Meta rejected scores of womens health ads. Democrats want answers.

Happy Monday! We’re back to a regular schedule after a shifting lineup the last couple weeks. Send news tips to: cristiano.lima@washpost.com.

Below: Microsoft agrees to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, and a court pauses restrictions on federal agencies’ communications with tech companies. First:

Meta rejected scores of women’s sexual health ads. Democrats want answers.

A group of congressional Democrats is urging the Federal Trade Commission to look into allegations that tech giant Meta is discriminately rejecting sexual-health advertisements targeted for women while allowing those aimed at men — a possible violation of federal law.

In January 2022, the nonprofit Center for Intimacy Justice reported a finding that the Facebook and Instagram parent company turned down ads from dozens of women’s reproductive health groups on grounds they contained “adult content” or promoted “adult products and services.”

In response, the social media company overturned some of those takedowns and later updated its rules to include more examples of ads that are allowed, such as for “products addressing the effects of menopause,” “pain relief during sex” and “sex education,” according to a report.

But the nonprofit in April filed a complaint with the agency, alleging that despite the rules changes, Meta is still “persistently and systemically rejecting advertisements aimed at women and people of underrepresented genders, while permitting those targeted toward men.”

Now, Democratic lawmakers are calling on the FTC to step in and take action if it finds the tech giant violated federal laws against unfair and deceptive trade practices.

“Meta’s alleged discrimination in sexual and reproductive health advertising would perpetuate inequality of access to health services for women and people of underrepresented genders, especially those from marginalized communities,” Sens. Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Peter Welch (Vt.) and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.) wrote in a letter Wednesday first shared with The Technology 202.

Jackie Rotman, whose nonprofit filed the complaint, said they decided to take up the issue with federal regulators after they found Meta’s policy changes had little effect on advertisers.

“It’s disheartening and sad that so many of the women’s health entrepreneurs and nonprofits we work with are still facing the exact same barriers,” she said in an interview.

In its complaint, the nonprofit cites instances where Meta allegedly rejected ads for treating “painful sex,” including for those who have experienced menopause or endometriosis, or for devices “designed to relieve pelvic floor dysfunction,” which can be a menopause symptom.

The group is calling for the FTC to force Meta to investigate how “algorithmic bias” in its ads review process may be contributing to discrimination and to dedicate more “resources and team members” to monitoring for potential discrepancies.

“We hope that by the senators and … representatives raising this that the issue is elevated and this is an issue that the FTC prioritizes,” Rotman said.

The FTC confirmed receipt of the letter but declined to comment.

“We welcome ads for women’s health and sexual wellness products but we prohibit nudity and have specific rules about how these products can be marketed on our platform,” Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels said in a statement.

Even if the social media company evenly applied its updated rules, Rotman said, there would still be gaps that could disproportionately harm women.

While Meta’s rules prohibit ads that promote products “that focus on sexual pleasure or enhancement, such as sex toys or sexual enhancement products,” they explicitly allow ads promoting “sexual and reproductive health or wellness” such as “[e]rectile dysfunction products” or those that prevent “premature ejaculation,” she noted.

Rotman suggested that those rules create a double standard.

“We believe that premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction ads should be allowed as an important and valuable part of sexual health. But we think that those are also clearly about pleasure, and that there's a discrepancy and just discriminatory aspects of how Facebook is writing its sexual pleasure policy,” she said.

Our top tabs

Microsoft agrees to keep Call of Duty franchise on Sony PlayStation

Microsoft said it has a binding agreement to keep the Call of Duty video game franchise on PlayStation for 10 years as the company appears close to completing its purchase of Activision Blizzard, Brody Ford reports for Bloomberg News.

Ford writes: “The announcement Sunday of a deal with Sony Group Corp. from the Redmond, Washington-based software giant seeks to address regulators’ concerns that the merger would make more Activision games — such as the massively popular shooting-game franchise — exclusive to Xbox.”

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said on Twitter: “We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and @PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.”

An appeals court last week denied the Federal Trade Commission’s request to pause the deal, giving the $69 billion transaction a path to completion. “The main remaining hurdle comes from the UK Competition and Markets Authority, which has agreed to give Microsoft an unprecedented second chance to come up with a remedy after vetoing the merger in April on concerns about the deal’s impact on the cloud gaming market,” Ford notes.

Group of artists demand compensation for work used to train AI

An increasingly vocal group of artists, writers and filmmakers are alleging that artificial intelligence tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard have been illegally trained to use their work without permission, our colleague Gerrit De Vynck reports.

Large language models, image generators and other AI systems are trained on billions of data points across the internet but have frequently used data without approval from the humans who first authored or created the content. The accusations could pose a threat to tech companies trying to roll out AI offerings.

“This past week, comedian Sarah Silverman filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Facebook parent company Meta, alleging they used a pirated copy of her book in training data because the companies’ chatbots can summarize her book accurately,” the report says. A pair of novelists filed a similar lawsuit against OpenAI, and over 5,000 authors signed a petition asking tech companies to get consent from writers whose books were used in training data, it adds.

Congress last week held the second of two hearings on AI and copyright, in which music industry representatives and others testified about their concerns. In responses to these lawsuits, “the AI companies have argued that the use of copyrighted works to train AI falls under fair use — a concept in copyright law that creates an exception if the material is changed in a ‘transformative’ way,” Gerrit writes.

Appeals court pauses order restricting Biden administration contact with tech companies

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Friday granted a temporary stay of a July 4 order that levied strict limitations on the Biden administration’s ability to communicate with social media companies, our colleague Cat Zakrzewski reports.

The order prohibited key federal agencies and officials from meeting and communicating with social media companies about “protected free speech.” The Justice Department last week warned the move is overly broad and could prevent the government from warning people about online misinformation in times of national security emergencies or natural disasters.

“The stay was granted by a panel of 5th Circuit judges, which includes Clinton-appointee Carl E. Stewart, Obama-appointee James E. Graves and Trump-appointee Andrew S. Oldham,” Cat writes. “Oldham last year wrote an opinion upholding a Texas social media law, which bars social media companies from removing posts based on a person’s political ideology.”

“The stay is the latest twist in a partisan legal battle over the future of content moderation — litigation that could have profound effects on the First Amendment,” the report adds.

Rant and rave

Elon Musk says Twitter’s cash flow remains in the negative due to a 50 percent drop in ad revenue and a large debt load. The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson:

I’ve really enjoyed Twitter, was never on Team Hellsite, and originally rooted for Elon to succeed.

But this is a disaster.

High debt, negative cash flow, main biz down 50%, annualized subs = barely 1% of old revenue, and the plan is…Tucker TV and Andrew Tate affiliate fees? pic.twitter.com/Wh5AxNEO50

— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) July 15, 2023

Sarah Frier of Bloomberg News:

Open-source intelligence analyst Oliver Alexander:

Even after firing almost everyone, not paying them severance and refusing to pay debtors, Twitter still has a negative cash flow.

The “heavy debt load” from having to pay around $1 billion in additional interest payments annually can’t make reaching positive cash flow easier https://t.co/7qrmRCfm6D

— Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) July 15, 2023

Daybook

The House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on the legal landscape of Right to Repair rules tomorrow at 10 a.m.
The Atlantic Council holds a discussion on transatlantic AI policymaking tomorrow at 10 a.m.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies convenes a discussion on the future of quantum computing tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation holds a discussion on social media age verification opportunities and pitfalls tomorrow at noon.

Before you log off

Hundreds of golden retrievers gathered at the ruins of the Guisachan House in Scotland on Thursday to mark the breed’s 155th anniversary. pic.twitter.com/xL8fGczoly

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 16, 2023

That’s all for today — thank you so much for joining us! Make sure to tell others to subscribe to The Technology202 here. Get in touch with tips, feedback or greetings on Twitter or email.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZL2wuMitoJyrX2d9c3%2BOaW5oaWdkuqbAwGapnqKVmMGmsIydprOdnqh6uLvMnqWsZZiarq3Ax2aYnatdmbKuu8KrmK2rXayur8CMmqWsr5WnwHA%3D

Fernande Dalal

Update: 2024-08-22

VlogB