Meta and Google Under Fire for Secret 'Ad Campaign' Targeting Teens, Breaching Their Own Policies

New Delhi: A recent report has brought to light a controversial advertising campaign involving tech giants Meta and Google, raising significant concerns about the companies’ practices. The report alleges that Meta and Google collaborated on a covert initiative to run Instagram ads targeting teenagers on YouTube, a move that directly violated Google’s own advertising guidelines. These ads were specifically aimed at users aged 13 to 17, contravening Google’s strict policy that prohibits advertising to individuals under the age of 18.

The report reveals that the campaign targeted a demographic labeled as “unknown” in Google’s advertising system. This label is generally used when specific details like age, gender, or other demographic information are not explicitly available. However, it was discovered that Google could infer that many of these “unknown” users were likely teenagers, based on their online behavior and app downloads. This inference allowed Meta and Google to bypass the restrictions Google implemented in 2021, which were designed to prevent ads from being targeted at minors based on their age, gender, or interests.

The campaign, reportedly orchestrated with the assistance of the US-based advertising agency Spark Foundry, initially ran in Canada earlier this year. It was later tested in the US in May, with plans for global expansion. The timing of this campaign coincided with a decline in Google’s ad revenue and a shift in Meta’s younger audience towards competing platforms like TikTok.

Following the exposure of the campaign, Google quickly launched an investigation and shut down the program. The company issued a statement reaffirming its commitment to preventing ads from being personalized to individuals under 18 and pledged to reinforce its policies with its sales teams to prevent future violations. Meanwhile, Meta, which had recently made changes to its advertising system to protect underage users, has yet to fully address the growing controversy surrounding the campaign. This revelation has sparked a broader debate about the ethical responsibilities of tech companies in protecting vulnerable users online.