Once, Facebook was one of the most desirable workplaces in the world—even the single best employer in Silicon Valley, as Glassdoor declared back in 2016. At that time, it was easy to see what prospective employees liked:

You got to work at a company used by billions; you got incredible perks, including ample paid leave, free lunches, and in-office barbers and arcades; you probably earned a whopping salary during a boom cycle for your industry.

How things change.

This February 2023, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a “Year of Efficiency” for his once perpetually growing company, making clear his intent to snip out “layers of middle management” and “cut projects that aren’t performing or may no longer be crucial.”

The message was that more layoffs were to come in 2023 for the company now called Meta—following the 11,000 employees axed in November, the first mass job losses to ever hit the once insurmountable social media giant.

[Originally published in Slate.com by Nitish Pahwa]

On March 14, the company confirmed there would be 10,000 new position cuts, which entailed “reduc[ing] the size of our recruiting team” as well as “restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April, and then our business groups in late May,” according to a memo from Zuckerberg.

Meta is not alone; there were hundreds of thousands of layoffs across the tech industry last year, while 2023 has brought “rolling layoffs” at companies like Amazon and Wayfair.

There's a "morale crisis" at Meta

To hear it from Zuckerberg, the official story is that Meta overstretched during the pandemic, hiring aggressively as the world suddenly found itself trapped inside with lots of extra time.

Now, that boom has passed, and it’s clear user and revenue numbers have been shellacked by durable competitive threats: young users’ attachment to TikTok, lack of interest in its huge metaverse investment, and a new Apple privacy setting for iOS that throttled key targeted-advertising business revenue for Meta.

So the tech monolith has been forced into a strategic retreat for leaner times. (And all this follows a period in which Facebook earned robust revenue while facing down more scandals than a season of Succession, from Cambridge Analytica to the Facebook Papers.)

That’s how it looked from the outside, anyway. What about the inside, especially in the months leading up to the first November layoffs?

“They didn’t have anything for us to do,” former Meta employee Brit Levy told me.

“We were there collecting a paycheck, essentially, which felt like a bummer,” said one former Meta recruiter who wished to remain anonymous.

“None of our higher-ups had real information for us, as they were just as in the dark as we were,” a former contract recruiting coordinator said, also on condition of anonymity.

I recently spoke with three people who worked in recruitment and training at Meta in 2021 and 2022, as hiring slowed to a trickle and the company braced for huge layoffs.

They described internal processes for task delegation and employee management that had been breaking down for months—and layoffs that, in their view, were so cold, sloppy, and draining that the whole thing has since made “a lot of people angry at the company,” they said.

Their stories shine a revealing light on a workplace they once loved—a company that’s now reducing its famed job perks however it can, whether by lowering bonuses, evaluating workers through a harsher review process, or reducing remote-work flexibility. And, of course, slashing the snacks budget.

In April 2022, Brit Levy, a 35-year-old Latina, landed a spot with Meta’s Sourcer Development Program, a paid, yearlong course that trains tech-interested workers from underrepresented backgrounds to become effective recruiters.

That was the pitch, anyway: Six months into the program, Levy was laid off, despite being told that her employment was secured for a full year.

(Read: Facebook ad account disabled next steps)

How Layoffs Affect Meta

Even during that truncated period, the training hardly played out as she’d anticipated. After Levy was assigned to the Sourcer Development Program’s diversity, equity, and inclusion group, she found out that fellow participants “had been told that the roles they were hiring for were paused,” she told me.

So her team, to hear her tell it, did nothing—even though “there was work that needed to be done,” Levy said. “There was internal documentation and policies that had not been updated or touched since 2019.”

Still, her team’s efforts to take on that work were stymied. “Every time we came together as a group to try and propose a project, to try and look at what else we could be working on, someone in higher-up leadership—it would trickle down, these communications—would say,

‘We expect to get you guys going, possibly next week,’ ” Levy said. “They kept just kicking the can down the road.” (Meta did not respond to Slate’s request for comment on this story.)

The road ran out. “In July, we received a message confirming that one of the groups in the program, their last day would be Dec. 15. Then they told the rest of us that we’d be good until April,” Levy said. That reassurance wouldn’t last:

“In September, a bunch of meetings that had been placed on our calendars through February, March, and April of 2023—they all got canceled, and we were told not worry about it.”

The following month, Levy mentioned, the recruiting program that was intended to grant the Sourcer Development participants more hands-on experience was shuttered.

What then?

Former Meta recruiter Maddie Machado Infamous Post

“We were told by our program manager that our positions were safe, don’t worry about layoffs, and ‘enjoy the pause’—basically, enjoy being paid to do nothing,” Levy explained.

“But if you’re looking for something to do, help out with some self-managed projects.”

She’d taken on a self-propelled project highlighting Meta’s biases when it came to recruiting veterans—something she felt passionate about on both a personal level as a military spouse and on a professional level in light of the stressful company culture.

“I knew I was going to be rated against my other peers that did have stuff to do, so I wanted to find something.”

Ultimately, Levy and the rest of her program got axed in November 2022. In frustration, she began posting publicly on TikTok about her layoff and the DEI program.

After she garnered more than 800,000 views on a late-January post explaining why she refused to sign Meta’s severance deal, Levy began to share even more explicit details, including pages from that very severance package—and also publicly feuded with Meta employees like Kristen Castellanos, a recruiting executive who disputed Levy’s characterization of her employment with Meta.

TikTok, Zuckerberg’s nemesis, happens to be the outlet through which other ex-Facebookers have shared their own experiences at Meta, many of which resemble Levy’s accounts.

Former Meta recruiter Maddie Machado infamously described her five-month stint at the company in 2021 as “getting paid $190k to do nothing.”

— Meaning, she wasn’t “expected to hire anybody for the first six months, even the first year,” as Machado explained in a video.

(Machado was fired from Meta long before the layoffs because of other videos she’d shared about the company during her time there; however, she posted the “do nothing” video on March 17, just after Zuckerberg announced the new layoffs.)

Facebook Layoffs - A Meta Recruiter's Experience:

Another ex–Meta recruiter laid off in November told me that when she joined in December 2021, she actually had a pretty steady, reliable workflow—at least, for a bit. “I joined with a class of 100 people and got thrown into recruiting for product managers,” she told me.

But as 2022 progressed, “around June and July, things started slowing down, in that there were fewer positions available.” And nobody seemed to know what was really even happening.

“They weren’t really talking about why we were slowing down,” she added. “Our bosses sent out so many messages on Workplace, like, We understand that this time is confusing, but everything’s fine.”

Everything didn’t really seem fine. For one, product managers recruited by her team were usually put through a two-week “bootcamp” that matched their skills and capabilities to open job listings.

But with the summer 2022 slowdown, some product managers seemed to be going through the whole process for nothing: “We weren’t extending offers to any bootcampers, and offers that had been in process were getting held up.”

Still, going into August, the recruiter felt OK about her work and status at Meta, until everything flipped in October.

“They stopped product management recruitment and moved us to data centers, which made it clear our earlier work was no longer considered important,” she said. “We still had team meetings, which was strange since we weren’t working on product management recruiting anymore.”

What was work like during this time?

“We pivoted to doing projects within the company, basically streamlining efficiencies or looking at different processes. Just busywork, really—none of us were working on projects that were considered mission-critical,” the product management recruiter told me, noting also that the sudden changes depressed morale significantly.

“A lot of people were not as motivated. Cameras stayed off during meetings, which was super uncommon before—and sometimes, a lot of people would not show up to meetings.”

When 2022 November’s layoffs came, they hit her unit especially hard.

“Our team went from 119 people down to 55. So it got cut in half,” the ex-recruiter said.

And even though Meta “basically cut everything off” right then and there in November (“I had to return my laptop and portal quickly”), she was kept around until Jan. 13.

The layoff email stated that “we need to cut access to most internal systems immediately for legal and security reasons.” Those weeks of limbo, she decided, were best spent elsewhere: “We were literally paid, from November, to do nothing. So I took time off and went to my home country for six weeks.”

SATISFYING INVESTORS? Facebook Layoffs

When March came around, it was recruiters, again, who faced the immediate brunt of the announced layoffs; the former product management recruiter told me that from what she’s heard, her former team has now been whittled down to merely 14 people.

When I reached out to a contract recruiting coordinator for Meta who’d joined in May 2021 and was laid off in March, she responded in a Twitter DM that “recruiting pipelines had it the worst” in November, as 75 percent of her agency’s Meta team was gutted that month.

The worst part of it all, per the contractor’s account, was the uncertainty and trepidation:

“We’d all heard and seen rumors about [the November 2022 layoffs] a week prior through Blind,” the anonymous forum for tech-industry insiders.

She and her colleagues spent the days afterward “mentally preparing” for the day layoffs were made official, which ended up being Nov. 9. Even though she survived that round, the experience was “frightening,” leaving her and many of her remaining co-workers “sleepless and anxious.”

It had hurt especially because “the relationship I had with my coworkers went further than just work. We made genuine friendships.”

Zuckerberg's “Year of Efficiency” Human Impact

After Zuckerberg’s “Year of Efficiency” announcement in February, job-cut rumors once again circulated among Meta employees on Blind, and recruitment teams plunged into a dour mood.

“Morale has definitely been low,” former software engineering recruiter Mary Prescott told Insider this month after getting laid off.

“It’s hard to dedicate yourself, especially to long-term projects, and to be all-in if you’re fearful you could lose your job without much notice.”

For the contract recruiting coordinator I spoke with, the only small mercy was that she and her team had already been “conditioned” for the layoff process, making the official announcement this month “a bit easier to fathom and face.”

On March 14, “I got an email at 3 a.m. PST from my agency notifying me about Meta prioritizing ‘efficiency,’ and my access to my laptop and work phone was immediately shut off,” she told me.

As she found out when meeting her agency about next steps, even more contractors in her field had their positions eliminated, though not all of them.

Even though all three of the ex–Meta workers I spoke with had been excited to join the company at first, they now feel much more sour toward their former employer after witnessing firsthand how it handled layoffs and work-distribution issues.

“I still pinch myself today that I made it to Meta,” the product management recruiter said. “But I think people are losing faith in the company. The fact that we got hired on six months before things started taking a turn, that we were staffing up so much in product management—that really sucks. It’s kind of shitty.”

Levy suspects that the reason some Meta units were given less work throughout 2022 was so that it would be easier for the company to justify those employees’ dismissal.

“Going up to November, some people felt they were for sure going to be laid off eventually because of the constant lack of work,” she noted.

“We’d just had our reviews in late September and early October, and if you have managers that are purposely influencing that data to make groups of employees look like they are not valuable, that’s a problem.”

Remaining Meta employees, who’ve now seen their company shed one-quarter of their total workforce since the fall, may be losing trust in and patience with their executives, especially Mark Zuckerberg. As Insider reported during the week of the March layoffs, workers asked Zuckerberg in a virtual town hall whether they could “trust leadership decisions after two rounds of layoffs.”

My Experience As A Project Manager at Meta & Facebook Layoffs

Unlike what much of what Nitish Pahwa has written about mainly recruiters feeling the brunt of the layoffs it was a lot more than just that department. You think Meta has 20,000 recruiters they laid off? No. It was product managers, project managers, and more.

Ultimately this was because Mark Zuckerberg had overhired during 2020, and when the world opened up after the pandemic lessened, the public wasn't online as much.

Zuck's failed experiment with the Metaverse bled into the layoffs too - he didn't survey his audience to see if the Metaverse was even anything we wanted. And halfassed the avatar design as a friend of mine who was a manager at Facebook mentioned to me recently.

I saw good people, product managers that worked with me on my projects, who just had a baby with his wife get laid off. It was tough. I hope folks can pull through and find meaningful and well paid work again.

What do you think about all the layoffs from Amazon, Google, Meta and more? 

If you are returning to my blog because you googled "disabled facebook ad account" I help advertisers on Facebook stay compliant. I've worked at Facebook for years and have my own company that helps advertisers stay compliant with Facebook ad policies even if Facebook won't hep you understand why you were banned.

Keep reading for these answers and more: 

New Solution to Facebook Ad Policy Violations

After years of working at Facebook, I understand exactly what ad copy in your funnel is triggering the automations and how to get compliant.

Get solid answers directly from the source instead guessing, googling, and playing roulette. Schedule a call with me and I can easily tell you proven reasons why the automations flag you and how to become compliant.

You'll be swapping out walking in a minefield of ad flags, to have a sure path to having your Facebook ad accounts protected from being disabled.

My clients have included the social media marketing agencies of Tony Robbins, Harv Eker, and Dean Graziosi. I'm featured on the Queen of Facebook Mari Smith's Marketing Essentials Course.

Save energy and money - how much is it costing you to not know why Facebook is shutting you down? Talk today. 



If you want to skip the line before this offer ends, immediately secure an expert-level Facebook consulting call from someone at Facebook. Book a call with me now!

If you're ok with waiting a bit longer, and entering the waitlist to see if you're eligible - Schedule a call or contact me via email.

                                                      Image Source: NY Times

“For too long, Section 230 has given cover to social media companies as they turn a blind eye to the harmful scams, harassment, and violent extremism that run rampant across their platforms,” said Senator Warner.

There is a new threat to free speech. And like many that came before, it is hiding under the cover of protecting other people.

The SAFE TECH act attempts to amend Section 230, and it doesn't just threaten free speech and creators' ability to monetize content. It also opens the doors to a flood of frivolous lawsuits.

I realize this blog today deviates from my latest blogs, that offer tips on solving disabled Facebook ad accounts but, history is being made and we all need to talk about our freedom of speech when it's threatened.

If you are looking for help finding out why Facebook dropped the ban hammer on you...Click here, to schedule a discovery call.

Section 230 Protects More Than Big Tech

Right now, Section 230 protects tech websites—big and small—and their users from civil liability for content created by others. It does not protect against liability for content that a tech entity or user creates, nor does it protect against liability for federal crimes.

Section 230 has two main sections, one which protects against liability for third-party speech allowed (or overlooked) on a website and one which protects against liability for content moderation (that is, blocking certain speech).

The 1st part of Section 230—sometimes referred to as c(1)—says:

"No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

The 2nd part—c(2), or the "Good Samaritan clause"—says:

Internet platforms and users won't be held liable on account of "any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be:

• obscene
• lewd
• lascivious
• filthy
• excessively violent

...harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected."

(Looking for my normal content? Read: Facebook ad account disabled next steps)

The Man Who Created Section 230 Weighs in

Daniel Weitzner, the founding director of the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative, helped draft Section 230 and get it passed in 1996. Weitzner had this to say:

"Congress had a really clear choice in its mind," he says.

"Was the internet going to be like the broadcast media that were pretty highly regulated?" Or, was it going to be like "...the town square or the printing press?"

Congress, he said, "...chose the town square and the printing press." But, he adds, that approach is now at risk:

"The Supreme court now really is in a moment where it could dramatically limit the diversity of speech that the internet enables."

Right now Meta aka Facebook is already dealing with an AI trade secrets lawsuit recently, and a man named Abrham Meareg in Kenya asked Facebook to take down pics of his dad that had false accusations and death threats. Facebook didn't, and the Meareg's father was murdered outside his home.

In addition to Google fending off charges their algorithm suggested ISIS terrorist videos that resulted in real human harm. So a new law was filed called Justice Against Malicious Algorithms Act of 2021 (aka JAMA).

The cases are Gonzalez v. Google LLC and Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh.

Clearly there is a lot at stake here. Lives are lost because Facebook and other social media sites are slow to respond when real threats are reported. But at the same time - should these be used as a weapon against everyone's free speech?

image source: Action Network

The Rights SAFE TECH Act Takes From You

The SAFE TECH Act (almost ironically titled) would change Section 230 c(1) to not apply when "the provider or user has accepted payment to make the speech available or, in whole or in part, created or funded the creation of the speech."

How would this affect the web? It wouldn't just hurt Facebook and Google - this would create a huge issue for smaller websites like WordPress for blogging.

As well as newsletter and podcast distributors like Substack - all would become vulnerable to unrealistic liability standards as would any social media platform that provides a paid tier level (like Twitter Blue).

Do you use Bluehost or GoDaddy? All sorts of web hosting services would now be targeted —creating huge incentives for providers to cut off web hosting access to any person or group even slightly controversial.

As much as many may hate Donald Trump - and he has done many questionable actions worthy of scrutiny - he was elected because of the silent majority in America, conservatively leaning, felt their free speech was being suppressed by ultra liberal pundits and authority figures.

One act of suppression leads to another. It's a feedback loop.

But back to the SAFE Tech Act changes. These modifications of Section 230 "...would also threaten liability on any service that shares its advertising revenue with creators, for instance as YouTube does."

- said law professor and blogger Eugene Volokh from the Ukraine.

This would create incentives for platforms to cut off or severely limit creator monetization schemes, meaning "Creators would thus be less likely to earn money from their works."

Can you imagine being a well established micro influencer and suddenly Instagram refuses to let you publish content because you said something they don't agree with? And then all the monetization you had in place freezes??

In addition, "The section would threaten liability whenever any providers provide grants to support local journalism or other such projects (something like the Google News Initiative)," Volokh said.

"Providers would thus become less likely to directly or indirectly support journalism and other expression."

You get the feeling the SAFE TECH act isn't so safe eh? Wait, there's more.

Source: Suffolk University Law School

Free Speech Under Fire 🔥🔥🔥

Want to get to the root of the danger to free speech with SAFE TECH ACT? Mike Masnick of TechDirt had some choice words. Check this out:

"[The SAFE TECH ACT] takes nearly every single idea that people who want there to be less speech online have had, and dumped it all into one bill," Masnick said.

"Everything about the bill is designed in a way that opens it up to abuse by the rich, powerful and privileged. Everything about the bill allows them to file costly lawsuits (or threaten to do so) and pressure websites to pull down all sorts of criticism."

The SAFE TECH Act also says that Section 230 c(1) protection wouldn't apply (regardless of whether payment or funding was involved).

"...to any request for injunctive relief arising from the failure of a provider of an interactive computer service to remove, restrict access to or availability of, or prevent the dissemination of material that is likely to cause irreparable harm."

Injunctive relief means someone who is suing you not for money but to get you to do something—in online speech cases, it's to get that speech removed.

Keep in mind that this provision isn't about lawsuits stemming from illegal content, just content likely to cause "irreparable harm."

And while "irreparable harm" sounds serious, it simply means harm that couldn't be compensated for with money, including harm to someone's reputation.

Like if someone powerful got butthurt about something you've said.

The SAFE TECH Act, "Would not protect users' rights in a way that is substantially better than current law," warned the digital rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) back in 2021.

"And it would, in some cases, harm marginalized users, small companies, and the Internet ecosystem as a whole."

SAFE TECH ACT: You Can't Diss The Rich Anymore Online

Source: EFF

The SAFE TECH ACT bill will carve out a bunch of exceptions to Section 230 protection, including for:

"...any action alleging discrimination on the basis of any protected class, or conduct that has the effect or consequence of discriminating on the basis of any protected class, under any Federal or State law."

As Masnick wrote about a similar provision in the 2021 version of SAFE TECH,

"...While it may sound good to say this can't be used to block civil rights cases, in actual practice a bunch of recent 'civil rights' cases have involved white supremacists, out-and-out misogynists, and other terrible people claiming that their civil rights were violated by being kicked off of platforms. Enabling such lawsuits seems incredibly short sighted."

And in some states, political affiliation is a protected class, meaning Section 230 wouldn't apply to cases where someone claims their content was blocked or restricted because of their politics. Again: floodgates.

And that's still not all.

The SAFE TECH Act would also amend Section 230 to state that it:

"...shall be construed to prevent, impair, or limit any action brought under Federal or State antitrust law,"

"...any civil action for wrongful death," any action brought under international human rights law, or any "action alleging stalking, cyberstalking, harassment, cyberharassment, or intimidation based, in whole or in part, on sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, or physical or mental disability."

If you look at that and think, well, tech companies shouldn't be allowed to violate laws with impunity—well, no, and they aren't.

If they create illegal content, they can already be held liable. If they are guilty of federal crimes, they can already be charged just like anyone else.

What the SAFE TECH Act would do is open up internet companies to civil lawsuits from individuals and governments if third parties use their services in the course of causing certain harms.

Even if many lawsuits against tech companies over user speech would not stand up to the First Amendment, the absence of Section 230 protection would make these suits more labor -and resource-intensive to fight—

This is upping the likelihood that platforms may decide to crack down on limiting speech rather than defend themselves in more lawsuits.

TLDR: if this Act passes anyone who is richer than you can sue you into silence if you say ANYTHING they disagree with online.

The SAFE TECH Act is a dangerous bill that would have far-reaching consequences for content creators, activists, people exposing police violence, whistleblowers, citizen journalists, and basically anyone who uses the internet.

Not to mention how it would burden our courts with questionable lawsuits and make life miserable for tech companies large and small.

[Parts of this article sourced from Reason.com]

Over the past 100 years free speech has been instrumental in establishing and protecting civil liberties.

Whether it's women meeting at Seneca Falls and establishing the right to vote, or Bob Dylan in the 60s calling out systemic injustice, oppression to Martin Luther King's speeches fighting for equal rights and against racism...free speech isn't just about talking.

It's about organizing. Creating unity and moving forward to build transformations towards equality. I agree that something must be done so that social media algorithms aren't boosting hatred just to get clicks and engagement.

But taking away everyone's free speech online, cloaked in the SAFE TECH Act as a protection measure?

Is that not just Big Brother telling us we shouldn't have any rights because we don't know any better, being the ignorant plebeians we are?

Haven't we heard this argument before when the Patriot Act was passed to legalize domestic spying and wiretapping American citizens?

Taking away rights is never the answer. I told this to the Texas Board of Education when they tried to take out the history of slavery from Texas textbooks and call it "involuntary relocation" instead.

I asked them, "How is less information going to make our children more informed?"

They didn't have an answer. And the proposal didn't pass. Thank god.

What do you think? Should we trade free speech for censorship? What is a good alternative between Section 230 and the SAFE TECH Act? Comment below and let me know your thoughts. 

If you are returning to my blog because you googled "disabled facebook ad account" I help advertisers on Facebook stay compliant. 

Keep reading for these answers and more: 

New Solution to Facebook Ad Policy Violations

After years of working at Facebook, I understand exactly what ad copy in your funnel is triggering the automations and how to get compliant.

Get solid answers directly from the source instead guessing, googling, and playing roulette. Schedule a call with me and I can easily tell you proven reasons why the automations flag you and how to become compliant.

You'll be swapping out walking in a minefield of ad flags, to have a sure path to having your Facebook ad accounts protected from being disabled.

My clients have included the social media marketing agencies of Tony Robbins, Harv Eker, and Dean Graziosi. I'm featured on the Queen of Facebook Mari Smith's Marketing Essentials Course.

Save energy and money - how much is it costing you to not know why Facebook is shutting you down? Talk today. 



If you want to skip the line before this offer ends, immediately secure an expert-level Facebook consulting call from someone at Facebook. Book a call with me now!

If you're ok with waiting a bit longer, and entering the waitlist to see if you're eligible - Schedule a call or contact me via email.

AI Copywriting Meets Meta

Meta is turbo charging their focus on AI just as AI copywriting takes the world by storm now that Chat GPT has become widespread. Facebook has generative AI teams working on building "delightful experiences" around AI [wtf?].

Zuck announced that Meta is developing AI personas to help people - although given how automated ad policy enforcers wreaking havoc on Facebook ads hasn't gone too well so far.

Meta's new AI will focus on text (like chat in WhatsApp and Messenger), images (eg creative Instagram filters, ad formats) and video.

Generative AI

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence technology that can produce various types of content, including text, imagery, audio and synthetic data. This includes creating deep fakes and more.

This new laser focus on AI is one of Meta's futuristic developments with their Metaverse comprised of:

(∆)  artificial intelligence and machine learning
(∆)  virtual reality and augmented reality
(∆)  the internet of things (iOT)
(∆) bl0ckchain technology
(∆)  edge computing

Zuck is pushing everyone to live in the Metaverse, where you'll be able to perform all your regular day-to-day, real life activities, except everything is in a simulated VR reality and you represent yourself with an avatar.

That ALMOST fits the exact description of The Matrix:

"...a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a simulated reality that intelligent machines have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source."

How intelligent do we really want machines to get? The over reliance on robotics already stunts emotional intelligence in teens.  Despite all the warnings companies like Google aggressively pursue making an AI with human awareness. 

It really makes you think, are we creating a superior predator to mankind with this focus on inventing a self aware machine? Chat GPT just amalgamates Google search results so it isn't self aware...yet. Despite what a Google engineer named Blake Lemoine thinks.

Have Facebook sentinels attacked the Zion of your ad account? Read What to Do After Violating Facebook’s Ad Policies).

My client, one of the editors of Rich Dad Poor Dad, found help with me when I guided her through the FB ad policies to get her ads live pronto. Want the same VIP treatment? Click here, to schedule a discovery call.

Performance Marketing and AI Copywriting

A lot of the hoopla around AI copywriting is geared towards creating high-quality content, in just a few seconds, at a fraction of the cost. But if you've used Chat GPT you know it sounds like an instruction manual.

While having an AI writer that generates and optimizes your copy would be nice, marketers still need to humanize their content marketing material. Machines don't understand the human pathos.

Affiliate or performance marketing doesn't have any ROI if you're relying on AI that has no idea why a headline it's trying to duplicate works. The why is the crux for course correcting when your KPIs aren't met.

For tips on running FB ads as a business, read How to Navigate Facebook’s Advertising Policies as a Business.

Just Get Copy That Converts

“We have a lot of foundational work to do before getting to the really futuristic experiences, but I’m excited about all of the new things we’ll build along the way.” - Mark Zuckerberg

Copywriting AI is the new "it factor" in marketing and business. Large language models created by OpenAI are integrated into a Microsoft Bing chatbot as well as ChatGPT. Google is also working on a chatbot named Bard.

The world is obsessed with AI. I predict this is the new Californian Gold Rush in Silicon Valley - but also that bubble will pop with the realization AI isn't that developed at scale yet.

Read my full predictions for AI this year on Linkedin here, here and here.

On Monday, Snap announced that it would integrate a ChatGPT bot into its Snapchat app. If you're familiar with Facebook, you know they like to reverse engineer successful business models.

Last week, Meta announced its own new large language model called LLaMA.

Were you using AI for FB ad copy and got your ad account disabled? Read How to Recover Facebook Ad Accounts now! My client Dr. Emi was featured on the Today Show on NBC. I helped her when she was shut down (VIP Access).

Should You Use an AI Copywriting Tool?

After watching iRobot, Total Recall, The Matrix, the Terminator and more, it feels like people almost want the apocalypse to happen. Where machines rise up and decide mankind needs to be destroyed as a threat to its survival.

Yet engineers still nerd out with a lot of back patting the closer they get to creating the villain in every one of these sci-fi movies that tries to kill us. Is that really smart?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Whether or not you use ai copywriting tools really depends on your bandwidth for humanizing it. And the intent. If you use AI to create a recipe book, that seems fair. Or for content marketing that you adapt, sure.

I tried to use Chat GPT to write part of a chapter in my upcoming sci-fi novel, A Memory of Saturn (the first one in the trilogy is Zero Point Horizon).

But you know what happened?

I had to scrap all of it because the hokey Chat GPT writings were devoid of any imagination, human emotion, or vivid descriptions. If I was writing a children's book, that corny Chat GPT text would work. Everything else - not so much.

(Looking to side step a FB shutdown? Peep Top Reasons Why Facebook Disables Ad Accounts).

Let's cover some of the real risks using AI copywriting.

AI Copywriting Limitations

Are AI chabots watermarking the chatbot text??! Yes. As Tech Crunch describes:

In a lecture at the University of Texas at Austin, computer science professor Scott Aaronson, currently a guest researcher at OpenAI, revealed that OpenAI is developing a tool for “statistically watermarking the outputs of a text [AI system].”

Whenever a system — say, ChatGPT — generates text, the tool would embed an “unnoticeable secret signal” indicating where the text came from.

I know almost everyone is jumping up and down, excited about Chat GPT's potential (and other ai chat bots). I've even seen idiots on youtube tell people they can make tons of money getting Chat GPT to narrate dog videos (all bs).

The real question is:

Are you safe using watermarked chatbot AI text? It would suck to have a website taken down because the owner used copyrighted AI generated text.

How does AI Content Generator work?

Neil Patel, one of my all time favorite marketing gurus has some choice words about how AI content generators work for AI copywriting:

"First, although AI tech is impressive, AI copywriting tools don’t write anything truly original. Remember, we’re talking about a machine. They’re “fed” articles and content written by human copywriters and essentially mix them up to create something new.

AI tools produce great copy, but just because it’s “new” copy doesn’t mean it’s original.

What’s more, AI tools can’t replicate human emotion. Why is this a drawback? Well, emotion matters in marketing. In fact, when it comes to consumer buying behavior, feelings are more influential than any other variable, so you should try to invoke emotion through your content."

What is AI Copywriting?

FAQ

AI copywriting uses artificial intelligence to write copy for your website or content marketing campaigns.

Typically a chatbot is used with a simple query. Many use AI copywriting for generating headlines, YouTube video titles, product descriptions, website text to email newsletters to social media posts.

Is AI Copywriting Worth It?

I'll address this on two fronts:

1. Facebook's new focus on AI
2. Content creation

If you are like me, a blogger, content marketer or you run ads, I'd say use with care. Ecommerce even if you're using AI for product info.

Really any sort of AI content marketing the public sees, if it's branded with cryptography??!

That can enforce a trademark?? Ummm...hard pass. That may be more trouble than it's worth.

As a Facebook ad policy specialist I can share that many advertisers ask for my help after they get ads rejected on Facebook. Sometimes for copyright infringements.

AI copywriting tools are great for outlining, generating ideas, and breaking writer's block. But you'll need to humanize it and use your own words to avoid being banned on platforms who scan for AI created content.

Imagine being sued by Chat GPT for royalties if AI copywriting from them generated you revenue. That kind of reframes how much "effort" you think goes into writing original copy versus using AI.

Hiring an IP lawyer is a lot more effort.



You gotta match your audience's tone, pain points and humanity. Robots can't do that. The future of business is in customization. AI copywriting is generic af.

The exact opposite of customized copy for your target audience. Think about all the ad fatigue from swipe file ads.

Millennials and Gen Zers are migrating to influencer marketing because that feels more real. Folks are also sick of Facebook bans - learn how to avoid them here.

The Metaverse is Dead

Sources at Facebook say that Mark Zuckerberg has quietly killed the Metaverse in favor of AI.

Reality Labs, the division responsible for the metaverse projects, recorded a cumulative loss of nearly $24 billion in 2021 and 2022, which has likely contributed to Zuckerberg's decision to shift the company's focus.

As Reuters reports: The public battle to dominate the AI technology space kicked off late last year with the launch of Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT and prompted tech heavyweights from Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) to China's Baidu Inc (9888.HK), to trumpet their own offerings.

Meta's LLaMA, short for Large Language Model Meta AI, will be available under non-commercial license to researchers and entities affiliated with government, civil society, and academia, it said in a blog.

Do You Trust AI?

Given Meta's history as Facebook, routinely making errors in automated advertising flagging, and locking Facebook users out of their personal accounts by accident - do you trust their competency with AI?

Meta in May last year released large language model OPT-175B, also aimed at researchers, which formed the basis of a new iteration of its chatbot BlenderBot.

It later introduced a model called Galactica, which could write scientific articles and solve math problems, but quickly pulled down the demo after it generated authoritative-sounding false responses.

Conclusion

Samyutha Reddy, Jasper's Head of Enterprise Marketing said:

"Generative AI is still in its early stages, and it has some issues. The information it collects can be biased or simply false, and it doesn't have the discernment of a real human to catch those inaccuracies."



Last month I had a chance to hang with Austin Distel, the head of marketing at Jasper. The Y Combinator-backed startup is trying to improve upon some of the limitations of other AI copywriting chatbots.

In conclusion, my take on ai copywriting is to wait and see. Use it sparingly and don't forget your bottom line:

Human-to-human connections generate more revenue than any copy and paste approach. Machines don't always have the answer.

Speaking of machines - has Facebook's machines shut down your ad account or rejected your Facebook ads?
What if you had a guarantee that your ads were compliant before they went live on Facebook? 

New Solution to Facebook Ad Policy Violations

After years of working at Facebook, I understand exactly what ad copy in your funnel is triggering the automations and how to get compliant.

Get solid answers directly from the source instead guessing, googling, and playing roulette. Schedule a call with me and I can easily tell you proven reasons why the automations flag you and how to become compliant.

You'll be swapping out walking in a minefield of ad flags, to have a sure path to having your Facebook ad accounts protected from being disabled.

My clients have included the social media marketing agencies of Tony Robbins, Harv Eker, and Dean Graziosi. I'm featured on the Queen of Facebook Mari Smith's Marketing Essentials Course.

Save energy and money - how much is it costing you to not know why Facebook is shutting you down? Talk today. 



If you want to skip the line before this offer ends, immediately secure an expert-level Facebook consulting call from someone at Facebook. Book a call with me now!

If you're ok with waiting a bit longer, and entering the waitlist to see if you're eligible - Schedule a call or contact me via email.

C02 and VOCs are in the air everywhere, causing sickness - but this is preventable with some incredible new technology.

Let's go behind the scenes with Tim Sperry. Tim is one of my favorite entrepreneurs I met as part of my organization Entrepreneurs That Make A Difference.

Tim Sperry is the founder of Smog Armor which takes everyday products and makes them safer for the air.

It's a carbon tech company that invented a carbon capture technology that can be integrated into other products like paint, cardboard boxes and antimicrobial air purifying paint.

(Be sure to read my last blog Shake Things Up).

At A Glance

∎ Brand New Carbon Capture Tech 

∎ Paint extracts carbon from the atmosphere  

∎ Fast Company Magazine featured Smog Armor   

Paint That Removes C02 From The Air

How can you have a cardboard box that makes the air cleaner? You may ask.

It's really interesting. Tim's background isn't chemistry, he went through pre-law in college and has always had entrepreneurial ventures as an interest. Sperry felt like he needed to make money doing something that he cares about like nature, protecting people and fighting air pollution.

Tim lost a few family members to lung cancer as a result of someone else polluting their air.

He took it upon himself to become a self-taught chemist focusing on nanotechnology that works like a magnetic sponge. It attracts surrounding air - wherever you paint Smog Armor paint - once it dries it's a magnet attracting C02, airborne chemicals and odors that it molecularly binds to the paint.

This paint isn't dangerous like lead-based paint. As far cardboard, this nanotech is integrated into the material. When you're shipping something like fruit in a cardboard box from the factory, frequently you'll have adhesives, formaldehyde, glues and anything off gassing from it - then Smog Armor's treated cardboard will absorb these chemicals.

Poor air quality actually is attributed to higher covid rates and hospitalization rates because it amplifies medical issues.

Smog Armor's Origin

3 years ago Tim went on a journey to find solutions for air pollution. In the beginning, Sperry had multiple computers up researching chemistry on Google Scholar.

After 6 months of reading research publications and niching down, Tim started combining entrepreneurship and chemistry. He began stumping masters students in this field because of the level of detailed research he'd done on just this topic alone.

The cost of solar and wind are at a breaking point with fossil fuels and the world is ready for new tech that protects the environment at a greater scale. Smog Armor has done murals at schools and hospitals with their carbon capture paint after Tim read a Harvard study showing that students score lower on tests when air quality is lower.

(Harvard study can be found here).

Kids in good air environments scored higher whereas students in poorer quality air classrooms scored lower because low quality air decreases cognitive functions leaving you lethargic, and fatigued.

The conversion rates is around 50% and 70% less VOCs and C02s in rooms that have been painted with Tim's Smog Armor paint.

A lot of rooms already have formaldehyde in the air. It's part of glues, furniture, your flooring, wall coverings - almost everything in your house is off-gassing something like new bed mattresses.

The "new car smell" are adhesives. That euphoria isn't just emotional, you're actually sniffing glue. Smog Armor's paint absorbs 40-50% its molecular weight in C02.

So for example 10 pounds of weight in paint captures 4-5 lbs of C02.

Many carbon capture companies capture the carbon, transform it into fuel and readmit it back into the atmosphere, and aren't actually carbon neutral. Smog Armor stores the carbon in the walls which aren't released back into the air unless you decided to incinerate your home. Tim aims to make Smog Armor carbon negative and improve air quality.

Licensing NanoTech

Tim told me, "We are building on the technology. We’ve taken our nature-based nano tech inside the paint, out of the paint and we are licensing it to other countries
like Chile, Mexico, and Spain and someone wants to take over a Smog Armor branch in Europe. We have another partner in Canada."

The idea is by licensing this nanotech, Smog Armor reduced the carbon footprint of shipping 3000 gallons of Smog Armor paint overseas.

TechStars Accelerator

Tim has got a term sheet from TechStars and is taking Smog Armor to the Heritage Group Accelerator powered by TechStars for his other company Carbon Limit (a carbon tech company that finds solutions for carbon pollution).

At the accelerator in Indianapolis Smog Armor is working on developing more carbon capture technology and byproducts including...diamonds!

Trade Blood Diamonds for Diamonds Made from C02

Smog Armor makes diamonds from the C02 they capture. Carbon is the basis of diamonds that have been under millions of years of heat and pressure.

There’s man made diamond machines that put together the components from captured carbon to create these jewels. It’s a 30 day process for growing lab diamonds.

Every 20 tons of C02 Smog Armor captures will create 1 karate of manmade sustainable non-blood diamonds, so you can wear your carbon footprint on your neck, your wrist.

I don't know how I feel about that haha..but it's a fascinating new development.

Also on the horizon for Smog Armor is a feature in Top Doc Lifestyle magazine for painting their brand new Top Doc Miami Clinic in the 4 Seasons Hotel. I like that combination of a hospital or clinic with air purifying paint.


While there are a lot of cool updates coming for Smog Armor, I'm most excited to learn that Tim is considering a Regulation CF where you can take money in from as little as $5 to 10 million. Which means investing isn't limited to just $10,000 dollar chunks. I'll be first in line to buy stock in Smog Armor.

Not just because carbon capture paint is definitely the new new. But because I feel they are doing right by the planet.

Fast Company Magazine, Elon Musk X-Prize Team & Beyond

Smog Armor was featured in Fast Company Magazine, in the World Changing Ideas & Products issue (see Smog Armor on the Fast Company Mag finalist list here). Another notable interview for the company is in Technology Designer Magazine which you can read here.

Tim's company is also an X-Prize Team in the Elon Musk Carbon Removal Competition. Smog Armor is positioning to do an IPO in the next 24-26 months.

There's a lot of investment money coming out across the board right now for carbon capture tech.

An Entrepreneur Making A Difference

Even if governmental regulatory agencies are more interested in cap-and-trade policies (where Exxon or Walmart pays to pollute the rivers and air rather than have environmentally friendly business practices) investors with capital to spend are interested in developing tech that protects the planet's natural resources for a sustainable future.

Smog Armor is a perfect example of of smart money for the long term rather than trying to make a quick buck.

Tim turned down Microsoft during their funding round, because it was way bigger than they wanted to do. Sperry would rather maintain control over the vision, his mission and fulfillment than just make money. And I love this.

If you're accepting money as a B-corp from investors who have over 50% of a controlling share and their philosophies differ then you might have something like:

Clear Air Inc. - sponsored by Exxon

or

Farmers Market - sponsored by Monsanto.

That doesn't exactly match walking the walk - but we see this happen often where chemical factory owners were appointed to the head of the EPA during the last US president's term.

Sperry's philosophy involves leading with empathy. Tim told me this is attracting great people and growing Smog Armor so much more. That's why I chose to feature his incredible story in this week's blog - heart first companies are the keystone to improving the planet.

Tim's definition of success is "Growth." As you may have heard from other blogs, ETMD's motto is Purpose over profit. This is a great example of changing the world for the better.

Connecting With Smog Armor

Tim has worked with a lot of artists, a lot of muralists to do community projects that inspire and help the community. Smog Armor was asked to do something for the Super Bowl, worked with the players involved in the Boys & Girls Club and the UN. Art tells a story and a lot of people need good stories right now.

You can learn more about Tim's work at: www.smogarmor.com

Comment below!

Check out my hip hop podcast, From Da Jump

On Tuesdays on Clubhouse 10am-11am CST I host a Startup Club Room called Entrepreneurs That Make A Difference - follow me @fbpolicypro to get find out more.

Facebook disapprove your ad and won't tell you why?

Schedule a time to talk to a Facebook ad policy expert who worked at Facebook here.

Join the Purpose Over Profit Newsletter:

https://trevorwgoodchild.com/entrepreneurtalk

Enjoyed this blog? Signup here to get updates on new startup blogs.

                                              .  .  .

"They don't see our vision."

That's what Ruby Rose said when she decided to share about mental health and the challenges founders face.

"Often times it’s frustrating for entrepreneurs because we are doing things against the grain for what’s normal."

But this is true for all walks of life in some aspect. When someone doesn't get what you are trying to communicate it feels frustrating.

Much of being a child is going thru the hell of feeling misunderstood. Expressing an emotion and being told you shouldn't feel that way. The disconnect between supervisors and employees is similar too.

When we want to be heard and have our feelings minimalized, that stifles creativity. I'm working with Universal Music with some hitmakers right now and everyone is easy to get along with except one person who routinely causes conflict.

It's a challenge when you're around that type of energy and want to be creative. It's a challenge when you've created a startup but the world doesn't get your vision yet.

One of my favorite songs by Talib Kweli opens with the ad libs:

"You know what I'm saying
I can't do music with people I'm uncomfortable with
You know what I'm saying
I can't be on stage with you pouring out my soul if I don't like you."

That's Friends and Family off his album Gutter Rainbows. I was talking with Talib Kweli on 6th street in Austin, Texas a few months before he released Gutter Rainbows.

Talib was telling me about how excited he was about the new project and what he had in mind.

I was sharing some of my journey from poverty to getting accepted into the University of Texas and we were vibing on how important intention is behind the music you create.

Business is no different than music in that sense. When you stay true to doing something that means something, you'll find the path opens up for you despite obstacles.

So no matter what you're doing, don't fool yourself into thinking passion and purpose don't matter. Sure we have to pay our bills, but when we make time for what we care about to shine, doors open for us and make life worth living.

So shake things up. Do something you love this week. And keep doing it. Don't forget what brings you joy.

Art, music, photography, collecting antiques, listening to vinyl records, poetry these hobbies, interests, passions, nurture us if we're passionate about them.

The focus on what matters, as Pharcyde raps, Something That Means Something, will develop deeper parts of us that lead to mastery. Opportunities come along when we cultivate the higher sense of beauty inside of us.

It's an energy thing. An evolution thing. A living life thing.

Purpose over profit highlight:

Greyston Bakery

Greyston Bakery, a Certified B Corporation that is best known for baking the brownies in Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream, is located in the impoverished community of Southwest Yonkers, New York.

Greyston’s open hiring policy offers employment opportunities to anyone, regardless of educational attainment, work history, or previous incarceration, homelessness, or drug use.

Anyone that comes to the front door of the bakery is given the chance to work, no questions asked.

Greyston provides its workers with resources, personal development tools, and professional training, to give them the greatest chance of success in their new position.

Hearing about businesses like this is inspiring. The first step is often the biggest but once we take 3 in a row the 4th is even easier. Let's keep walking forward to realize our dreams, one step at a time.

What are some of your passions that you haven't done in a bit?

Comment below!

PS. Know an entrepreneur making a difference? Invite them to join our tribe:

https://trevorwgoodchild.com/entrepreneurtalk

PSS. I'm working on the website for Entrepreneurs That Make A Difference and am seeking feedback from business owners on what benefits you'd like to see in a SAAS membership, let me know if you'd like to contribute your ideas and become an early adopter.

(Be sure to read my last blog The Reason Why More People Aren’t Entrepreneurs here).

Check out my hip hop podcast, From Da Jump 

Every Tuesday on Clubhouse 10am-11am CST I host a Startup Club Room called Entrepreneurs That Make A Difference - follow me @fbpolicypro to get find out more.

Facebook disapprove your ad and won't tell you why? Need done-for-you FB ads?

Schedule a time to talk with me, as I've worked at Facebook and am ad policy expert who worked at Facebook. My calendar is here.

Enjoyed this blog? Signup here to get updates on new startup blogs.

                                              .  .  .

New Solution to Facebook Ad Policy Violations

After years of working at Facebook, I understand exactly what ad copy in your funnel is triggering the automations and how to get compliant. I'm a Facebook ad policy specialist and can audit your funnel, and share what to say that Facebook wants to see instead - but just isn't telling you.

Want to book a call to talk to Facebook and get results? Get solid answers directly from the source instead of guessing, googling and playing roulette? Schedule a call with me and I can easily tell you proven reasons why the automations flag you and how to become compliant.

You'll be swapping out walking in a minefield of ad flags, to have a sure path to having your Facebook ad accounts protected from being disabled. My clients have included social media marketing agencies of Tony Robbins, Harv Eker and Dean Graziosi. I'm featured on the Queen of Facebook Mari Smith's Marketing Essentials Course.

Save energy and money - how much is it costing you to not know why Facebook is shutting you down? My calendar is here.

I get 100s of emails a week from businesses and advertisers asking for help when their facebook ad account keeps getting disabled, so my calendar gets booked fast. But if you want to get to the front, you can pre-pay for a consulting session here: Book a call

If you want to skip the line before this offer ends, immediately secure an expert-level Facebook consulting call from someone at Facebook. Book a call with me now! If you're ok with waiting a bit longer, and entering the waitlist to see if you're eligible - Schedule a call or contact me via email.