StockTok: Meta revises limits on ad data to assuage CMA scrutiny

Welcome to “StockTok,” The Fly’s weekly recap of Wall Street’s reactions to social media stock news.

CMA COMPLIANT: The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority announced that it has accepted proposals to vary Meta Platforms’ (META) commitments in the way it uses advertising customers’ data. Under the original commitments, Meta pledged to limit how it uses advertising customers’ data in order to prevent it from getting an unfair advantage. Competitors of Facebook Marketplace that advertised on Meta platforms could ‘opt out’ of their data being used to improve Facebook Marketplace. The varied commitments give Meta an additional way to implement the data controls set up in the original commitments. Meta currently plans to adopt this new approach meaning that all advertisers can retain the ability to place advertisements on Facebook Marketplace and be certain of their advertising data not being used to improve Facebook Marketplace, without having to opt in or out. Having consulted advertisers and Facebook Marketplace users on the proposals, the CMA has concluded that the revisions go above and beyond the original commitments and would not leave any advertisers worse off. As a result, the CMA has accepted the proposed variation.

NEW WEBINAR OFFERING: Zoom Video (ZM) announced the launch of its new single-use webinar offering, which can host up to 1M attendees. In addition to its monthly and annual webinar subscription options, Zoom now offers a range of single-use webinar options to accommodate larger event sizes. Customers can now choose webinars for 10K, 50K, 100K, 250K, 500K, and 1M attendee capacities.

XCOMMUNICATED: X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is closing its operations in Brazil “effective immediately” over what it calls “censorship orders” by Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes, Reuters’ Luana Maria Benedito reported. X alleges Moraes secretly threatened one of the company’s legal representatives in the South American country with arrest if it did not comply with legal orders to take down some content from its platform. “To protect the safety of our staff, we have made the decision to close our operation in Brazil, effective immediately,” X said.

DSA FOLLOW UP: The European Commission has sent Meta a request for information under the Digital Services Act. Following the discontinuation of CrowdTangle on August 14, the Commission is requesting Meta to provide more information on the measures it has taken to comply with its obligations to give researchers access to data that is publicly accessible on the online interface of Facebook and Instagram, as required by the DSA, and on its plans to update its election and civic discourse monitoring functionalities. Specifically, the Commission is requesting information about Meta’s content library and application programming interface, including their eligibility criteria, the application process, the data that can be accessed and functionalities. On April 30, the Commission opened formal proceedings against Meta under the DSA, which are ongoing. One of the grievances focused on the non-availability of an effective third-party, real-time civic discourse and election-monitoring tool ahead of the elections to the European Parliament and national elections, as well as shortcomings in Meta’s provision of access for researchers to publicly available data. To alleviate the Commission’s concerns in view of the European Parliament elections, at the end of May Meta deployed new functionalities in CrowdTangle, notably 27 new public real time visual dashboards, one for each Member State, to allow third party real time civic discourse and election monitoring. These functionalities have now been discontinued. Meta must provide the requested information by September 6. Based on the assessment of the replies, the Commission will determine the next steps, which could include interim measures, and non-compliance decisions.

ANALYST COMMENTARY: Tigress Financial raised the firm’s price target on Meta to $645 from $575 and reiterated a Strong Buy rating on the shares post the Q2 report. The analyst said Meta’s increasing cash flow is enabling ongoing investments in artificial intelligence initiatives that drive increasing user engagement, better content, and a more effective advertising experience.

Wedbush said that, after a “notably volatile” Q2 earnings season, the firm is taking a closer look at results, forward guidance, and management commentary across its consumer internet coverage. While Q2 results were “healthy” across the group, guidance for Q3 was mixed as seven out of the 18 companies in Wedbush’s coverage provided an outlook that was below the firm’s estimates and consensus. The firm comes away from Q2 earnings most positive on the near-term setup for MercadoLibre (MELI), Meta Platforms, Sea Limited (SE), Shopify (SHOP), and Trade Desk (TTD).