Post -registered Sarah Wynn-WilliamsFormer World Public Policy Director for Facebook and author of the recent released book “Careless people,“US Senators during her testimony on Wednesday that Meta is actively targeting adolescents with adolescents based on their emotional state.
This claim was first documented by Wynn-Williams in her book, which substantiates her time on Facebook and the “careless” violation of her top performers, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former Coo Sheryl Sandberg, about the power company.
Although the focus of Wednesday’s listening was largely in Meta’s transactions with China And how she can mislead her plans in previous Congress hearings, the Senators were also willing to ask Instagram, as social application had been the subject of previous Congresses’ research on META damage to children in 2021.
Answering a question by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Wynn-Williams admitted that Meta (then known as Facebook) had targeted people aged 13 to 17 with ads when they felt down or depressed.
“Could detect when he felt useless or helpless or as a failure, and [Meta] It will receive this information and share it with advertisers, “Wynn-Williams told the senators at the Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism Within the Committee on Judicial Services. “Advertisers understand that when people don’t feel good about themselves, it’s often a good time to get a product – people are more likely to buy something.”
He said the company allows advertisers to know when teenagers were depressed so that an ad can be served at the best of the best. For example, she suggested that if a teenager girl deletes a selfie, advertisers could see that as a good time to sell a beauty product, as she may not feel great about her appearance. They also target adolescents with weight loss ads when young girls had concerns about body confidence, Wynn-Williams said.
He claimed that Meta knew that users aged 13-17 were vulnerable but “valuable” demographic for advertisers who were motivated.
In fact, he said that a company leader even explained to her that Facebook knew that he had the “most valuable part of the population” for advertisers, adolescents and said that Meta should “scare him from the roofs”.
At that time, Wynn-Williams suggested that a trillion company was not short for the money and did not have to go this route to add a little more to its funds.
If Meta was willing to target adolescents based on their emotional states, it is reasonable to do the same as adults. And a document that appeared during the listening showed an example of exactly that, proved.
In a screenshot of an internal conversation, a Facebook policy manager asks if it is true that Facebook did research on young mothers and their emotional state, in which another man replied: “yes”, even joking that they may ask them “obviously”.
Adding a little more color to her comments, Wynn-Williams also noted that she was surprised by how many Silicon Valley executives did not let their own children use the products they built.
“I would say,” Oh, your teenager used the new product we are going to start? “, Wynn-Williams said.” And it’s like, “My teenagers are not allowed on Facebook. I don’t have my teenager on Instagram.” These executives … know.
In a statement from the company, Meta denied allegations in Wynn-Williams’ testimony, calling them “divorced by reality and full of false allegations”.
