Meta confronted by Walmart, Match Group over placing ads next to illicit sex content: lawsuit
NY Post
Meta faced an uproar from two of its most prominent corporate advertisers – Walmart and Tinder parent Match Group – after they caught wind that Instagram and Facebook were running ads next to content that sexualized underage users, according to an amended lawsuit filed Tuesday.
In one exchange from early November, Match Group told Meta it 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.
One video allegedly showed a “[y]oung girl provocatively dressed, straddling and caressing a Harley Davidson-style motorcycle” with the Judas Priest song “Turbo Lover” playing in the background, according to Match Group’s message.
The complaint said Match Group’s concerns about its ads were so elevated that its CEO Bernard Kim reached out to Zuckerberg directly, noting in a letter that his company was spending millions of dollars only for “our ads are being serviced to your users viewing violent and predatory content.”
Zuckerberg did not respond to the message, according to the lawsuit.
The heated messages were unsealed as part of a bombshell amended complaint filed by the New Mexico attorney general’s office – which sued the Instagram parent last month for allegedly exposing children to adult sex content and contact from alleged child predators.
