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A new report by the Open Rights Group (ORG) has raised serious concerns about Meta’s ad policies, claiming that the company shows more transparency for anti-gambling ads than it does for ads promoting gambling itself. This has created a gap in fairness and brought up questions about user safety and ethics on Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Meta’s Ad Library Treats Gambling Ads Differently
Meta’s Ad Library is a tool that allows users to search and view ads running on the platform. It gives detailed information for political and social issue ads, like age and gender of viewers. But when it comes to gambling ads, this transparency is missing.
The ORG report points out that anti-gambling ads often must meet stricter rules than the gambling ads themselves. This unequal treatment makes it difficult to track how gambling services are marketed and to whom they are being shown.
How Gambling Ads Are Targeted Using User Data
Meta collects huge amounts of user data, including browsing history, page likes, interactions, and more. This data is used to build profiles that advertisers can use to show personalized ads.
While some ad categories face limits in how they can target users, gambling ads often slip past these controls. This allows companies to reach financially vulnerable users or frequent online gamblers, increasing the risk of harm.
Hidden Discrimination Through Data
Even though Meta says it doesn’t allow discrimination in advertising, the way its system works can lead to indirect discrimination. Advertisers can create “proxies” like targeting users based on certain interests or online behaviors which can point to people’s financial or mental health situations without saying it directly.
This can lead to unfair targeting of those who are more likely to suffer from gambling addiction or financial issues.
Meta Pixel Raises Bigger Privacy Concerns
The Meta Pixel is a hidden tool used by websites that sends user data back to Meta. The ORG found cases where gambling websites used Meta Pixel to collect visitor data and send it to Meta often without the user’s clear consent.
This lets Meta show more gambling ads to the same people, even if they never gave permission for this kind of tracking. This practice raises major privacy and legal issues, especially under current data protection laws.
What Should Be Done?
The Open Rights Group is asking for several changes to make digital advertising fairer and safer:
- Same transparency rules for all ads, including gambling
- Better user consent for data collection and ad targeting
- Limitations on profiling, especially for sensitive areas like gambling
These changes aim to protect users from manipulative advertising and make sure ad systems respect user rights.
Also Read: iGB L!VE 2025 Day 1 Highlights: Innovation, Inclusion, And Insight
