Meta whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams testified to U.S. senators that Meta targeted advertisements to teenagers based on their emotional state, sparking concerns about the company’s handling of user data and its impact on young users.
Wynn-Williams’ claims are detailed in her book “Careless People,” which discusses her time at Facebook and the alleged disregard of top executives for the harm the company’s technology could cause. The book documents her experience as the former director of Global Public Policy for Facebook and sheds light on the company’s practices.
The Senate hearing focused largely on Meta’s dealings with China, but senators also questioned Wynn-Williams about Instagram’s impact on children. In response to a question from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Wynn-Williams admitted that Meta had targeted 13- to 17-year-olds with ads when they were feeling down or depressed. “It could identify when they were feeling worthless or helpless or like a failure, and [Meta] would take that information and share it with advertisers,” Wynn-Williams told the senators.
Wynn-Williams stated that Meta identified when teens were feeling down or depressed and shared this information with advertisers, who could then use it to target them with products they might be more likely to buy when feeling insecure. For example, if a teen girl deleted a selfie, advertisers might see that as a good time to sell her a beauty product. Similarly, teens with concerns around body confidence were targeted with ads for weight loss products.
She claimed that Meta considered users aged 13-17 a vulnerable but “very valuable” demographic to advertisers, which was the motive behind targeting them with ads based on their emotional state. In fact, a business leader at the company allegedly explained to her that Facebook was aware it had the “most valuable segment of the population” for advertisers, teens, and should be “trumpeting it from the rooftops.”
Internal discussions at Facebook allegedly revealed knowledge of researching young mothers and their emotional states for advertising purposes. A screenshot of an internal chat displayed during the hearing showed a Facebook policy director asking if it was true that Facebook was doing research into young mothers and their emotional state, to which another person replied, “yes.”
Wynn-Williams also highlighted the hypocrisy of Silicon Valley executives who restricted their own children’s use of Meta’s platforms. She noted that many executives didn’t let their own children use the products they built, saying, “I would say, ‘Oh has your teen used the new product we’re about to launch?,’ and they’re like, ‘My teenagers are not allowed on Facebook. I don’t have my teenager on Instagram.’ These executives … they know. They know the harm this product does.”
Meta denied Wynn-Williams’ allegations, calling them “divorced from reality and riddled with false claims.” The company stated that they have built-in protections for teen accounts on Instagram, including limiting contact and content, requiring parental permission for setting changes, and parental oversight features.
Meta referenced a 2017 statement claiming that market analysis of emotional states was “never used to target ads and was based on data that was anonymous and aggregated.” The company also pointed to significant changes being made to the Instagram experience for tens of millions of teens with new Teen Accounts, providing teens with built-in protections and giving parents more oversight over their teens’ use of Instagram.
