Comment on If Britain is so bothered by China, why do these .gov.uk sites use Chinese ad brokers?

7bicycles@hexbear.net ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• RobotToaster@mander.xyz ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  These seem to be mostly websites for small city/district councils, who have never had huge budgets, but their budgets have been heavily cut by the current central government.

  My guess is either:

  • Someone thought it was a quick way to add a few quid to the budget
  • They were offered a discount by the contractor who runs their website if they allowed ads
  • Some dodgy contractor inserted the ads without telling the council, because they thought nobody would notice, and they’re owned by a councillor’s nephew.

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• FuckyWucky@hexbear.net ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  UK sounds desperate for any revenue to show a lower deficit %. It can’t increase revenues by raising taxes so it does silly shit like this.

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• Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The UK has come to terms with it’s inexorable slide into developing nation status and figured it might as well shill a few boner pills along the way.

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• echodot@feddit.uk ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  They don’t as far as I’m aware, I’m not sure what this post is about. They definitely don’t have ads on.

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• tal@lemmy.today ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Maybe they’re trying to get analytics service at no cost? It does seem kind of odd.

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• FarFarAway@startrek.website ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Maybe they’re ads for their own government services? Technically, an adverstment doesn’t have to just be for skeezy companies trying to steal your info or money.

  Like your on the drivers license pages and you see a space on the side that “advertises” getting your license renewed. It’s more flashy and draws attention more than just a link to help people find what they’re looking for easier.

  Not in the UK, but my official city page has 3 advertments prior to getting to the body of the page (which is the offical link tree). One for reporting a concern, one for the recreation department, and a rotating one for more receration stuff and the transparency department.

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  • 7bicycles@hexbear.net ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Why would you need an ad broker to advertise your own shit. Like just put it there? Using the ad broker would be all of the same work except with more middleman.

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    • FarFarAway@startrek.website ⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Idk, maybe they get all the analytics, like someone else mentioned.

      I just know there are “ads” on government websites I’ve seen that don’t necessarily follow the traditional concept of what we’ve come to know as advertisements, but are adverstments none the less. How they’re set up, and what function they serve beyond directing people to a different place, is beyond me.

      Maybe I should have phrased it differently… Adverstments aren’t always from sketchy companies stealing your info, sometimes they’re from sketchy governments too…

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