A Financial Times (£) investigation has revealed that Google and Meta made a secret deal to target online advertisements to teenagers in violation of Google's own rules for how minors are treated online. According to sources and documents obtained by the FT, the marketing project involved targeting 13- to 17-year-old YouTube users with ads promoting Instagram, circumventing Google's rules on personalised ads targeting under-18s. The project was already in the works when Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the US Congress in January to publicly apologise for issues related to child safety on his platforms.
The two Silicon Valley companies collaborated on the project as Google aimed to boost ad revenues and Meta sought to retain the attention of younger users amidst growing competition from platforms like TikTok. The pilot marketing programme, executed in collaboration with ad agency Spark Foundry, was launched in Canada and later trialled in the US, with plans for further international expansion and promotion of other Meta platforms.
Following the revelations, Google initiated an investigation and subsequently cancelled the project, maintaining that: "We prohibit ads being personalised to people under-18, period. These policies go well beyond what is required and are supported by technical safeguards. We've confirmed that these safeguards worked properly here" because no known under-18-year-old registered YouTube users were directly targeted.
Meta also defended its position, stating that selecting the "unknown" audience did not constitute a breach of rules and that they adhere to their policies and those of their peers when advertising their services.
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