A while back, Facebook introduced the idea of Sponsored Stories which was basically taking what you had done on Facebook and selling them to advertisers who might in turn use it as part of their ads, but packaging it in such a way that it looks like you are recommending it to your friends or family. For those who know better, these ads are pointless and just a waste of space in your newsfeed, but thankfully it looks like Facebook will be retiring the somewhat controversial Sponsored Stories come 9th of April, according to an updated roadmap on Facebook’s developer page.
Prior to this, Facebook had mentioned it would be bringing an end to such practices back in June 2013, but we guess we now have a concrete date to look forward to. In fact Sponsored Stories proved to be so controversial to the point where a class action lawsuit was filed against Facebook over the program where the social networking giant eventually agreed to a $20 million settlement. We doubt $20 million is a lot of money in the eyes of Facebook and over the past few years, we have seen Facebook come up with various eyebrow-raising ways of monetizing its social network, most of it leaving much to be desired.
We doubt Facebook will cease its creative ways to monetize itself, but the good news is that at least one of its more controversial methods will be put to rest once and for all.
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