Facebook has denied that it targets insecure young people in order to push advertising as a row rages over a leaked document.
A research paper, reported on but not published by The Australian newspaper, was said to have gone into detail about how teenage users post about self-image, weight loss, and other issues.
Facebook confirmed the research was shared with advertisers, but said the article was 'misleading'. “Facebook does not offer tools to target people based on their emotional state,” it said.
“The analysis done by an Australian researcher was intended to help marketers understand how people express themselves on Facebook.
It was never used to target ads and was based on data that was anonymous and aggregated. Facebook has an established process to review the research we perform.
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This research did not follow that process and we are reviewing the details to correct the oversight.
” According to The Australian, the report was seen by marketers working for several major Australian banks and was written by Facebook executives David Fernandez and Andy Sinn.
