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Facebook is weeding out ads that lead to a bad shopping experience

Scammers, Facebook is coming for you.

Marrian Zhou Staff Reporter
Marrian Zhou is a Beijing-born Californian living in New York City. She joined CNET as a staff reporter upon graduation from Columbia Journalism School. When Marrian is not reporting, she is probably binge watching, playing saxophone or eating hot pot.
Marrian Zhou
2 min read
Facebook logo with collage of ads

Facebook has launched a new tool that will identify ads with inaccurate information.

Alfred Ng/CNET

Rejoice, now you can "yelp" ads on Facebook .

Facebook has launched a new tool that aims to identify ads with inaccurate information. Starting Tuesday, you can review businesses that you've purchased from and let other users know if the advertised products have met your expectations.

"We spoke with people who have purchased things from Facebook advertisers, and the two biggest frustrations we heard were that people don't like ads that quote inaccurate shipping times or that misrepresent products," the company said in a blog post.

It's essentially a rating system. You can review the ads by clicking on your Ads Activity tab, and then hitting the "Leave Feedback" button. A brief questionnaire will collect your experience, and Facebook will use it to identify potentially low-quality advertisers and scammers.

The company will warn advertisers if they receive lots of complaints. If they don't shape up, Facebook says it will reduce the frequency of their ad appearances or ban them all together.

"We put people first, and we're always improving our advertising," Facebook Product Marketing Director Sarah Epps said in an email statement. "That's why we're launching a new tool for people to tell us directly, and we'll give that feedback to businesses who need to improve."

First published on June 12, 6:59 a.m. PT.

Update, 9:09 a.m. PT: Adds Sarah Epps statement.

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