Why we would never pay Meta for ads

1. The UN says Meta is profiting from genocide

In July 2025, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, released a landmark report titled “From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide.” The report explicitly names Meta (alongside other tech giants) as a corporate entity sustaining Israel’s military atrocities in Gaza.

The findings are staggering: The Tel Aviv stock exchange soared by 213% during the genocide, amassing $225.7 billion in market gains. Israeli military spending surged 65% from 2023 to 2024 – $46.5 billion. The report states that tech giants have set up R&D hubs and data centers in Israel, “using Palestinian data for AI warfare,” fueling what Albanese calls a “livestreamed genocide”.

The report concludes that corporate actors “are deeply entwined in the system of occupation, apartheid and genocide”, and that the international community’s greed for profit is why the destruction continues.

2. Facebook ran ads funding Israeli military strikes

If the UN report felt abstract, this is concrete: In 2025, global consumer watchdog Ekō identified at least 117 ads running on Facebook and Instagram that were explicitly fundraising for Israeli military gear – including sniper tripods, thermal drones, and combat equipment used in Gaza. One ad read: “We are the sniper team of Unit Shaked, stationed in Gaza, and we urgently need shooting tripods to complete our mission in Jabalia”.

These ads remained live for months, raising millions of dollars. According to Ekō, “This shows that Meta will literally take money from anybody”. Meta only removed the ads after being contacted by The Guardian. And even then, they removed them for lacking political disclaimers, not for fundraising for weapons.

Let that sink in. An ad for ethical skincare could be sitting right next to a fundraiser for military snipers. Meta’s “checks and balances” are a myth.

3. Meta’s algorithms fueled the Rohingya genocide

Before Gaza, there was Myanmar. Amnesty International has extensively documented how Facebook (Meta) was an “echo chamber of virulent anti-Rohingya hatred” leading up to the 2017 ethnic cleansing. A UN report concluded that Meta was “instrumental in the radicalization of local populations and the incitement of violence against the Rohingya”.

In February 2025, a whistleblower complaint was filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that Meta misled shareholders about the risks of its operations in Myanmar, prioritizing profit over human life. Amnesty’s investigation found that Meta “substantially contributed to the atrocities” and bears responsibility for providing remedies to survivors.

Meta rejected a request from Rohingya communities for a $1 million education project as remediation, despite the company making $134 billion in profits in 2023. That is 0.0007% of their profit. And they said no.

4. The new “Community Notes” policy is a greenlight for hate

In January 2025, Mark Zuckerberg announced the end of Meta’s third-party fact-checking program, replacing it with an X-style “Community Notes” system. Simultaneously, Meta loosened restrictions on hateful content, allowing users to call women “household objects” and LGBTQIA+ people “mentally ill”.

Amnesty International has warned that this retreat “poses a grave threat to vulnerable communities globally and drastically increases the risk that the company will yet again contribute to mass violence and gross human rights abuses”. A former Meta employee told Platformer: “I really think this is a precursor for genocide”.

In Myanmar, experts fear that Community Notes will be useless against the military junta’s disinformation campaigns, allowing anti-Rohingya propaganda to flourish unchecked.

5. Censorship of Palestinians while arming Israel

Meta’s hypocrisy is absolute. While allowing ads to fund Israeli military atrocities, Meta has systematically silenced pro-Palestinian voices. Human Rights Watch documented in December 2023 that Meta’s policies were “silencing voices in support of Palestine and Palestinian human rights on Instagram and Facebook”.

In September 2025, Palestinian digital rights organization 7amleh released “Meta’s Role in Amplifying Harmful Content During Genocide in Gaza,” exposing Meta’s failure to protect Palestinians from incitement and hate speech in Hebrew, while actively censoring Palestinian perspectives. They silence the victims, platform the perpetrators, then cash the checks.

6. Climate disinformation and a climate denier as “AI advisor”

In September 2025, DeSmog revealed that Meta had appointed Robby Starbuck – a conservative activist who has called climate change “a conspiracy” – as its new artificial intelligence anti-bias advisor.

Meanwhile, Avaaz research found climate misinformation posts amassed 25 million views on Facebook. Stop Funding Heat identified 38,925 posts promoting climate misinformation; only 3.6% were fact-checked. Meta’s AI data centers run largely on fossil fuels, while the company walks back its sustainability commitments.

They are literally putting a climate denier in charge of “AI ethics” while their algorithms boost climate lies. This is not incompetence – this is strategic alignment.

7. The surveillance advertising model is toxic by design

Finally, let’s talk about the business model. Meta does not sell ads. Meta sells you. Their entire operation is surveillance capitalism: harvesting your data, your behavior, your location, your relationships, and selling access to the highest bidder.

The Open Rights Group’s “Bad Ads” report (April 2025) provides exhaustive evidence of how this system enables voter suppression, targeting of minorities, political manipulation by dark money groups, and deepfake scams. Meta refuses to publish full ad targeting details, preventing public scrutiny.

As a business, when you pay for a Meta ad, you are not just buying reach. You are financing a global surveillance infrastructure that has been weaponized against democracy, human rights, and the planet.