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Meta, the social media company formerly known as Facebook, said on Tuesday it plans to remove the ability for advertisers to target people with promotions based on their interactions with content related to health, race and ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, sexual orientation and thousands of people. other titles.

The move, which comes into effect on January 19, affects advertisers in Meta’s apps like Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, as well as the company’s audience network, which places ads in third-party apps. The Silicon Valley company said it’s making changes to limit the way its targeting tools are abused. In the past, these features were used to discriminate against people or spam with unsolicited messages.

“We have heard concerns from experts that targeting such options could be used in a way that leads to negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups,” said Graham Mudd, vice president of metaproduct marketing.

Meta relies on targeted advertising for the bulk of its $86 billion annual revenue. The company is good at giving advertisers a place to personalize promotions, with brands that can target their ads to Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger users who are often interested in specific topics like LGBTQ culture or Catholicism. These types of custom ads often have a greater chance of promoting a sale or encouraging users to join a particular Facebook group or support an online organization than more generalized ads.

However, Meta has also faced numerous complaints about advertisers abusing these targeting capabilities.

For example, prior to the January 6 raid on the US Capitol, advertisers used targeting tools to drive promotions. body armor, weapon covers, and rifle upgrades In extreme right-wing militia groups on Facebook. in 2020 auditors have concluded He said Facebook wasn’t doing enough to protect people who use its service from discriminatory posts and ads.

Department of Zoning and Urbanization in 2019 sued facebook to allow hosts and home sellers to unfairly restrict who can see ads for their properties on the platform based on characteristics such as race, religion, and national origin. And in 2017, ProPublica He found that Facebook’s algorithms created ad categories for users interested in topics such as “anti-Semitic” and “burning Jews.”

In response to the abuse, the social network has changed its ad targeting tools over time. in 2018, 5,000 ad targeting classifications removed to keep advertisers away except for certain users. Facebook also disabled anti-Semitic ad categories following the ProPublica report.

But Meta’s recent changes may not be liked by the millions of organizations that rely on the company’s tools to grow their audiences and build their businesses. Advertising tailored to people’s interests on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger is often more cost-effective and effective than advertising on television broadcasts and other media outlets.

“Like most of our decisions, this was not a simple choice and required a balance of conflicting interests where there was advocacy on both sides,” said Mr Mudd. He added that some of the ad changes have been discussed since 2016.

Augustine Fou, an independent ad fraud researcher, has long said that advertising on Facebook and its other apps has long “done better than other display ads elsewhere because it has people on Facebook who have volunteered information for years, and that’s pretty true.” He added that personalized advertising outside of the platform is often based on predictions that “are highly inaccurate and worse off when you try to target based on that than when you try to spray and pray.”

Still, Meta has often struggled over how to abuse consumer data.

“Of course Facebook can infer that you’re gay or African-American, but then the question arises whether it’s ethical to use these categories for targeting,” said Mr. Fou.

The new changes don’t mean Meta is out of ad targeting. The company will continue to allow advertisers to target ads to users based on tens of thousands of other categories and topics. He added that he will continue to use tools such as location targeting.

The company also said it will allow users who can already limit their exposure to ads on topics like politics and alcohol to begin blocking gambling and weight loss-related promotions as early as next year.

“We continue to believe strongly in personalized advertising, and frankly, personalized experiences are at the core of who we are and what we do in general,” said Mr Mudd.