File this under "More super-shady shit Facebook did, and mostly got away with".
Remember when you saw your Facebook friends post videos with 400,000,000 views, and you thought, "Wow! That's higher than the entire population of the US! This must have been super popular!"
Wellllllllllllllllll.... those numbers were fake.
Facebook would auto-play these videos with no sound, and anyone who left the video on the screen for more than 3 seconds would be counted as a "view". This occurred even when the user didn't click on the video in any way.
They just were slapped with a $40 million fine over this, which is still a tiny fraction of Facebook's income.
Anyway, remember "College Humor" and "Funny or Die", which seemed huge in the early-mid 2010s, but have since fallen off the face of the earth? Here's why...
https://twitter.com/twt/status/1183214923423211521
https://twitter.com/twt/status/1183221834931564546
https://twitter.com/twt/status/1183224229640097799
Finally, I must also express shock and outrage regarding learning the fact that Adam Convover is straight. Didn't see that one coming.