Stanisland Magazine

They’re charged with abusing prohibited search terms pertaining to race, religion and identity.

The Conservative led government and local police forces are accused of using prohibited search terms to intentionally target minority groups.

Known as ‘micro-targeting’, the action is prohibited by Meta across all its platforms including Instagram, Threads and Facebook. The move was made in 2021 to prevent abusive behaviour.

In a statement at the time, Meta said: “We want to better match people’s evolving expectations of how advertisers may reach them on our platform and address feedback from civil rights experts, policymakers and other stakeholders on the importance of preventing advertisers from abusing the targeting options we make available.”.

What search terms and groups are the government and police targeting?

The ad campaigns launched by the Conservative government targeted specific search terms which include “afro-textured hair”, “hijab” and “Islamic dietary requirements”. The content of the advertisements are tailored to push messages regarding jobs, migration, and crime among other issues.

The data was analysed by UK academics and was shared with The Guardian’s Sunday paper The Observer.

Edinburgh, Cambridge, Napier and Strathclyde universities were all involved with the research and were quoted saying they are “invasive”…”…particularly troubling”.

The findings were particularly concerning when considering it is a breach of Meta’s own terms and conditions. But what is to be seen, is any action by the conglomerate considering their behaviour is not only divisive but a severe misuse of data.

Image: Dima Solomin