other podcast players can generate transcripts. You make me curious about the desire for transcripts over audio. To each their own though.
BBC Verify was another source. Even so, not all AI derived info is wrong, it just needs verified. Even if you think it’s a “no it wasn’t” claim with no foundation; that doesn’t mean the hyped and wrong graph should be accepted again.
Do you have valid statistics that counter what BBC Verify and Valent provided?
@joshsutphin @resuna BBC More or Less welcomes listener input and broadcasts corrections. Please let them know your concerns.
Here is the BBC Verify article for written reference:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9y7l0pm8jkko
@joshsutphin tell us more of this Shiraki Press of which you speak... 😉
@mjr I'm a co-founder. We publish queer-normative hopepunk fiction for adults, and we just started this year. Five books so far! https://shirakipress.com
Oct 17, 2026, 9:09 PMSide note: this is also the case for all content uploaded to YouTube.
@Amgine @joshsutphin In what sense? Are you talking about auto dubbing (which you can disable) or something else?
Oct 17, 2026, 10:12 PMThe story I read was Google is optimising for storage and transmission, and some complaints of colour simplification - but I did not follow up on it. For all I know they are fingerprinting to identify descendants, reuse.
@Amgine @joshsutphin That is not making "AI variations" of your content like the OP was talking about.
We know they are training models off videos. That's how the whole recommendation algorithm worked long before "AI" branding.
"Google is optimising for storage and transmission"
Remember when Apple deleted people's songs and replaced them with the same named track from their collection in the name of optimizing storage? I wouldn't put it past Google to do the same with your videos.
(I was never so glad I hadn't "upgraded" my iTunes collection to "Apple Music Whatever They Called It" when I saw that.)
@joshsutphin
It's very good you do this, as apparently meta's new tos for anyone who advertises on their sites gives them the right to scrape everything you have on the web, under the same corporation, for training.
(Who knows if this is enforceable or what have you, but they just pushed this new tos stuff through: https://cryptobriefing.com/meta-terms-scraping-news-sites-ai-training/ )
Oct 17, 2026, 10:44 PM@joshsutphin Mind blowing.
You're a user of the system, you have a FB account? Yep ok, you're the product, you'll get what they give you because you're choosing to participate.
You're an advertiser? Totally friggin different story here. The answer is always "because I'm paying you money and it's what I want" and man it really speaks to the sociopathy of the industry and of Zuck's approach that you'd have to justify why you do or don't want to spend money on a facet of their services.
Oct 17, 2026, 11:32 PM@joshsutphin google also does this. It'll hallucinate an ad for a product/service you don't sell, show it to people in a country you don't ship to, and charge you for the top spot. On by default, of course.
And if you manage to turn all that shit off you get monthly calls from "your new account manager" offering to "help" with your "ad performance".
@virtulis It's okay though because at least we have billionaires 🫠
Oct 17, 2026, 11:50 PM@joshsutphin part of me kind of believes they're earnest about "trying to help". They sincerely cannot fathom any kind of "performance" other than "number go up".
Feeling sympathetic anger now!
@joshsutphin oh wow.
@joshsutphin I wish everyone would dump them.
Oct 18, 2026, 7:22 AMI just wish there was a way to get more people here, and off big tech (or at least use it less). The STEAM Cafe and Discovery centre in Paignton puts everything on facebook, because they have the narrative everyone uses facebook, i think it is also easier for them. Just means the rest of us (like me) miss out on information, but one person telling them that won't do very much.
If anyone is in #SouthDevon, #UK please drop in and ask them to get in 2026 and set up and use a #Fediverse account.
Either that we need something here to act as a magnet to draw people in.
Oct 18, 2026, 9:36 AM@joshsutphin if only it were just Meta; this seems to be a new favourite toy.
The UK's National Trust reported similar issues with TikTok automatically creating AI ads for them without any sort of notification this week. Given that trust is the most valuable commodity available to Charities, it's just beyond grim
@hannah It's going to take us so long to clean up all the social damage this crap has already done 🫠
@joshsutphin This happened to the National Trust on Tiktok - apologies as I can only find a linkedin post about it https://lnkd.in/p/eDY5EJAJ
@joshsutphin
More Meta fuckery:
"Beginning October 30, Meta is merging all of our accounts into one including my musician FB page etc. All links to any content become fair game for them to use to train their stupid stuffed animal graphic Trojan horse Muse. They are also trying to charge artists $49 a month to be able to share eight links a month. I will not be doing any of that. There is no opt out. Indie artists are being told pay and be stolen from, or lose your access to reach on these platforms. Fine.
I have removed all links from all my Meta pages including this one. I may delete my accounts completely in solidarity with intellectual property and artists worldwide. I'm thinking it over."
![From Casey Stratton -
Beginning October 30, Meta is merging all of our accounts into one including my musician FB page etc. All links to any content become fair game for them to use to train their stupid stuffed animal graphic Trojan horse Muse. They are also trying to charge artists $49 a month to be able to share eight links a month. I will not be doing any of that. There is no opt out. Indie artists are being told pay and be stolen from or lose your access to reach on these platforms. Fine.
I have removed all links from all my Meta pages including this one. I may delete my accounts completely in solidarity with intellectual property and artists worldwide. I'm thinking it over.
The social media age for musicians and artists is over. It's a giant shopping mall made by billionaires and corporations. See you in the real world.
If you want to listen to my work, you a find it. Peace out.
[beneath this is a red and white NO graphic with a slash through the words Meta AI]](https://media.mas.to/media_attachments/files/117/463/635/316/972/967/original/609a03bc9fcb25a4.jpg)