Facebook whistleblower claims Meta exploited depressed teens with targeted ads

The former director of Global Public Policy for Facebook has told US senators that Meta actively targets teens with advertisements based on their emotional state, with data acquired through their online activity.

Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams spoke to senators on Wednesday and said during her time at the company, Meta actively targeted teens with advertisements when they were feeling down or depressed. The claim, which was first made during Wynn-Williams' book "Careless People," documents the time she spent at Facebook and the lack of concern top executives at the company had for children using its platform.

More specifically, Wynn-Williams said Meta, then known as Facebook, targeted teens between the ages of 13 and 17 with advertisements when they were feeling "worthless or helpless".

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The crux of the issue can be traced back to Meta's algorithm that gathers data on its users, with Wynn-Williams claiming Meta would share information about its teen users' feelings of depression with advertisers, who would then use that negative mindspace to pitch a product. Additionally, Wynn-Williams said Meta was informing advertisers when teens were depressed so they could serve an advertisement to them at the best time for a sale to take place.

An example of this was provided by the Facebook whistleblower, which was that if a teen girl decided to delete an image from her social platform, this might be a good time for an advertiser to serve her a beauty product, as the girl may not be feeling confident about her appearance. Wynn-Williams also said the company targeted teens with ads for weight loss.

Notably, the Facebook whistleblower said that Meta was aware that the demographic of 13 to 17-year-olds was being served ads based on their emotional states, but found this demographic to be "very valuable" to advertisers.

It's safe to assume that if Meta was participating in exploiting the emotional state of teens, it was also doing the same for adults and other various demographics of people. For example, Wynn-Williams provided a screenshot of an internal chat where she asked if it was true Facebook was doing research into young mothers and their emotional states. Another Facebook policy director replied "yes," and jokingly added, "apparently morally bankrupt colleagues," if there was any other research like this.

Meta has since responded to the allegations by Wynn-Williams by denying the contents of the whistleblower's testimony, saying it's "divorced from reality and riddled with false claims."

Unfortunately, no one but Meta knows the extent of the level of sophistication of the algorithm that collects data for targeted advertising. Moreover, no one besides Meta knows how that data is collected and used to profit.