Another day, another case in which the European Commission persecutes large technology companies for attacking minors. The bloc's regulators have investigated Google for more information about a secret advertising partnership with Meta that targeted instagram ads to minors on YouTube, the Financial times information.
The Commission has not yet opened a formal investigation, but is relying on information it requested in October, including internal chats, presentations, emails and more related to YouTube ads. Google collected this evidence during an internal investigation codenamed “Tangerine Owl.”
He FOOT It first revealed in August that Google employees were using a workaround to allow ads targeting people under 18. This was a big no, as Google has long banned advertising aimed at minors. However, these Google employees told Meta to serve ads in a group called “unknown,” as internal data found it had a large group of under-18s. The two companies partnered with media agency Spark Foundry to launch a pilot advertising program in Canada and then expanded to the United States. The companies paused their plan to expand beyond the two countries and include other Meta platforms following the public report.
This is not the first time Google and Meta have found themselves in trouble over their advertising practices. In 2022, the duo were the subject of antitrust investigations by the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority; However, both entities ultimately closed their cases.
