Facebook has been accused of discrimination with targeted housing, employment, and credit advertisements on the platform, and has now settled with a number of labor and civil rights groups.
The giant tech company, according to NBC News, “reached a settlement with civil rights organizations and labor groups that had accused the company of enabling discrimination in housing, employment and credit advertising.”
“As part of the settlement, the company will introduce changes to its ad platform that prevent advertisers for housing, employment or credit from discriminating based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and several other factors covered by federal, state, and local civil rights laws,” NBC News reported. “This will include the creation of a separate advertising portal for housing, employment and credit ads across the Facebook platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.”
The company faced lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), and Communications Workers of America (CWA), because it was revealed that Facebook was enabling discrimination with its targeted advertising.
It was reported in 2017, that many companies had been using Facebook’s targeted advertisement system to exclude older users and particular genders from job postings.
FB’s system also can allow advertisers to include or exclude targeted races, users with children, and other categories from certain ads.
Last July, Facebook signed a new legally binding agreement with the state of Washington, promising to stop discriminatory advertisement and agreeing to remove advertisers’ ability to exclude religions, races, sexual orientations, and other protected classes.
