A Financial Times investigation revealed how Google staff had helped Meta promote Instagram to teenagers on YouTube by exploiting a loophole in Google’s ad systems, targeting users labelled as “unknown” – a category Google’s internal data suggested skewed towards under-18s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The campaign, codenamed ‘Tangerine Owl’, was piloted in Canada and expanded to the US by Spark Foundry, who launched a successful pilot marketing programme, with plans to roll it out worldwide. However these plans were abruptly cancelled following the FT\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The investigation revealed internal communications, presentations and emails showing how Google employees advised Meta on how to \u201chack\u201d audience safeguards, despite Google\u2019s public ban on personalised ads for teens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The expos\u00e9 prompted the European Commission to demand internal documents from Google, raising the prospect of a formal inquiry. The FT\u2019s investigation prompted a response from Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, who was contacted for comment. She said: \u201cBig Tech companies cannot be trusted to protect our kids. They once again have been caught exploiting our children, and these Silicon Valley executives have proven that they will always prioritise profit over our children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response, Google has tightened its policies, banned demographic targeting of the \u201cunknown\u201d group, and cancelled a quarterly business review with Meta and ad agency Spark Foundry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FT reported that Jeff Chester, executive director of the Centre for Digital Democracy, said of the tie-up between Meta and Alphabet-owned Google: \u201cIt shows you how both companies remain untrustworthy, duplicitous, powerful platforms that require stringent regulation and oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FT\u2019s reporting has already led to internal reforms at Google and renewed scrutiny of Big Tech\u2019s handling of youth safety online. This story serves as a powerful example of investigative journalism driving accountability and shaping the public and regulatory agenda on digital ethics and platform responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":17151,"template":"","published":[64],"region":[20],"class_list":["post-17150","case-studies","type-case-studies","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","published-64","region-national-campaigns"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n