Facebook sued for housing and employment bias

Facebook has been sued for discrimination in housing and employment based on the ability of advertisers to target ads at specific “ethnic affinities.” The suit, filed Nov 3 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses the Menlo Park (CA)-based company with violating federal anti-discrimination laws for housing and employment. The practice came to light late in Oct when the non-profit news organization Pro Publica published an analysis showing that the social network lets advertisers target who sees their ads by “ethnic affinity.” The wording on Facebook's ad-buy page under “Narrow audience” says “EXCLUDE people who match at least ONE of the following," and includes African American, Asian Americans and four categories of Hispanics. Ad purchasers can also add demographic interest or behaviors they want to exclude. The suit notes that there is no option in the Facebook platform to exclude the demographic of "White or Caucasian Americans from the target audience."

Facebook policies prohibit the use of its ad targeting to discrimination. The company explained to ProPublica that the targeting was meant to allow advertisers to test various marketing strategies and focuses on affinities, not genetic makeup. "The lawsuit is utterly without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously. Multicultural marketing is a common practice in the ad industry and helps brands reach audiences with more relevant advertising. Our policies prohibit using our targeting options to discriminate, and they require compliance with the law,” Facebook spokeswoman Genevieve Grdina said.