ACLU Accuses Facebook of Allowing Bias Against Women in Job Ads

Facebook has been criticized in recent years over revelations that its technology allowed landlords to discriminate on the basis of race, and employers to discriminate on the basis of age. Now a group of job seekers is alleging that Facebook helps employers exclude female candidates from recruiting campaigns.  The job seekers, in collaboration with the Communications Workers of America and the American Civil Liberties Union, are filing charges with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Facebook and 9 employers. The employers appear to have used Facebook’s targeting technology to exclude women from the users who received their advertisements, which highlighted openings for jobs like truck driver and window installer. The charges were filed on behalf of any women who searched for a job on Facebook during roughly the past year. Debra Katz, a Washington-based employment lawyer not involved in the case, said the advertising campaigns appeared to violate federal law, which forbids employers and employment agencies like recruiting firms from discriminating on the basis of gender, among other categories. Some state laws also forbid aiding and abetting discrimination.