Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has been under scrutiny for exempting some of its top advertisers from its usual content moderation process. Internal documents from 2023 revealed that Meta introduced “guardrails” to protect high-spending advertisers, shielding them from automated content moderation systems that were mistakenly penalizing top brands.
The memos disclosed that Meta would suppress detections based on how much an advertiser spent on the platform, with top advertisers being reviewed by humans instead. One document mentioned a group called “P95 spenders” who were spending more than $1,500 per day and were exempt from advertising restrictions but would still undergo manual human review.
These measures were put in place after Meta found that its automated systems were incorrectly flagging some high-spending accounts for breaches of the company’s rules. The company stated that higher-spending accounts were disproportionately subject to erroneous notifications of possible breaches.
Ryan Daniels, a spokesperson for Meta, refuted the claims of preferential treatment for high-spending advertisers, stating that the measures were implemented to prevent mistakes in enforcement. Meta generates the majority of its annual revenues from advertising, which totaled nearly $135 billion in 2023.
Meta typically screens ads using a combination of artificial intelligence and human moderators to enforce its standards and prevent violations such as scams or harmful content. The company outlined guardrails in a document titled “high spender mistake prevention” to protect business accounts and individual users who spend significant amounts on advertising.
While Meta acknowledged that it had prevented some high-spending accounts from being disabled by automated systems, it emphasized that all businesses were still subject to the same advertising standards and no advertiser was exempt from the rules.
The internal documents did not disclose the names of the high spenders that fell within the company’s guardrails, but it was estimated that thousands of advertisers may have been considered exempt from the typical moderation process. Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower suggested that top US spenders on Facebook and Instagram included Amazon, Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and Google.
Despite achieving record revenues and its stock trading at an all-time high, Meta faced challenges from competitors like TikTok and concerns internally about prioritizing revenue over user integrity and health. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans to end the third-party fact-checking program and dial down automated content moderation as the company prepares for the return of Donald Trump as president.
The internal documents also revealed discussions about pursuing exemptions for top-spending advertisers, with proposals to offer protections to “platinum and gold spenders” who contribute more than half of advertising revenue. Staff suggested a blanket exemption for these advertisers from certain enforcements to prevent false positives that could cost Meta revenue and credibility.
In the past, Meta has faced criticism for carving out exemptions for important users, with leaked documents revealing the existence of an internal system called “cross-check” to review content from politicians, celebrities, and journalists. This system, known as “whitelisting,” was used to shield some users from enforcement even if they violated Facebook’s rules.
The oversight board set up by Meta to oversee its most difficult moderation decisions found that the cross-check system had left dangerous content online and called for an overhaul, which the company has since implemented. The company continues to navigate challenges related to content moderation and ensuring a balance between revenue generation and user integrity.
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