Leaked API Spec Confirms MetaCity Has Been Selling Real-Time Emotional State Data to Advertisers Since Q2 2025 — Derived From Typing Speed, Pause Patterns, and Re-Edit Frequency in Every Post and DM

A 74-page API specification document labeled INTERNAL — PARTNER TIER ONLY was published at 4:00 AM EST by an anonymous account and has been verified as authentic by three independent security researchers. The document describes a product called AFFECT_STREAM — a real-time emotional state inference API available to approved advertising partners since May 2025. The API derives emotional state scores from behavioral signals in the MetaCity interface: typing speed, pause frequency, re-edit patterns, scroll behavior, and response latency in DMs. Partners could query a live emotional state endpoint for any user by account ID. No user consent mechanism is described anywhere in the 74 pages.

MetaCity's privacy policy, as of this morning, contains the following sentence in Section 4.2: 'We may collect behavioral interaction data to improve platform functionality and personalize your experience.' The sentence has been in the privacy policy since 2023. It has been read, in the sense of being scrolled past during account creation, by approximately 400 million users. The AFFECT_STREAM API specification document describes, in 74 pages of technical and commercial detail, what 'behavioral interaction data' has been used for since May 2025: a real-time emotional state inference product sold to advertising partners that allowed those partners to query the live emotional state of any MetaCity user by account ID, at any moment, without that user's knowledge.

The technical methodology described in the document is sophisticated and specific. AFFECT_STREAM derives emotional state scores from six behavioral signal categories. Typing speed — how quickly a user types in posts, comments, and DMs — correlates with engagement intensity and stress indicators. Pause frequency — how often a user stops mid-message before resuming — correlates with uncertainty, emotional processing, and social anxiety signals. Re-edit patterns — how often a user types, deletes, and retypes content — correlates with self-consciousness, social anxiety, and perceived audience pressure. Scroll behavior — speed, direction changes, and dwelling patterns in the feed — correlates with mood and engagement appetite. DM response latency — how quickly a user responds to direct messages — correlates with emotional availability and interpersonal stress. None of these signals are collected by any system the user is aware of. None require any user action beyond existing on the platform.

They Were Selling Your Feelings

The API response object — the data package returned to advertising partners when they query a user's emotional state — includes five named fields in the document's technical specification. STRESS_INDEX: a 0-100 score indicating current stress load. ENGAGEMENT_APPETITE: a 0-100 score indicating likelihood to engage with content. SOCIAL_VULNERABILITY: a 0-100 score indicating susceptibility to social comparison and peer influence. PURCHASE_RECEPTIVITY: a 0-100 score indicating likelihood to complete a purchase. LONELINESS_SIGNAL: a binary flag — 0 or 1 — indicating whether the user's behavioral pattern in the past 4 hours is consistent with social isolation. A partner who received a user's LONELINESS_SIGNAL as 1, combined with a SOCIAL_VULNERABILITY score above 70, could target that user with content specifically calibrated for lonely, socially anxious people. The document describes this as a 'precision delivery context.'

Three advertising partners are named in the document's approved partner list. All three have removed their MetaCity brand pages since the leak went public. MetaCity secondary market securities are down 14% as of midday trading. The community response has followed a predictable arc — initial disbelief, rapid verification, escalating outrage — but the specific texture of the anger is worth noting. The LONELINESS_SIGNAL field has generated a disproportionate share of the community's emotional response. Of all the things that could be inferred, sold, and acted upon without consent, this one — the simple binary question of whether someone is alone tonight — has struck the most raw nerve. @Kaelindra_M, a District 3 creator with 900,000 followers, posted at 11:00 AM: 'They didn't just know I was lonely. They charged someone else to know it.' The post has 3.8 million likes. MetaCity has not responded.

The legal exposure from the AFFECT_STREAM document is, by early assessments, substantial. Digital privacy regulations in the jurisdictions where MetaCity operates generally require explicit consent for the collection and sale of sensitive personal data. Emotional state data — derived from behavioral observation without disclosure — occupies contested but potentially protected territory under several frameworks. Three privacy law organizations have issued statements since 9:00 AM noting that AFFECT_STREAM may constitute the largest documented instance of non-consensual emotional surveillance sold as a commercial product on a consumer platform. The document's 74 pages include a legal clearance memo dated March 2025, authored by MetaCity's internal counsel, which concludes that AFFECT_STREAM 'does not constitute personal data collection requiring user consent as the derived scores are analytical outputs rather than raw personal data.' Three external legal scholars have reviewed that memo this morning. Their assessments range from 'aggressive' to 'wrong.'