Facebook shifts gambling marketing protocols following previous issues
New marketing policy states any firm wanting to market itself on the platform will need written permission from parent company Meta
Facebook has updated its gambling and gaming service marketing policy so firms now need to be granted written permission to advertise on the social media platform.
To obtain written permission, a company must submit evidence to parent company Meta Platforms to prove their gambling service is fully licensed by a regulator, or otherwise lawful in the region they want to advertise in.
There is also a stipulation that any adverts must not target people under the age of 18.
Sectors included in this update comprise all forms of online gambling, bonuses and promotions and games where monetary value is required to enter a competition, or that the prize is monetary in value.
Land-based operations, state lotteries, free-to-play games and competitions where the prize is set at its retail value are not impacted by the changes.
The move comes on the back of Facebook having had issues with gambling firms advertising on the platform in the past.
In 2019, following a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, it was revealed almost hundreds of thousands of accounts belonging to children were tagged with an interest in gambling.
Facebook flagged 740,000 accounts in Europe belonging to children under 18 who had a gambling interest tag.
These tags are automatically generated based on user activity, which then allowed advertisers to target these accounts.
Also in 2019, Forbes reported that UK-based advertising company The Spinner was working with gambling companies to take advantage of Facebook’s mechanics and manipulate users to gamble more than they might do otherwise.
This came in the form of so-called “sniper targeting” where individual users are targeted with a regular supply of posts focused on a particular subject.
Spinner spokesperson Elliot Shefler claimed Facebook advertising provided by the firm meant customers were significantly more engaged compared to players who weren’t exposed to the content.
Following these revelations, Facebook considered legal action against the firm.
Meta has again been in hot water recently, having been sued by human rights campaigner Tanya O’Carroll who alleges the social media giant has breached UK data laws by failing to respect her right to demand Facebook stop collecting and processing her data.
O’Carroll has lodged the claim in the High Court and is currently awaiting Meta’s acknowledgement of the claim and notification of whether the firm intends to defend itself.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, O’Carroll said: “This case is really about us all being able to connect with social media on our own terms, and without having to essentially accept that we should be subjected to hugely invasive tracking-surveillance profiling just to be able to access social media.”