Facebook employee called inflated ad metrics ‘deeply wrong’

Facebook Inc. internal emails made public in court reveal an employee’s concerns that the company misrepresented advertisers’ estimated audience, calling the practice “deeply wrong.” But senior executives didn’t want to fix the problem because the impact on revenue would have been “significant”, according to a filing Wednesday in San Francisco federal court.

Facebook is fighting a 2018 lawsuit by a small business owner alleging that the social media giant has for years inflated its estimates of the number of people an ad could and would reach. A judge this month refused to dismiss fraud claims and said the company should prepare for trial, while throwing out breach of contract allegations.