Facebook collects obscene amounts of data on us, and profits off of letting anyone who wants to pay use it. Regardless of how well it works, this practice is dangerous and unethical. It has allowed Cambridge Analytica to claim they manipulated an election, enabled the peddling of scam cures for COVID-19 to those interested in “pseudoscience”, and more.

But it’s not some big conspiracy, it’s just about making money by selling people products and ideas that they don’t need.

If microtargeting actually works, this system of allowing advertisers and politicians to microtarget ads to the most vulnerable and susceptible people is a modern form of brainwashing with personalized propaganda. It’s a massive, unethical, psychological experiment on humans.

Facebook has shown time and time again that it is not capable of moderating content in an ethical way, and that the data it collects on its users is a massive violation of our privacy. Pushing for Facebook to censor its users will only create more problems down the road and make it harder for any competitive services to rise. Facebook needs to end potentially lethal practices like microtargeting immediately, and our lawmakers need to enforce existing antitrust laws to end Facebook’s monopoly on the market. Too big to fix means too big to exist!

Sign the petition to tell Facebook to ban microtargeting, and we’ll also deliver your letter to the FTC demanding that they investigate Facebook’s predatory practices.

Petition text: “Microtargeted advertising allows bad actors to shove deadly misinformation down the throats of vulnerable people, and requires that Facebook collect a privacy-violating trove of data on every user. Facebook should immediately ban all microtargeted advertising. I’m calling on the Federal Trade Commission and my elected officials in Congress to investigate Facebook’s reckless advertising practices, and their monopoly on the market. Too big to fix means too big to exist!”