Meta’s former director for global public policy, Sarah Wynn-Williams, is not holding back on revealing the company’s shady practices that target teens.
The Meta whistleblower revealed during a recent testimony in front of American senators how the tech giant plays with teens’ emotions and targets them using ads depending on their mental state of mind.
Image: The Senate Committee on the Judiciary - US
We’ve already seen that claim documented in her book, which speaks more about her working experience at Facebook. She delineated more about the reckless attitude of so many leading executives, such as CEO Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg. They both abuse their dominant positions and the power Meta has around the globe and its ability to cause harm, she continued.
While the majority of the focus during yesterday’s hearing was related to Meta’s relations with China and how it possibly misled plans during previous hearings, this was a major factor worth pondering. The senators also didn’t hold back when it came down to Instagram, as we’ve seen the popular app get scrutinized during past hearings about causing harm to minors.
She admitted how the tech giant usually targeted those in the 13 to 17-year age bracket through ads when they were low or in a state of depression. The company reportedly had the power to identify when or if some user was feeling low or helpless, or the thoughts of failure crossing their minds. In that case, they would take the data and share it with top advertisers to benefit.
Advertisers know what to do next when a user isn’t feeling the best about themselves. This is when they like to pitch products, as it’s likely people would make a purchase at the time. The alarming fact is that the company was enabling advertisers to know when teens were depressed so they could serve ads at the right time. As examples, she shared how teen girls could delete selfies and which might indicate how they’re insecure about how they appear.
The same goes for targeting teens with weight loss ads related to young girls having major concerns about their body confidence. She hoped Meta could be more aware of users between the 13 to 17 age group that age is representative of being so valuable yet vulnerable to advertisers. This was their motive.
She even shared how one business owner at a firm explained that Facebook was well aware that they had one of the most valuable age brackets of the population under its hold for advertisers to benefit from.
Hence, she added how a company this big shouldn’t need to go down this route in the first place, as it was already making trillions. If Meta were okay targeting teens based on their emotions, they could act similarly with adults.
In a new screenshot of another internal chat, the platform’s policy director requests whether that would be true about news related to Facebook studying young moms and their current emotional state. To that query, one person said an affirmative yes. What was even more alarming was how so many executives of Silicon Valley barred their own kids from using the same products that they designed.
Since then, Meta has denied all the claims made by whistleblower Wynn-Williams during her testimony to the Senate. They felt it was far from reality and full of false claims without any basis or evidence.
Read next: Immigrants Face Visa Denials for Antisemitic or Extremist Social Media Posts Under New Trump Policy
The Meta whistleblower revealed during a recent testimony in front of American senators how the tech giant plays with teens’ emotions and targets them using ads depending on their mental state of mind.
Image: The Senate Committee on the Judiciary - US
We’ve already seen that claim documented in her book, which speaks more about her working experience at Facebook. She delineated more about the reckless attitude of so many leading executives, such as CEO Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg. They both abuse their dominant positions and the power Meta has around the globe and its ability to cause harm, she continued.
While the majority of the focus during yesterday’s hearing was related to Meta’s relations with China and how it possibly misled plans during previous hearings, this was a major factor worth pondering. The senators also didn’t hold back when it came down to Instagram, as we’ve seen the popular app get scrutinized during past hearings about causing harm to minors.
She admitted how the tech giant usually targeted those in the 13 to 17-year age bracket through ads when they were low or in a state of depression. The company reportedly had the power to identify when or if some user was feeling low or helpless, or the thoughts of failure crossing their minds. In that case, they would take the data and share it with top advertisers to benefit.
Advertisers know what to do next when a user isn’t feeling the best about themselves. This is when they like to pitch products, as it’s likely people would make a purchase at the time. The alarming fact is that the company was enabling advertisers to know when teens were depressed so they could serve ads at the right time. As examples, she shared how teen girls could delete selfies and which might indicate how they’re insecure about how they appear.
The same goes for targeting teens with weight loss ads related to young girls having major concerns about their body confidence. She hoped Meta could be more aware of users between the 13 to 17 age group that age is representative of being so valuable yet vulnerable to advertisers. This was their motive.
She even shared how one business owner at a firm explained that Facebook was well aware that they had one of the most valuable age brackets of the population under its hold for advertisers to benefit from.
Hence, she added how a company this big shouldn’t need to go down this route in the first place, as it was already making trillions. If Meta were okay targeting teens based on their emotions, they could act similarly with adults.
In a new screenshot of another internal chat, the platform’s policy director requests whether that would be true about news related to Facebook studying young moms and their current emotional state. To that query, one person said an affirmative yes. What was even more alarming was how so many executives of Silicon Valley barred their own kids from using the same products that they designed.
Since then, Meta has denied all the claims made by whistleblower Wynn-Williams during her testimony to the Senate. They felt it was far from reality and full of false claims without any basis or evidence.
Read next: Immigrants Face Visa Denials for Antisemitic or Extremist Social Media Posts Under New Trump Policy
