Mark Zuckerberg says he wants to “build the future of human connection”.
But Instagram and Facebook are full of climate denial, manosphere bile, and wellness “research”, much of which is paid content and dodgy ads. Is this the future of human connection you had in mind, Zuck?
All this hatred is fuelled by a vicious circle. Meta hoovers up millions of data points about everyone online. Then influencers and peddlers of disinformation use Meta’s ad targeting systems to deliver addictive content back to us – whatever they think will hook teenage girls in Leeds, lefty lawyers in London or retired plumbers in Loughton.
Meta treats its EU and UK users differently despite the same laws applying. If you want to stay on his platforms, you automatically give him the right to feed you paid content.
But we’re pushing back. We’ve filed a complaint to Meta, demanding that people in the UK should have the same choice as people in the EU.
And you can push back too. Right now. We’ve set up a simple tool so you can send Meta’s data protection officer an email, telling the company to stop using your data to target you with paid content. You can take back control of your data and tell Zuckerberg that this time it’s personal.