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Big Tech's role in enabling link fraud – take 2
Link fraud is increasingly undermining trust in major online platforms, including Google, Bing, and X (Twitter). These platforms allow advertisers to spoof links with unverified ‘vanity URLs’, laundering trust in their systems, while simultaneously deflecting blame onto advertisers when these mechanisms are exploited for fraudulent purposes.
Corporate greed has gotten so out-of-control that companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Brave now all deeply integrate advertising technologies at the browser-level, with some effects ranging from battery drain to personal interest tracking, and even . Petition your elected government officials to let them know that big tech is willingly ignoring their role in the rise of effective link fraud, spurred by their support of unverified vanity URLs. The United States Federal Trade Commission should request an investigation and seek to prosecute companies that knowingly enable link fraud through unverified vanity URL systems that are fundamentally impossible to audit.
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