14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook is in deep trouble after it was revealed that Australian company execs promote advertising campaigns seeking to exploit their users' emotional states, going as low as targeting teens.
The document was discovered by The Australian, and there are plenty of details regarding the technique the company used, including algorithms that can determine and allow advertisers to figure out when young people need a confidence boost. In other words, Facebook can figure out when users are feeling "worthless" or "insecure," "anxious" or "useless, "stressed" or "overwhelmed," and direct ads accordingly.
According to the publication, Facebook's execs were particularly interested in finding ways to help advertisers figure out when teens want to look good and are interested in increasing their body confidence, or when they're working out and losing weight. Young users apparently post more about what Facebook names "anticipatory emotions" and "building confidence" earlier in the week, while the weekends are followed by more reflective posts, or those in which they broadcast their achievements.
What's more, image recognition tools are used on both Facebook and Instagram alike in order to increase the data that's useful for advertisers. One of the purposes described by The Australian is to reveal how people visually represent moments such as meal times.
It seems that this data reflects teens in Australia and New Zealand, namely some 6.4 million students and young people in these regions.
Facebook says report is misleading
Facebook Australia has apparently launched an investigation into the situation, especially as two Facebook execs are named as the authors - Andy Sinn and David Fernandez. "We have opened an investigation to understand the process failure and improve our oversight. We will undertake disciplinary and other processes as appropriate," the company said.
It is unclear at this point if this type of practice is widespread across all Facebook organizations or particular to Australia alone.
At the same time, the Facebook US headquarters also issued a statement disputing the report made by The Australian, saying it is misleading. "Facebook does not offer tools to target people based on their emotional state. The analysis done by an Australian researcher was intended to help marketers understand how people express themselves on Facebook. It was never used to target ads and was based on data that was anonymous and aggregated," the company said.
The Australian has not released the documents it cites for the report, nor has it included screenshots of any kind.