CDP Institute

Days after a federal appellate court said that a class action on behalf of all U.S. advertisers against Facebook and Instagram could proceed, Meta announced that it would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. The class action alleges that Meta defrauded advertisers by inflating user engagement metrics. The class is open to U.S. advertisers who used Facebook’s Ad Manager or Power Editor to purchase ads after August 15, 2014.

Conversation automation provider Conversica has announced upgrades to Conversica Chat. One key feature will allow users to customize Conversica’s out-of-the-box AI conversations to better address individual recipients and reflect brand alignment. The move puts genAI in the hands of the user rather than compelling them to rely entirely on black-box AI.

The number of consumers likely to buy products directly from social channels increased 30% between Q1 and Q2 this year according to the quarterly survey of 1,000 consumers by Amazon seller software vendor JungleScout. Facebook is preferred by Baby Boomers, Millennials and Gen X for purchases, while Gen Z embraces TikTok. Social advertising still lags just behind search advertising in terms of influence.

After several years of deliberation, the FTC unanimously approved a finalized rule banning deceptive practices relating to consumer reviews. In addition to banning fake reviews (explicitly including those created by AI), the rule condemns censoring negative reviews and compensating third-parties for positive reviews. It’s going to be hard to distinguish positive from honest reviews, which are certainly often incentivized in the tech space.

In what can’t be an accident, Meta has withdrawn its misinformation-tracking tool CrowdTangle less than three months before the U.S. presidential election. Researchers and watchdogs had pleaded with Meta to keep the tool available. Meta offers its Content Library as an alternative, but access to that is restricted and pointedly excludes most news organizations.

At least one generative AI use case is up and running at 97% of $500 million-plus enterprises surveyed by cloud and tech provider Searce.  Nearly all (98%) agree AI is a priority and almost as many (93%) report at least somewhat successful results so far.  Data privacy (45%), legacy technology (40%), and lack of talent (40%) are the top barriers, with skepticism about reliability, accuracy and effectiveness (39%) close behind.

Twilio Segment has added AI-assisted audience creation features.  CustomerAI Recommendations will select customers most likely to purchase a specific product, brand, or category, while CustomerAI Generative Audiences builds complex audiences based on a simple text prompt.  The announcements were made at the company’s SIGNAL São Paulo event.