By Chris DELMAS / AFP
Meta has developed measures and implemented rules to ban content considered hateful, including so-called "groomer" rhetoric. This theory, which propagates the myth that people in the LGBTQ community pose a threat to minors, violates Meta's hate speech policies. However, the tech group is reportedly benefiting from ads featuring this kind of message.
Meta has developed measures and implemented rules to ban content considered hateful, including so-called "groomer" rhetoric. This theory, which propagates the myth that people in the LGBTQ community pose a threat to minors, violates Meta's hate speech policies. However, the tech group is reportedly benefiting from ads featuring this kind of message.
Such ads have apparently earned Facebook at least $13,600 this year, according to the latest report from Media Matters. Yet these ads accuse the LGBTQ community of grooming children. The groomer slur, which violates the group's hate speech policies, is used to label members of this community as sexual predators, accusing them of being a danger to children.
To establish this analysis, Media Matters identified more than 150 ads that have appeared on Meta platforms that accuse certain people of being "groomers." Since the organization's last report, 94 ads have still not been removed from the social network, while 19 new ones appeared online between September 6 and October 12, 2022, bringing the number of ads accusing certain people of grooming minors to over 150.
Based on data collected by the Dewey Square Adwatch Group, these ads generated more than one million impressions on Meta platforms (the number of times one of these ads appeared on a user's screen). The 19 new ads, meanwhile, earned at least $900 and 154,000 impressions.
A message often conveyed by the US conservative right
To support its analysis, Media Matters highlighted several ads like one from Turning Point USA, a conservative student group. The latter used a tweet from Candace Owens, a Daily Wire journalist known for her pro-conservative and pro-Trump positions. The ad features the journalist's words, saying: "I have no patience for this child groomer movement. I always have the time to protect children," accompanied by a comment from the group, reading: "Protect your kids. Where are our mama bears at?" The ad ran on both Facebook and Instagram between September 15 and 20, 2022, generating between 20,000 and 25,000 impressions, at an estimated cost of between $100 and $199, according to a Media Matters screenshot.
Other ads have contributed to this discourse targeting the LGBT community, even accusing them of pedophilia. This discourse is usually amplified by right-wing media outlets, political figures and organizations, as Media Matters points out in its report.
