Meta Company is no longer allowing advertisers to buy targeted ads for users based on sensitive information such as race, political affiliation, sexual orientation, religion or health.
The changes are set to go into effect on January 19. They will be rolled out across all of Meta’s platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp as well as its network of other websites and apps using Facebook’s ad-targeting tools.
For example, advertisers will no longer see health-related categories for keywords such as “World Diabetes Day” and “Chemotherapy” or religion-based keywords including “Catholic Church” and “Jewish Holidays.”
In a blog post published on Tuesday, Graham Mudd, Meta’s vice president of product marketing and ads, stated that the company wants to “better match people’s evolving expectations of how advertisers may reach them on our platform.”
Mudd highlighted that the changes are based on feedback from policymakers, civil rights experts and others as a way to prevent advertisers from abusing the platform.
“It is important to note that the interest targeting options we are removing are not based on people’s physical characteristics or personal attributes, but instead on things like people’s interactions with content on our platform,” Mudd wrote.
“However, 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," he added.
Follow the latest news on Google News
