The EU and Britain on Friday opened&nbsp;antitrust&nbsp;probes&nbsp;into a 2018 deal between tech giants Google and Facebook owner Meta allegedly aimed at cementing their dominance over the online advertising market.

The European Commission said it was investigating the so-called "Jedi Blue" agreement that has also faced lawsuits in the United States as global regulators up their campaign to seriously limit the power of big tech.

The EU said its probe would explore whether the arrangement between the internet behemoths had been used to "restrict and distort competition in the already concentrated ad tech market".

The bloc's competition supremo Margrethe Vestager said if confirmed, the arrangement will have served to distort competition, squeezing rival ad tech companies, publishers "and ultimately consumers."

The UK's Competition Market Authority also launched its own investigation into the agreement and the two watchdogs will "closely cooperate" on the investigation, the EU said.

Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli said the CMA "will not shy away from scrutinising the behaviour of big tech firms... working closely with global regulators to get the best outcomes possible."

The two online advertising giants are under intense pressure from publishers and ad rivals as together they overwhelm the online advertising market in much of the world.

In a statement, Google said the "allegations made about this agreement are false" and that its deal with Meta "is a publicly documented, procompetitive agreement" that exists with other companies.

Meta said it would cooperate with the enquiries but that the arrangements "deliver more value to advertisers and publishers, resulting in better outcomes for all".

US lawsuits&nbsp;

US Big Tech companies have been under intense pressure over their business practices in Europe, resulting in&nbsp;probes, huge fines and plans for EU-wide legislation to rein them in.

In the latest accusations, which also form the basis for lawsuits in the United States, the "Jedi Blue" deal served to oust competition by manipulating ad auctions.

These are the ultra-sophisticated system that determines which ads appear on web pages based on the anonymised profiles of internet users.

US court documents revealed that the top bosses of Google and Facebook were directly involved in approving the allegedly illegal 2018 deal.&nbsp;

The legal documents filed in a New York court clearly refer to Sundar Pichai, chief of Google's parent firm Alphabet, as well as Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg and CEO Mark Zuckerberg -- even if their names were redacted.

Google has further enraged publishers and online ad rivals with its plan to overhaul its ad tracking system on its world leading Chrome browser and Android smartphone operating system.

The internet giant made the move -- which does away with personal online trackers known as "cookies" -- to answer increasing pressure to better guarantee privacy for web users.

Critics see it as a way for Google to deny publishers and advertisers precious data and embolden the company's dominance in advertising.

Alphabet pulled in over $60 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021 just in ad revenue, which makes up over 80 percent of its income.

The EU and Britain on Friday opened antitrust probes into a 2018 deal between tech giants Google and Facebook owner Meta allegedly aimed at cementing their dominance over the online advertising market.

The EU and Britain on Friday opened antitrust probes into a 2018 deal between tech giants Google and Facebook owner Meta allegedly aimed at cementing their dominance over the online advertising market. The European Commission said it was investigating the so-called "Jedi Blue" agreement that has also faced lawsuits in the United States as global regulators up their campaign to seriously limit the power of big tech. The EU said its probe would explore whether the arrangement between the internet behemoths had been used to "restrict and distort competition in the already concentrated ad tech market". The bloc's competition supremo Margrethe Vestager said if confirmed, the arrangement will have served to distort competition, squeezing rival ad tech companies, publishers "and ultimately consumers." The UK's Competition Market Authority also launched its own investigation into the agreement and the two watchdogs will "closely cooperate" on the investigation, the EU said. Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli said the CMA "will not shy away from scrutinising the behaviour of big tech firms... working closely with global regulators to get the best outcomes possible." The two online advertising giants are under intense pressure from publishers and ad rivals as together they overwhelm the online advertising market in much of the world. In a statement, Google said the "allegations made about this agreement are false" and that its deal with Meta "is a publicly documented, procompetitive agreement" that exists with other companies. Meta said it would cooperate with the enquiries but that the arrangements "deliver more value to advertisers and publishers, resulting in better outcomes for all". US lawsuits US Big Tech companies have been under intense pressure over their business practices in Europe, resulting in probes, huge fines and plans for EU-wide legislation to rein them in. In the latest accusations, which also form the basis for lawsuits in the United States, the "Jedi Blue" deal served to oust competition by manipulating ad auctions. These are the ultra-sophisticated system that determines which ads appear on web pages based on the anonymised profiles of internet users. US court documents revealed that the top bosses of Google and Facebook were directly involved in approving the allegedly illegal 2018 deal. The legal documents filed in a New York court clearly refer to Sundar Pichai, chief of Google's parent firm Alphabet, as well as Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg and CEO Mark Zuckerberg -- even if their names were redacted. Google has further enraged publishers and online ad rivals with its plan to overhaul its ad tracking system on its world leading Chrome browser and Android smartphone operating system. The internet giant made the move -- which does away with personal online trackers known as "cookies" -- to answer increasing pressure to better guarantee privacy for web users. Critics see it as a way for Google to deny publishers and advertisers precious data and embolden the company's dominance in advertising. Alphabet pulled in over $60 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021 just in ad revenue, which makes up over 80 percent of its income.

EU launches antitrust probes on Google, Meta over online ads deal

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/.../india-to-tweak-proposed-content-regulations-to- ease-burden-on-some-sources-272997">Facebook</a>&nbsp;Inc said on Thursday it was making&nbsp;some&nbsp;changes to its approach to&nbsp;political&nbsp;ads, including allowing&nbsp;users&nbsp;to turn off certain ad-targeting tools, but the updates stop far short of critics' demands and what rival companies have pledged to do.

The world's biggest social network has vowed to curb&nbsp;political&nbsp;manipulation of its platform, after failing to counter alleged Russian interference and the misuse of user data by defunct&nbsp;political&nbsp;consulting firm <a href="https://www.wionews.com/.../brazil-fines-facebook-16-million-for-improper- sharing-of-user-data-271120">Cambridge Analytica</a> in 2016.

But&nbsp;ahead&nbsp;of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/.../three-swing-district-democrats-back-joe-bidens- presidential-bid-272511">US&nbsp;presidential&nbsp;election</a>&nbsp;in November 2020,&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;is struggling to quell criticism of its relatively hands-off&nbsp;ads&nbsp;policies. In particular, it has come under fire after it exempted politicians'&nbsp;ads&nbsp;from fact-checking standards applied to other content on its network.

Facebook&nbsp;said that in addition to rolling out a tool enabling individual&nbsp;users&nbsp;to choose to&nbsp;see&nbsp;fewer&nbsp;political&nbsp;and social issue&nbsp;ads&nbsp;on&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;and its photo-sharing app Instagram, it will also make more ad audience data publicly available.

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/facebook-executive-says-it-helped-put-trump-in-white-house-272838">Facebook executive says it helped put Trump in White House</a>

In contrast, Twitter Inc banned&nbsp;political&nbsp;ads&nbsp;in October, while Alphabet Inc's Google said it would stop letting advertisers target&nbsp;election&nbsp;ads&nbsp;using data such as public voter records and general&nbsp;political&nbsp;affiliations.

Other online platforms like Spotify, Pinterest and TikTok have also issued bans.

In a blog post,&nbsp;Facebook's director of product management Rob Leathern said the company considered imposing limits like Google's but decided against them as internal data indicated most&nbsp;ads&nbsp;run by&nbsp;US&nbsp;presidential candidates are broadly targeted, at audiences larger than 250,000 people.

"We have based (our policies) on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all," Leathern wrote.

The expanded ad audience data features will be rolled out in the first quarter of this year and&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;plans to deploy the&nbsp;political&nbsp;ads&nbsp;control&nbsp;starting in the United States early this summer, eventually expanding this preference to more locations.

Another change will be to allow&nbsp;users&nbsp;to choose to stop&nbsp;seeing&nbsp;ads&nbsp;based on an advertiser's "Custom Audience" and that will apply to all types of advertising, not only&nbsp;political&nbsp;ads.

The "Custom Audiences" feature lets advertisers upload lists of personal data they maintain, like email addresses and phone numbers.&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;then matches that information to user accounts and shows the advertiser's content to those people.

However,&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;will not give&nbsp;users&nbsp;a blanket option to turn off the feature, meaning they will have to opt-out of&nbsp;seeing&nbsp;ads&nbsp;for each advertiser one by one, a spokesman told Reuters.

The change will also not affect ad targeting via&nbsp;Facebook's Lookalike Audiences tool, which uses the same uploads&nbsp;of personal data to direct&nbsp;ads&nbsp;at people with similar characteristics to those on the lists, the spokesman said.

Leathern said in the post the company would make new information publicly available about the audience size of&nbsp;political&nbsp;ads&nbsp;in the company's Ad Library, showing approximately&nbsp;how&nbsp;many people the advertisers aimed to reach.

The changes follow a New York Times report this week of an internal memo by senior&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;executive Andrew Bosworth, who told employees the company had a duty not to tilt the scales against&nbsp;US&nbsp;President <a href="https://www.wionews.com/.../could-iran-us-tensions-mean-troubled-waters- ahead-in-the-strait-of-hormuz-273207">Donald Trump</a>'s re-election&nbsp;campaign.

Bosworth, a close confidant of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg who subsequently made his post public, wrote that he believed&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;was responsible for Trump's&nbsp;election&nbsp;in 2016, but not because of misinformation or Trump's work with Cambridge Analytica.

Rather, he said, the Trump campaign used&nbsp;Facebook's advertising tools most effectively.

&nbsp;

Facebook Inc said on Thursday it was making some changes to its approach to political ads, including allowing users to turn off certain ad-targeting tools, but the updates stop far short of critics' demands and what rival companies have pledged to do.

Facebook Inc said on Thursday it was making some changes to its approach to political ads, including allowing users to turn off certain ad-targeting tools, but the updates stop far short of critics' demands and what rival companies have pledged to do. The world's biggest social network has vowed to curb political manipulation of its platform, after failing to counter alleged Russian interference and the misuse of user data by defunct political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica in 2016. But ahead of the US presidential election in November 2020, Facebook is struggling to quell criticism of its relatively hands-off ads policies. In particular, it has come under fire after it exempted politicians' ads from fact-checking standards applied to other content on its network. Facebook said that in addition to rolling out a tool enabling individual users to choose to see fewer political and social issue ads on Facebook and its photo-sharing app Instagram, it will also make more ad audience data publicly available. Also Read: Facebook executive says it helped put Trump in White House In contrast, Twitter Inc banned political ads in October, while Alphabet Inc's Google said it would stop letting advertisers target election ads using data such as public voter records and general political affiliations. Other online platforms like Spotify, Pinterest and TikTok have also issued bans. In a blog post, Facebook's director of product management Rob Leathern said the company considered imposing limits like Google's but decided against them as internal data indicated most ads run by US presidential candidates are broadly targeted, at audiences larger than 250,000 people. "We have based (our policies) on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all," Leathern wrote. The expanded ad audience data features will be rolled out in the first quarter of this year and Facebook plans to deploy the political ads control starting in the United States early this summer, eventually expanding this preference to more locations. Another change will be to allow users to choose to stop seeing ads based on an advertiser's "Custom Audience" and that will apply to all types of advertising, not only political ads. The "Custom Audiences" feature lets advertisers upload lists of personal data they maintain, like email addresses and phone numbers. Facebook then matches that information to user accounts and shows the advertiser's content to those people. However, Facebook will not give users a blanket option to turn off the feature, meaning they will have to opt-out of seeing ads for each advertiser one by one, a spokesman told Reuters. The change will also not affect ad targeting via Facebook's Lookalike Audiences tool, which uses the same uploads of personal data to direct ads at people with similar characteristics to those on the lists, the spokesman said. Leathern said in the post the company would make new information publicly available about the audience size of political ads in the company's Ad Library, showing approximately how many people the advertisers aimed to reach. The changes follow a New York Times report this week of an internal memo by senior Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth, who told employees the company had a duty not to tilt the scales against US President Donald Trump's re-election campaign. Bosworth, a close confidant of Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg who subsequently made his post public, wrote that he believed Facebook was responsible for Trump's election in 2016, but not because of misinformation or Trump's work with Cambridge Analytica. Rather, he said, the Trump campaign used Facebook's advertising tools most effectively.

Ahead of US election, Facebook gives users some control over how they see political ads

Alphabet Inc`s Google said on Wednesday it will ban advertisements for cryptocurrencies and related content starting in June.

Under the new policy, the company will ban ads for unregulated or speculative financial products like binary options, cryptocurrency and financial spread betting among others.&nbsp;

In a separate blog post, Google said it took down 3.2 billion ads that violated its advertising policies in 2017, nearly double the number of ads it removed in 2016.

&quot;Improving the ads experience across the web, whether that`s removing harmful ads or intrusive ads, will continue to be a top priority for us,&quot; Scott Spencer, director of sustainable ads, said.&nbsp;

In January, Facebook Inc said it will ban ads promoting financial products and services tied to cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings.

The policy will be implemented across its platforms, including Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram, the company said.

Google said it took down 3.2 billion ads that violated its advertising policies in 2017

Alphabet Inc`s Google said on Wednesday it will ban advertisements for cryptocurrencies and related content starting in June. Under the new policy, the company will ban ads for unregulated or speculative financial products like binary options, cryptocurrency and financial spread betting among others. In a separate blog post, Google said it took down 3.2 billion ads that violated its advertising policies in 2017, nearly double the number of ads it removed in 2016. "Improving the ads experience across the web, whether that`s removing harmful ads or intrusive ads, will continue to be a top priority for us," Scott Spencer, director of sustainable ads, said. In January, Facebook Inc said it will ban ads promoting financial products and services tied to cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings. The policy will be implemented across its platforms, including Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram, the company said.

Google to ban ads on cryptocurrencies, related products

ads-ban

Ads Ban, News on Ads Ban, stories on Ads Ban, articles on Ads Ban, Ads Ban stories at Wion, Ads Ban news, Ads Ban latest news

ads ban

EU launches antitrust probes on Google, Meta over online ads deal

Ahead of US election, Facebook gives users some control over how they see political ads

Google to ban ads on cryptocurrencies, related products