Facebook will ban ads from targeting clients with an interest in religion or LGBT people

Effective January 19, 2022, advertisers will no longer be able to customize Facebook and Instagram ads based on user interests such as sexual orientation, religion and political beliefs.

This was announced on the official blog of the company on Facebook by the vice president of marketing for Meta Platforms Graham Mudd.

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Advertisers will also be banned from searching for users based on their interactions with health, race, or ethnicity content.

That is, it will not be possible to target ads to people interested in the topic of same-sex marriage, racism, Christian doctrines from 2022.

“We strongly believe that the best advertising experience is personalized,” Mudd explained. “At the same time, we want to better meet the changing expectations of people and take into account the feedback from civil rights experts.”

It’s important to prevent advertisers from abusing the targeting options offered, he added. The blog post provides examples of targeting that will not be available on various topics:

• health: lung cancer awareness, World Diabetes Day, chemotherapy and so on;
• sexual orientation: same-sex marriage, LGBT culture, etc .;
• religion: Catholic Church, Jewish Holidays etc;
• politics: political beliefs, social issues, organizations and figures.

Interest targeting options to be removed are not based on physical or personal characteristics of people, but on interactions with content on the platform, Mudd emphasized.

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The decision to remove the targeting options outlined above was not an easy one, he said.

Companies are advised as an alternative to communicate with people who have already liked the page, video, or other content of the organization.

It will also be possible to set up geotargeting to reach people in the vicinity of the company’s stores or within their delivery capabilities, or use the data of the customer pages with their permission.

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In parallel, the company promises to further expand user control over setting ads in its feed.

Already, people can see fewer ads:

• political;
• related to the upbringing of children;
• about pets;
• alcohol.

From 2022, it will also be possible to opt out of advertising. gambling and read less unsolicited advice about weight loss.

In 2021, Facebook was already in a scandal over its ad targeting settings.

According to the Tech Transparency Project, the platform ran ads for gun accessories and body armor in far-right groups supporting the January 6 Capitol attack in Washington.

This caused the outrage of American government officials. For example, Senators Tammy Duckworth, Richard Blumenthal and Sherrod Brown (DC) called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to “take immediate action.”

Politicians stressed: it is blasphemous to promote goods “designed to equip white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other local extremists to participate in violent uprising and seditious conspiracy” against the US Constitution and government.

The senators’ protest was also supported by the attorneys general of Washington, Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

After that, Facebook promised to ban ads for weapon accessories at least temporarily:

“We already ban advertising of weapons, ammunition and weapon upgrades such as silencers. But now we will also ban advertising of accessories such as safes, vests and holsters in the United States.”

According to The Guardian, Meta generates 98% of its revenue from advertisers who can target specific demographics and consumers. The company generated $ 86 billion in revenue last year.

At the same time, changing advertising settings and responding to user complaints is bearing fruit, the company assures.

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Thus, the prevalence of hate speech on Facebook has been declining for the fourth quarter in a row, Meta reported in its latest quarterly report.

In particular, in the third quarter of 2021, 0.03%, or 3 views of hate speech, accounted for 10 thousand views of content, and 0.05% in the second. Almost 2 billion people use Facebook every day.