CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg presented his vision for the company’s ad offerings on the July earnings call, highlighting how artificial intelligence breakthroughs will improve them.
“In the coming years,” he said, “AI will be able to generate creative for advertisers as well and will also be able to personalise it as people see it.”
But as the trillion-dollar company hopes to revolutionise its ad tech, Meta’s usage of AI may already have put the company in the hot seat. On Thursday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Republican Rep Tim Walberg of Michigan and Democratic Rep Kathy Castor of Florida, sent a letter to Zuckerberg demanding the CEO answer questions about Meta’s advertising services.
The letter comes in light of a March Wall Street Journal report that revealed how federal prosecutors are probing the company for its role in the illicit sale of drugs on its platforms.
“Meta appears to have continued to shirk its social responsibility and defy its own community guidelines,” the letter said.
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“Protecting users online, especially children and teenagers, is one of our top priorities. We are continuously concerned that Meta is not up to the task and this dereliction of duty needs to be addressed.”
Zuckerberg already faced senators who grilled the CEO about safety measures for children who use Meta’s social media sites.
During the senate hearing, Zuckerberg stood up and apologised to families who felt that social media use harmed their kids.
In July, the Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit watchdog group, reported that Meta continued to make money from hundreds of ads that promoted the sale of illegal or recreational drugs, including cocaine and opioids, which Meta prohibits in its policy regarding ads.
“Many of the ads made no secret of their intentions and encouraging users to place orders,” the watchdog group wrote.
