No more “Ads” to target the sentiment of people by Facebook and Instagram

Meta – the newly renamed parent company of Facebook announced today that it will no longer entertain the Ads based upon the interest categories of users to target specific sentiments of the people like “Politic, religion, health, race and sexual orientation. It will be effective from next year onwards starting from January 19, 2022, on all its social apps namely Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger only users who have an interest in these specific topics will be able to see those advertisements.

The decision was very critical to consider as it will impact the major profit-making segment of Facebook through Ads amounting to $86 billion dollars, which is understood from the Blog post of “Meta official Graham Mudd”  vice-president of Facebook ads and marketing on Tuesday where he admits “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.”

This wasn’t an easy decision. Some of our advertising partners have expressed concerns about these targeting options going away because of their ability to help generate positive societal change. We know this change will negatively impact some businesses and organizations. (3/4) https://t.co/RpQ6124CKQ

— Roy Austin, Jr. (@RAustin_Jr) November 9, 2021

Meta also included in their Blog post that how their Ads policy work to match the requirement of advertisers to reach their target customer base for better engagement with their audience for generating leads for them and prevention of abusing advertisement where the company heard many concerns and reports from the Platform users.

In the year 2019 as well Facebook said that it will overhaul its ad-targeting systems to prevent discrimination in housing, credit, and employment ads as a part of a legal settlement.

This category based feature can be opt-out by Facebook users through their desktop settings and privacy section in the app –settings-Ads -Ads settings- categories used to reach you- Interest categories, where users can opt-out to receive ads based upon their interest. As of now, Facebook can target their audience for an advertisement based upon their age, location, and gender where it’s not specially managed to target people based upon their political interest, sexual orientation or any other sensitive topic.

Also, Meta is in the process to develop the “Delete” options for the sensitive interest categories in upcoming years for a flawless run of the Ads segment of the company without hurting anyone’s sentiment; however, it will only be the option of the user to receive those ads in their newsfeed.

Lastly, Meta has also added in their Blog post that creating a balance between competing interests and advocacy was the reason to take this hard choice as they might lose their promising advertising partners due to the decision made.