Facebook charged with racial discrimination in targeted housing ads
Facebook charged with racial discrimination in targeted
housing ads
Akanksha Rana MARCH 28, 2019 / 5:00 AM
(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) charged Facebook Inc on Thursday with violating the Fair
Housing Act, alleging that the company’s targeted advertising discriminated on
the basis of race and color.
Seeking damages and unspecified appropriate relief for
the harm caused, HUD said in its civil charge that Facebook also restricted who
could see housing-related ads based on national origin, religion, familial
status, sex and disability.
Facebook said it had been working with HUD on the issue
and was surprised by the department’s decision to issue the charge, having
taken significant steps to prevent ads that discriminate across its platforms.
The social media giant said last week it would create a
new advertising portal for ads linked to housing and employment that would
limit targeting options for advertisers and pledged to build a tool that would
allow users to search all current housing ads listed in the United States,
regardless of whether the ads were directed at them.
The HUD charge said that Facebook enabled advertisers to
exclude people whom the social network’s data classified as parents,
non-American-born, non-Christian, or a variety of other interests that closely
align with the Fair Housing Act’s protected classes.
“Facebook is discriminating against people based upon who
they are and where they live,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said. “Using a computer
to limit a person’s housing choices can be just as discriminatory as slamming a
door in someone’s face.”
Advertising practices at the world’s largest social
network, with 2.7 billion users and nearly $56 billion in annual revenue, have
been under the microscope for about two years of growing discontent over
Facebook’s approach to privacy and user data.
News organization ProPublica reported as far back as 2016
that advertisers could target ads through Facebook based on people’s
self-reported jobs, even if the job was “Jew hater”.
ProPublica later reported that it was able to buy
discriminatory housing ads and slip them past Facebook’s review process,
despite the company’s claims it was blocking such ads.
Since then, Facebook has undergone legal pressure over
the issue from the National Fair Housing Alliance, the American Civil Liberties
Union and the Communications Workers of America, among other groups and
individuals.
The civil charge follows an investigation by HUD in
August when it filed a formal complaint against Facebook for violating the Fair
Housing Act by allowing landlords and home sellers to use its advertising
platform to engage in housing discrimination.
The charge will be heard by a U.S. law administrative
judge who can award damages for harm caused by the discrimination, along with
fines and injunctive and other equitable relief.
The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing
and related services, which includes online advertisements, based on race,
color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or familial status.
Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by
Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Bernard Orr
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