Facebook offering "vulnerable teens" to advertisers shows it is willing to be used as a weapon

Facebook was caught offering advertisers a direct line to psychologically vulnerable teens. Nitasha Tiku writes that this exposes the deeper danger of its insight into our lives: it's not the data that's the problem, it's how it could be "weaponized in ways those users cannot see, and would never knowingly allow."

The company had offered advertisers the opportunity to target 6.4 million younger users, some only 14 years old, during moments of psychological vulnerability, such as when they felt worthless, insecure, stressed, defeated, anxious, and like a failure. ...

If the users in question werent teenagersor if the emotion wasnt insecurityFacebooks public statement might have been sufficient; the uproar from privacy advocates may have been duly noted, then promptly forgotten.

Instead, as Kathryn Montgomery, a professor at American University and the director of the schools communications studies divisionwho is married to Chestertells WIRED, The Australians report served as a flashpoint that enables you to glimpse Facebooks inner workings, which in many ways is about monetization of moods.

As Tiku points out: "Its not a dystopian nightmare. Its just a few clicks away from the status quo."

The fences you put up are meaningless if Facebook owns the land.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5d9BrLN5K4