(The Verge)
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has filed charges against Facebook for housing discrimination, escalating the company’s ongoing fight over discrimination in its ad targeting system. The charges build on a complaint filed in August, finding that there is reasonable cause to believe Facebook has served ads that violate the Fair Housing Act.
“Facebook is discriminating against people based upon who they are and where they live,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in a statement. “Using a computer to limit a person’s housing choices can be just as discriminatory as slamming a door in someone’s face.”
ProPublica first raised concerns over housing discrimination on Facebook in 2016, when reporters found that the “ethnic affinities” tool could be used to exclude black or Hispanic users from seeing specific ads. If those ads were for housing or employment opportunities, the targeting could easily violate federal law. At the time, Facebook had no internal safeguards in place to prevent such targeting.
“WE’RE DISAPPOINTED BY TODAY’S DEVELOPMENTS,” FACEBOOK SAYS
Facebook has struggled to effectively address the possibility of discriminatory ad targeting. The company pledged to step up anti-discrimination enforcement in the wake of ProPublica’s reporting, but a follow-up report in 2017 found the same problems persisted nearly a year later. Read more