Facebook Cornered, US Senate Awaits Response To Malicious Ads On Social Media Platforms

Facebook faces serious charges from the US Senate. (photo; unsplash)

JAKARTA - Democratic Senator Ed Markey on Monday, October 4, sought answers from Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg after new research showed the social media company was failing to prevent harmful ads from serving teenage Facebook users.

Markey cited comments by a Facebook executive before Congress last week that the site does not allow weight loss ads to be shown to people under the age of 18, or tobacco ads of any kind.

"New research shows Facebook is enabling advertisers to precisely target this type of inappropriate and harmful content at teenage users." Markey said as quoted by Reuters. Facebook itself did not immediately comment on the statement.

Markey cites research conducted by the Campaign Technology Transparency Project for Accountability, that recently or last month Facebook allowed advertisers to target 13-year-old users with "inappropriate and harmful content, including ads promoting 'abuse of pills, alcoholic beverages and , anorexia, smoking, dating services, and gambling.'"

"These findings cast serious doubts on Facebook's compliance with the promises your employees have publicly made, and are particularly concerning in light of another recent report, which shows that Facebook has direct knowledge that its platform is harmful to young people," Markey said.

On Tuesday 5 October, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen is set to testify in a Senate Commerce subcommittee about the impact Facebook and Instagram have on young users.

Haugen told "60 Minutes" in an interview that aired Sunday that "Facebook's own research says, when these young women start consuming this -- this eating disorder content, they become more and more depressed. And that actually makes them use the app." more."

In his tweet on October 4, Haugen also called on the public to jointly find solutions so that social media can be useful for all people.

Together we can create social media that brings out the best in us. We solve problems together - we don't solve them alone.

— Frances Haugen (@FrancesHaugen) October 4, 2021

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, chair of the subcommittee that convened the hearing, said the testimony was "important for understanding what Facebook knows about the toxic effects of its platform on young users, when they find out about it, and what they do about it."

Last week Instagram, Facebook's photo-sharing service, said it had suspended a new app it was making for children.