A shocking report on Thursday said Google and Meta had reportedly struck a secret agreement to target underage YouTube users with ads promoting rival service Instagram, violating the online search giant’s own advertising rules.
The Instagram ad campaign was targeted to YouTube users classified as “unknown” in Google’s advertising system and was designed to appeal to people between the ages of 13 and 17. The Financial Times reported.He cited internal documents and people familiar with the matter.
The report said Google knew that the “unknown” user category skewed toward people under the age of 18, but allowed the campaign anyway. On its website, Google defines the “unknown” category as users whose “age, gender, parental status, or household income has not been determined.”
According to internal documents obtained by the outlet, employees tried to conceal the true purpose of the campaign, which was to reach minors. Starting in 2021, Google will ban ads that target users under the age of 18 based on their age, gender or interests.
The two companies are reportedly planning to launch an advertising campaign in the U.S. in May after conducting pilot tests in Canada. The companies have reportedly partnered with Spark Foundry, a subsidiary of advertising giant Publicis.
The FT reported that one email from Spark’s advertising manager asked Google for a campaign proposal, specifically identifying the “primary” age group it would target as “13-17 year olds.”
The magazine said the secret pact appears to have involved fierce rival tech companies, each with their own motives, with Google looking to boost advertising revenue and Meta desperate to stop young Instagram users flocking to the popular video-sharing app TikTok.
A source told the Financial Times that Google launched an investigation into the allegations after being contacted by the publication and subsequently halted the campaign.
“We prohibit personalized advertising to anyone under the age of 18,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “These policies go well beyond what is required and are supported by technical safeguards.”
“We have confirmed that these safeguards worked properly,” the spokesperson added, “and we will be taking additional steps to ensure that our sales representatives must not assist advertiser or agency campaigns that attempt to circumvent our policies.”
A Meta spokesperson said the company is “open to promoting our app as a place for teens to connect with friends, find communities and discover their interests.”
“Google’s ‘unknown’ targeting option is available to all advertisers, not just Meta, and we follow clear principles when marketing our apps to teens on other platforms, including not using information about their interests to target ads,” the Meta spokesperson added.
Spark Foundry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Google and Meta reportedly developed the plan late last year, meaning it was already underway when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was confronted by lawmakers over the company’s failure to protect children from online harm.
During a dramatic hearing in January, Zuckerberg publicly apologized to the families of victims of online child sexual abuse.
Late last month, the Senate passed a landmark bill called the Kids Online Safety Act, which would create a legal “duty of care” for social media companies like Instagram and YouTube to protect underage users, or face enforcement action from the FTC.
A related bill, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), would block ads targeted to minors and require social media sites to provide “erase” buttons that allow kids and parents to remove information.
“Big tech companies cannot be trusted to protect our kids,” Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, a co-sponsor of the KOSA bill, told the Financial Times after learning of Google Meta’s plans.
“Once again, they have been caught exploiting our children, proving that Silicon Valley executives will always put profits ahead of our children.”
“Meta is taking money from young people and finding back doors,” Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, which advocates for children’s privacy, told the outlet.
Both bills face an unclear path to final passage in the House of Representatives.
Meta is currently facing lawsuits from dozens of state attorneys general, who accuse the company of developing addictive apps to make advertising revenue at the expense of teenagers’ mental health.
Separately, the state of New Mexico is suing Mehta for failing to protect children from contact with alleged sex offenders.
The company has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has touted its efforts to implement safety tools and resources for kids and parents on its platform.
Google suffered a major regulatory blow earlier this week when a federal court ruled that the company maintained an illegal monopoly on online search. Court proceedings to determine appropriate remedies are expected to begin this fall.
Google also faces a federal antitrust lawsuit targeting its digital advertising technology business.
