Facebook will be removing detailed ad-targeting options that refer to “sensitive” topics, such as ads with content based around race, health, religion, political beliefs or sexual orientation. 

Facebook gave examples of targeting categories that would no longer be allowed on its platforms such as lung cancer awareness, World Diabetes Day, LGBT culture, Jewish holidays, or political beliefs and social issues.  

The blog post detailing the announcement said the changes would begin from January 19, 2022. 

The company, which recently changed its name to Meta, makes the vast majority of its revenue through digital advertising. Its tailored ad abilities are used by wide-ranging advertisers, including political campaigns, social issue groups and businesses. 

However, the social media giant has been under intense scrutiny over its ad-targeting in recent years. 

It has been hit with criticisms about its micro-targeting capabilities. Few of the criticisms were over abuses such as advertisers discriminating against or targeting vulnerable groups.  

As part of a settlement over housing discrimination issues, it agreed to make changes to its ads platform in 2019.

“We’ve heard concerns from experts that targeting options like these could be used in ways that lead to negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups”, Facebook’s Vice President of Product Marketing for Ads Graham Mudd said in the post. 

“The decision to remove these Detailed Targeting options was not easy and we know this change may negatively impact some businesses and organisations.”

Mudd also added that some advertising partners were concerned that they would not be able to use ads to generate positive social change. 

Despite these changes, advertisers on Facebook’s platforms can still target audiences by location, use their own customer lists, reach custom audiences who have engaged with their content and send ads to people with similar characteristics to those users. 

The removal of the ad-targeting options marks a key shift for the company’s approach to social and political advertising. However, it is not expected to have major financial implications.  

In 2019, CEO Mark Zuckerberg estimated that politicians’ ads would make up less than 0.5 per cent of Facebook’s 2020 revenue. 

The issue of political advertising on social media platforms, including whether the content of politicians’ ads should be fact-checked, provoked much debate among the public, politicians and companies around the 2020 US presidential election. 

While Twitter in 2019 banned political ads altogether, Facebook previously said it would not limit how political advertisers reached potential voters. 

Nonetheless, Facebook said that it would give people more control over the ads they see, including ones about gambling and weight loss starting early next year.

This article was first published on CommsRoom

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

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