We know that social media giant Meta Platforms (META) is pushing the envelope in a lot of technology sectors, including the artificial intelligence (AI) front. But the rise of AI comes with a dark side: an increasing difficulty in finding a human when things go wrong. A new report out suggests one business whose social media accounts were canceled had to go on a month-long ordeal to get them reinstated. Meta stock, meanwhile, still managed to gain fractionally in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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Funktasy Inc., which handles both a music magazine and a suite of record labels in Montreal, recently ran afoul of Meta after its Facebook and Instagram accounts were both shut down for a month. Apparently, Meta’s automated tools had flagged the founder and director of Funktasy, Amir Hosseini, for “child sexual exploitation.” This turned out to be a mistake, one Meta later apologized for.
Hosseini, meanwhile, tried to clear his name, starting with the Meta fraud team. But only an automated message came back to him. Going to the escalation accounts team, meanwhile, netted a similar result. After a month of such back-and-forth, Meta finally reinstated his accounts…only to shut them down again the next day, again alleging the account “…still doesn’t follow our Community Standards on sexualization of children.” But this time, only days later, the account was reinstated once more, this time with an apology. Ultimately, reports note, Hosseini purchased a $171-per-month subscription to Verified Page, which allowed him access to a human agent. This, he considers, was “buying insurance.”
Buy In?
Meta’s intense focus on AI of late has drawn attention, and this is causing some concern among investors. Those who follow the basic standard of not investing in anything you do not understand are facing a quandary with Meta, as it pursues what it calls “superintelligence.” Given that the product in question neither exists nor has a clear definition, this is prompting concern.
With Meta throwing money at AI like no tomorrow, up to and including billion-dollar pay packages for some engineers, this is the direction Meta is going. Some investors are finding this notion a bit too risky. Others are considering it more a matter of investing in potential. Where investors will go on this one, meanwhile, remains to be seen.
Is Meta Platforms a Buy, Sell or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on META stock based on 41 Buys and six Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 22.86% rally in its share price over the past year, the average META price target of $877.91 per share implies 23.17% upside potential.
