Facebook undoubtedly controls a massive influence in the space of social media, with its parent company also controlling products like Instagram and WhatsApp, making them one large giant. From time to time, there have been allegations levelled against Facebook and its parent company Meta on public policy and moderation, political ads and other data-related inferences it holds.
Following Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to discontinue fact-checking initiatives in the United States, replacing them with X-style community notes. The move has raised concerns over the tech giant’s role in shaping online discourse..
Meta Exploited Teen Vulnerability
In the midst, a former senior Facebook executive has alleged that the platform knowingly allowed advertisers, particularly those in the beauty industry, to target vulnerable teenage girls. In an interview with the BBC, Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former global public policy director at Meta, made the claims while discussing her new book, Careless People.
“The algorithm could infer that they were feeling worthless or unhappy,” Wynn-Williams said, referring to previous reports of Meta’s algorithm categorising and targeting vulnerable teens.
She elaborated with an example where Meta’s platform capabilities allegedly detected when a teenage girl deleted a selfie, notifying beauty brands that it was a moment for them to advertise.
“They said: ‘The business side thinks this is exactly what we should be doing. We’ve got this amazing product, we can get young people, which is a really important advertising segment,” she told the BBC, adding that she “felt sick” and attempted to resist the practice.
Meta Denies Allegations
Meta has denied Wynn-Williams’s claims. BBC, quoting the company, said that Meta has called the allegations false.
“It has never offered tools to target people based on their emotional state – and that the research it previously did was to help marketers understand how people express themselves on Facebook, not to target ads,” the company told BBC.
Wynn-Williams has also filed a whistleblower complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), alleging that Meta misled investors about its practices.
