EU seeks more info from Google & Meta over ads targeting minors

Google and Meta have been under the firing line of the European Union (EU) for some time now. A new report from the Financial Times suggests that the EU is digging deep into the secret ad deal targeting minors as it now seeks more information from Google and Meta.

The EU seeks more details from Google and Meta over a secret ad campaign deal targeting minors

In October, the EU officials requested information from Google and Meta about a secret ad campaign targeting minors. The information includes internal chats, presentations, emails, and more related to YouTube ads. Google reportedly gathered these details through an internal probe codenamed “Tangerine Owl.”

The EU received these details and has asked both tech giants for more information now. It’s worth noting that the latest request for additional information isn’t a surprise. The regulators usually do that to gather evidence and launch a formal investigation accordingly. In this case, the EU hasn’t officially opened an investigation yet. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t open one.

In August, an investigative report by the Financial Times suggested that Google employees were helping Meta bypass the company’s policies to target ads to minors. Here it’s worth noting that Google has long banned ads targeting minors. Therefore, it was a big blunder from Google.

Google employees reportedly told Meta to push ads for Instagram on YouTube to a group internally referred to as “unknown” in the search giant’s system. The findings were surprising since it had a large number of under-18 kids in it.

Google maintains its innocence in this matter

The two companies then collaborated with a media agency, Spark Foundry, to launch a pilot ad campaign in Canada and later expanded it to the US. However, the plan to expand the ad campaign to more countries was reportedly halted after the FT’s report went public.

The news agency now reports that since then Google has organized virtual town halls for advertising staffs to remind them of the company’s policies. The employees in the ad department were reportedly required to accept their responsibilities. Google has since been more cautious doing business with the social media giant and maintains its innocence in a statement provided to the Financial Times.

The statement reads, “The safeguards we have to protect teens, like prohibiting ad personalization, are industry-leading and continue to work. We’ve held updated internal training to ensure our sales teams remain aware of our policies and technical protections.”