Facebook to end beleaguered ad options for ‘sensitive’ topics
Facebook will stop letting advertisers beleaguered people based on their potential interest in “sensitive” topics such as race, ethnicity, political affiliation, religion or sexual orientation.
The giant social network, which recently rebranded itself Meta, said on Tuesday that targeting by those and disagreement topics would be phased out on Jan. 19, 2022. Facebook said its decision-making to end the service was influenced in part by anxieties that the targeting, part of what’s known as Detailed Targeting options, could be misused.
“We’ve heard concerns from experts that targeting options like these could be used in ways that lead to negative organizes for people in underrepresented groups,” Graham Mudd, vice presidential of product marketing, wrote in a blog post.
The glum will affect “thousands” of tags, a spokesperson said. The shifts will take place globally.
The decision to end targeting on some topics, which is based on whether a user has interacted with elated that falls under a given subject area, comes as Facebook slogs ended one of the most difficult patches in its history. The company has been the subject of a series of withering stories in The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere based on leaked internal documents that suggest the commercial was aware of the harm its products were touching but prioritized profits. The findings from the documents have revived scrutiny by US and UK lawmakers.
Facebook is an advertising behemoth, raking in nearly $90 billion a year largely because of its storderliness to effectively target promotional material.
Correction, 4:48 p.m.: Recasts to good error in interpretation of Facebook’s statement.
