Facebook may now ban bad businesses from advertising

Facebook gaming

Facebook will now let you file a complaint about businesses you’ve had a problem with if you bought something after clicking on one of their ads. If enough people complain about a business, it could lead to Facebook banning the company from running ads.

The new policy is rolling out globally starting today, and it’s meant to help Facebook fight back against another type of advertising abuse on its platform. Facebook says it’s trying to combat “bad shopping experiences,” which can cost customers and make them frustrated with Facebook, too.

Facebook is particularly interested in a few problem areas: shipping times, product quality, and customer service. This isn’t just a matter of misleading advertising: if a company regularly provides bad service, products that don’t meet buyers’ expectations, or just frustrates consumers, they risk getting in trouble with the platform.

It appears that Facebook will send notifications to users to ask about their experience if it detects that they’ve purchased something after clicking on an ad. You’ll also be able to find those companies and leave feedback on the Ads Activity page.

Facebook says it will inform businesses about negative feedback and try to pinpoint problems that a large number of customers are having. If customer feedback doesn’t improve after a warning, Facebook will eventually start to limit how many ads a company can run. If it continues long enough, they can be banned.

Of course, people really only like to leave online feedback when they have something to complain about, so Facebook will have to be careful not to kick off undeserving businesses just because of a few customers’ grudges. But the plan as a whole seems like a valuable one for consumers since it might help to weed out problematic companies.

That might just amount to another process that scammy businesses have to work around. But given all the troubles Facebook has had with trustworthiness over the past couple years — particularly when it comes to political advertising and page owners — any step to get rid of people abusing the platform is a meaningful one.

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