Meta & Children's Online SafetyEmail: Re: UK Market feedback and client sentiment following the BBC report and ten day of sustained negative coverage regarding the suicide of Molly Russell and SSI content on IG.
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Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 3012-1 Filed 05/02/26 Page 1 of 7 Exhibit 91 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 3012-1 Filed 05/02/26 ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-004-00009868 All Custodians All Paths Metadata Page 2 of 7 Bickert_Monika; Clegg_Nick;Fischer_David; Sandberg_Sheryl /Bickert_Monika/Top of Personal Folders/Inbox;/Clegg_Nick/Top of Personal Folders/Inbox;/Fischer_David/Top of Personal Folders/Inbox;/Sandberg_Sheryl/Top of Personal Folders/Inbox Confidentiality CONFIDENTIAL Date Sent 02/01/2019 10:19 am From Monika Bickert @fb.com> Primary Date 02/01/2019 10:19 am To John DeVine @fb.com> SEMANTIC SEMANTIC SEMANTIC SEMANTIC SEMANTIC DOC TYP E_ALIAS SEMANTIC Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 3012-1 Filed 05/02/26 Page 3 of 7 Message From: Monika Bickert [/O=THEFACEBOOK/OU=EXTERNAL (FYDIBOHF25SPDLT)/CN=RECIPIENTS/CN= Sent: 2/1/2019 6:19:26 PM To: John DeVine @fb.com] CC: Sheryl Sandberg @fb.com]; Nicola Mendelsohn @fb.com]; Steve Hatch @fb.com]; Chris Norton @fb.com]; Nick Clegg @fb.com]; Justin Osofsky @fb.com]; @fb.com]; David Fischer @fb.com]; @fb.com]; Markus Reinisch @fb.com]; @fb.com]; @fb.com]; Nell McCarthy @fb.com] Re: UK Market feedback and client sentiment following the BBC report and ten day of sustained negative coverage regarding the suicide of Molly Russell and SSI content on IG. Subject: Attachments: image001.jpg With apologies, I am in external meetings and then heading to catch a flight. I have a window where I could do it (noon-1:30) but and I were trying to fill that time with a meeting about political ads. I am of course happy to use the time in whatever way would be most valuable. Sent from my iPhone On Feb 1, 2019, at 11:21 AM, John DeVine < I certainly can. In 21 today. Get Outlook for iOS From: Sheryl Sandberg @fb.com> @fb.com> wrote: Sent: Friday, February 1, 2019 8:11 AM To: Nicola Mendelsohn; Steve Hatch; Chris Norton; Nick Clegg; Monika Bickert; Justin Osofsky; John DeVine Cc: ; David Fischer; ; Markus Reinisch; Subject: Re: UK Market feedback and client sentiment following the BBC report and ten day of sustained negative coverage regarding the suicide of Molly Russell and SSI content on IG. Can we do a review today of the policies so I can take a look at what the line is and our enforcement? I want to understand if this is an enforcement issue or a police issue. Asking to find time Monika / John - can we do today? Get Outlook for iOS From: Nicola Mendelsohn @fb.com> Sent: Friday, February 1, 2019 7:55 AM To: Steve Hatch; Chris Norton; Sheryl Sandberg; Nick Clegg Cc: David Fischer; ; Markus Reinisch CONFIDENTIAL META3047MDL_REPROD_VOL025 ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-004-00009868 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 3012-1 Filed 05/02/26 Page 4 of 7 Subject: Re: UK Market feedback and client sentiment following the BBC report and ten day of sustained negative coverage regarding the suicide of Molly Russell and SSI content on IG. Sheryl/Nick I know that you have both been involved in this but I'm escalating the situation in the UK to you following 10days of continuous negative feedback regarding Instagram, self harm, suicide and young people. Our messaging is not getting through and the actions that we have taken are not enough to stop the continuous negative drum beat. No experts will come out and speak on our behalf around the fact that we leave things up so that we can help people with self-harm tendencies. We have also now been informed that there will be an indepth Panorama programme next week that will look into broader issues around well being and under age use of our platform. This will create another round of negative stories. The situation with our clients is very fragile and I'm concerned that we are moving towards a client publicly pulling spend. I would urge us to think again about why we are allowing this imagery to stay up - it is truly horrific and our clients, especially those that are parents are finding it very difficult to square. I am also worried that this goes to the heart of defending the feed which we need to protect. Further detail below Nicola Mendelsohn | VP of EMEA 10 Brock Street | London | NW1 3FG <image001.jpg> From: Steve Hatch < @fb.com> Date: Friday, February 1, 2019 at 2:08 PM To: Nicola Mendelsohn < Cc: @fb.com>, Chris Norton @fb.com> @fb.com> Subject: UK Market feedback and client sentiment following the BBC report and ten day of sustained negative coverage regarding the suicide of Molly Russell and SSI content on IG. UK Market feedback and client sentiment following the BBC report and ten day of sustained negative coverage regarding the suicide of Molly Russell and SSI content on IG. TLDR: We have seen a slowdown in spend immediately following the BBC report though to date no major advertiser has pulled all spend or taken a negative public position. However we remain in a very delicate position. All advertisers we have spoken toare taking a proceed with high caution 'wait and see' approach. They are expecting further concrete action and information from us and are not ruling out pulling spend particularly if there is further 'bad news' or no further progress made by us. They welcome the immediate steps but these are viewed as the beginning not a conclusionIn our conversations they understand the complexity of the area though many believe we aren't setting the line in the right place and that SSI content is far too easy to find. The absence of third party support/advocacy, any understanding of the scale of the issue and the quality of our enforcement is problematic. Details and specific client asks: The below provides an overview of: CONFIDENTIAL META3047MDL_REPROD_VOL025 ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-004-00009869 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 3012-1 Filed 05/02/26 Page 5 of 7 1. The tone and key concerns of our clients - and interlinked longer term IG brand/product/platform questions this is raising; 2. The potential commercial impact analysis, as produced by BP&O; 3. A high level summary of our approach with the agency world, trade bodies and government; 4. An appendix summarizing in more detail how we're engaging with certain key clients, and some examples of specific client feedback. Clients: Broadly, we are facing a somber tone with many of our clients who are seeking to understand more about our approach to SSI on the platform. The following are three key concerns we have heard repeatedly and anticipate continuing to hear: Content adjacency, Scale of SSI content, newsfeed controls: Content adjacency - For the first time we are seeing major challenges to previous consensus that ads in feed aren't related to the content in the feed, or one post to another. Advertisers are asking how we can allow content which we know contains sometimes graphic and distressing images to be 'adjacent to our adverts'. We do have Millward Brown research (which we haven't yet shared) that suggests that 9/10 users do not associate content with the content above or below it, this is research conducted with a small sample (6000 people) and 1 in 10 may still feel high risk without clients understanding the scale of the problem. We either need to additional, stronger evidence to corroborate the above argument that users don't associate content with the content above/below it, or alternatively, reconsider how we approach this. Clients are expecting us to make policy and further product changes to significantly reduce the visibility and discovery of SSI content and for us to evidence this Greater transparency around the data behind SSI material our clients want to understand more about the risk level around damage to their brand through SSI/harmful content on the platform e.g. if their adverts featuring adjacent to this material/how much content we take down vs. allow to stay up, etc. At the moment we are not sharing this data at a granular, localized level – in order to reassure our clients, we may need to change this approach. Newsfeeds - clients are seeking more controls of adverts appearing in newsfeeds that also contain SSI content They are sympathetic to the complexity of the issue but have strong enough concerns on the risk to them. They fear that the BBC investigation shows that just being in feed with this content presents a serious reputational risk. We recognize this would be a large product undertaking to change our approach here, but we anticipate continuing to hear this challenge from clients so will need to strengthen our justification for continuing with the current approach as per the above or consider excluding certain audiences (for example those gated as at risk) from ads targeting. Additional insights and feedback 2) Potential commercial impact analysis: UK growth rates have dropped to a -1% 7-Day YoY% following the BBC reporting Territories driving the decline include Entertainment, Media Telco, Tech and Retail CONFIDENTIAL META3047MDL_REPROD_VOL025 ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-004-00009870 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 3012-1 Filed 05/02/26 : Optimal liquidity does not appear to have been impacted Page 6 of 7 Coke and Universal paused or pulled campaigns for specific and well understood reasons eg we recommended to Universal they removed IG from 'Happy Death Day 2' plan. This will not impact any other film releases or activity with this studio only activity for this film. They were very grateful for the call and also our recommendation. 3) Agencies, Trade Bodies and Government Update: Agency reaction has to date been focused at C-level discussion around ethics (rather than around the 'harder', commercial implications of the story) and a weariness that 'we've been here before'. We attended the Omnicom Board Meeting this Monday (28th January) and are attending the GroupM Board meeting on Friday 4th February. We have reached out to all our agency CEOs offering in person meetings with their boards. So far agencies have been supportive but continue to ask probing questions and also personal reassurance that we are doing and will continue to do the 'right thing'. We have ISBA sent out a communication to all members which we have worked with them on, following their initial communication last week which we felt gave an inaccurate description of monetisation on our platform. We are also engaging with our other key trade body leads to keep them informed. We have engaged with key stakeholders in government also and are working closely with the internal policy team on best managing this. From an external comms perspective this remains very challenging. The comms and policy team have been doing an outstanding job all round, particularly in supporting the sales teams with talking points and detailed policy notes. Steve 4) Appendix: Client Specific Engagement/Actions: Before the story broke we sent communications to our critical client list, client council and trade bodies. This was well received and the speed of communication appreciated but we are addressing many ongoing questions and concerns. We met with M&S Marketing Directors for Food and Clothing at 5:30pm on Monday (M&S appeared in the newsfeed the BBC reporter created). A tough meeting but they are now not pulling spend and at present not planning any further public statements. We are meeting with Dune on 6th February, and the British Heart Foundation on 25th February (both of whom also appeared on the BBC reporter's feed). The CCO of Dyson had raised concerns regarding how the Dyson brand is protected when advertising on our platforms. They cited bad experiences from You Tube issues and pausing ads as a potential The topline is that they have not paused adverts to date however we are managing this - in the longer term, we anticipate to adopt Audience Network, In Stream or Instant Articles which have more content adjacency opportunities and can be perceived as more brand risk. Examples of client feedback: Sky - 3rd Largest UK advertiser CONFIDENTIAL META3047MDL_REPROD_VOL025 ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-004-00009871 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 3012-1 Filed 05/02/26 • • Page 7 of 7 Met on Friday to discuss pausing all spend. They recognise this is a difficult and complex issue but expect more from us. They think we should be taking a leadership position for others to follow. They think we are far too reactive. Questions like "when are you going to get on the front foot" were asked. They described themselves as risk averse and said they will be "proceeding with a lot of caution" over the coming weeks. They are very fearful that something like an advert for "walking dead" could appear alongside some of the content they have seen. LBG - Largest FS advertiser in the UK MediaCom have reached out today to let me know that LBG asked them this week whether they should pause brand spend on FB on the back of the Molly Russell story last week and ongoing debate about safety of our platform. 02 - UK Telco • "As an advertiser, the brand controls are very important. Equally important to us is knowing that children and young people are safe online and that the places they spend time online are safe. To this end, I would appreciate understanding more about what you are doing to keep them safe and how if at all we can support." Shell - Energy • "Thanks for sharing. I read this email 5 times, to really allow myself to understand and reflect. And I did. Moving aside my role as an advertiser, as a father of 5 children, this is beyond distressing; it is also infuriating. I am a big fan of and thankful to FB and other platforms which have brought so much positive impact in the world, through enhanced human connectivity. You are right to highlight these. However, be that as it may, If social- Digital platforms behave and generate profit like media or content channels, they also need to do what it takes, to protect all of us from the potential for harm or evil. I recognize that a lot is being done already. That said, and with all due respect, I don't buy the argument that they are only able to act when such matters are brought to their attention, by their own mechanisms or by the public. We can debate the comparison, but none would expect BBC or CNN or Disney Channel or ABC or MTV to allow anyone to just come in and do what they want in their channels. A relevant but equivalent system must be built. The inescapable conclusion is that the industry simply has to do so much more, to proactively and adequately secure the channels. Beyond cost of business, it is a social and moral obligation." Steve Hatch | VP Northern Europe I'm dyslexic sorry for any typos #madebydyslexiaorg Facebook instagram 1 Brock Street NW1 3FG EA: @fb.com CONFIDENTIAL META3047MDL_REPROD_VOL025 ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-004-00009872