European Commission Investigates Secret Ad Partnership

The European Commission is scrutinizing a secret advertising collaboration between Google Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc., according to the Financial Times. This investigation arises from potential violations of Google's guidelines aimed at safeguarding minors online.

In October, regulators requested Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company, to furnish internal data, emails, and presentations related to this campaign. This request is part of the EU's broader examination of social media companies.

The partnership, initially disclosed in a previous Financial Times report, centered on promoting Instagram to teenagers via YouTube ads. However, Google permitted ads to reach users categorized as "unknown," a group it reportedly knew included many minors. These users were identified as skewing under 18 and described as a method to "hack" safeguards.