Meta Placed Walmart Ads Next to Sexual Material, Lawsuit Reveals
By Movieguide® Contributor
Walmart and Match Group (Tinder’s parent company) concerns over ad placement next to illicit sexual and predatory content on Facebook and Instagram were unsealed as part of a lawsuit against Meta.
In December, New Mexico’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, claiming that the social media giant was not adequately protecting children from adult content and sexual predators.
In one letter that the lawsuit claims Meta did not reply to, Match Group’s CEO Bernard Kim wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about his concern over ad placement, writing, “[O]ur ads are being serviced to your users viewing violent and predatory content.”
The New York Post reported that Match Group informed Meta that they “had observed a series of Reels that appeared alongside one of its ads that it described as ‘highly disturbing’– including six consecutive videos of young girls.”
New Mexico investigators had created fake accounts, one claiming to be a 13-year-old girl named “Issa Bee.” According to the lawsuit, most of Bee’s 6,700 followers were males 18 to 40 years old. The account received sexual propositions and photos and videos at least three to four times a week in its messages and chat.
“As the messages come in, she has no means of screening or previewing the messages,” the lawsuit reads.
Meta also came under fire in November when it was reported that a Walmart ad ran next to an Instagram reel of a woman exposing her private areas.
“It is extremely disappointing that this type of content exists on Meta, and it is unacceptable for Walmart’s brand to appear anywhere near it,” one Walmart employee said in a message. “As a longtime business partner, it was also very disappointing to learn about this from reporters, rather than from Meta.”
Walmart, wanting to distance itself from association with any explicit or illicit content, put out a statement:“[Walmart] take[s] brand safety issues extremely seriously and protecting our customers and communities will always be a top priority.”
The suit also alleges that Meta’s social media algorithm makes it easy for sexual predators to prey upon minors.
“Predators discuss leveraging Instagram to search, like, and comment on images of children in order to get the algorithm to funnel similar images, videos, and accounts to their feeds, to identify groups of pedophiles and children, and to connect with potential child victims,” the lawsuit goes onto read.
“Mr. Zuckerberg and other Meta executives are aware of the serious harm their products can pose to young users, and yet they have failed to make sufficient changes to their platforms that would prevent the sexual exploitation of children,” New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez said.
Meta has argued that it has many safeguards in place to protect users from harmful content, saying that it is now “automatically placing teens into the most restrictive content control setting on Instagram and Facebook.”
A Meta spokesperson also stated, “We don’t want this kind of content on our platforms and brands don’t want their ads to appear next to it. We continue to invest aggressively to stop it – and report every quarter on the prevalence of such content, which remains very low.”
Meta is also being sued in a landmark multi-state lawsuit alleging that the corporation purposefully uses addictive technology that is especially harmful to youths, as previously reported by Movieguide®:
“Our bipartisan investigation has arrived at a solemn conclusion: Meta has been harming our children and teens, cultivating addiction to boost corporate profits,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
“We have a youth mental health crisis in the United States,” added Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. “The young people were brought down rabbit holes.”
To hold Meta accountable for this alleged business practice, thirty-three states are filing a joint lawsuit against the company, while eight states and Washington D.C. are filing separate complaints in federal, state or local courts.
The complaints argue that Meta misled parents and children regarding its safety features, allowing it to illegally collect data on children for profit, thereby violating child privacy laws.
These lawsuits from the state attorneys general come as the federal government has failed to introduce any regulations that bar companies from prioritizing profit over user engagement or safety. While the Biden administration has repeatedly stated that it wants to better regulate tech companies, concrete action has yet to be taken by the federal government.
