Meta targeted depressed teens with tailored ads, claims whistleblower

Social media giant, Meta, shared private information about the emotional state of teenage users with third party advertisers, claimed Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former executive turned whistleblower, at a hearing on crime and terrorism called by US senators on Wednesday. Wynn-Williams asserted that the information shared by Meta allowed advertisers to serve targeted ads to depressed teenagers. 

“It (Meta) could identify when they were feeling worthless or helpless or like a failure, and it would take that information and share it with advertisers,” said Wynn-Williams. She added that advertisers knew that people are more likely to buy something when they don’t feel good about themselves. 

Wynn-Williams explained that if a teenage girl deleted a selfie, advertisers would interpret it as her lack of confidence about her appearance and use that information to pitch beauty products. Similarly, teenagers with low body confidence were targeted with weight loss ads. 

Meta has refuted all allegations made by Williams in her testimony, and has called them false. 

Further, Wynn-Williams accused Meta of treating users in the age group of 13 to 17 years as the “most valuable segment of the population” for advertisers. 

Wynn-Williams has made several allegations ranging from censoring Facebook content in China, misleading shareholders, and sexual harassment and misconduct by senior executives, in her book titled “Careless People- A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.” 

During her testimony, Wynn-Williams reiterated that Meta undermined US national security and colluded with the Chinese government to expand its business in China.

Last month, the American Arbitration Association ruled in favour of Meta and ordered Wynn-Williams to not promote or distribute copies of her book on the ground that she had signed a non-disparagement agreement (NDA) before leaving the company. 

In April 2024, Wynn-Williams filed a whistleblower complaint with US’ regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging that Meta misled its investors about its practices in China. 

Meta has denied the allegations made in the book, and called the accusations against executives as false. Meta also stated that it is no longer interested in the Chinese market and has ceased all operations in the country.  

Wynn-Williams joined Meta in 2011 as director of public policy and left the company in 2018. Meta claims that she was let go eight years ago for poor performance.  

Meta is already in crosshairs with regulators and child rights groups for its data collection practices. In October 2023, the company was sued by 33 US states for allegedly violating the COPPA law and harvesting personal information of millions of children under the age of 13. 

The social media company has tried to address these concerns with age verification tools for teenagers. In September 2024, Meta announced that all Instagram accounts of users under 16 will be made private by default, restricting others from accessing their accounts or tagging them in posts. 

Instagram, which is more popular with young users, currently has over 1 billion monthly active users out of which 8% are estimated to be in the age group of 13 to 17, according to Statista. 

Image credit: LinkedIn