We need to talk about Meta — with Outvertising’s Sonnie Spenser

On 7 January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced changes to its platforms’ content moderation policies that, he admitted, will mean the company is “going to catch less bad stuff” across Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Among the raft of changes, Meta announced it was halting its third-party fact-checking programme in the US and replacing it with a Community Notes feature. It also updated its hateful conduct policy to now allow users to call women “household objects” or refer to transgender or non-binary individuals as “it”, among numerous other dehumanising examples.

The story has dominated conversation around the industry throughout the early weeks of the year, with media agencies looking to reconcile potential concerns around brand safety and their own DEI commitments with the importance of Meta platforms on the media plan.

In an op-ed for The Media Leader, Sonnie Spenser, Outvertising’s communications co-director and Fresh Pies’ digital marketing manager, pleaded with the UK media industry to disavow Meta’s content moderation changes and consider an “exit strategy” to cut adspend from the tech giant.

They joined senior reporter Jack Benjamin on the podcast to elaborate on the ethical and business cases for reapportioning spend away from Meta. They also discussed the raw impact Meta’s policy changes have had on the LGBTQ+ community in the UK, whether brands truly care about brand safety and what the media industry can do to support minority members of staff amid a business culture shift away from DEI.

Spenser said: "Hate is slowly becoming normalised and we need to do something about it."

Highlights:

2:22: Content moderation changes and cozying up to Donald Trump

8:04: Should advertisers reduce spend on Meta? Considering ethical and business arguments

16:55: Do brands actually care about brand safety?

26:10: Threads' ad proposition

35:13: A cultural paradigm shift

Related articles:

We need an exit plan for Meta and we need it now

‘Too big to fail’? Industry reacts to Meta content moderation changes

Mental health vs Meta’s wealth: What will it take to hold a tech giant to account?

Playing defence in politics and in tech: Nick Clegg leaves Meta

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Thanks to our production partners Trisonic for editing this episode.

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