HUD is charging Facebook with housing discrimination, alleging that its targeted advertising platform violates the Fair Housing Act by 'encouraging, enabling, and causing' unlawful discrimination by restricting who can view housing ads.
Facebook has been accused of enabling housing discrimination by allowing advertisers to exclude people based on race, gender, ZIP Code or religion.
A Twitter spokesman said company policies prohibit targeted advertising when it comes to racial or ethnic origin, religion, negative financial condition and commission of a crime. He declined to comment further on HUD’s interest in the company.Thursday’s charges caught Facebook off guard, coming a week after the social media giant agreed into overhaul its microtargeting ad system for job, housing and loan advertisements after discrimination complaints.
HUD Secretary Ben Carson accused Facebook last August of enabling housing discrimination by allowing advertisers to exclude people based on race, gender, ZIP Code or religion. The move followed a nearly two-year preliminary investigation initiated during the Obama administration. The housing agency claims that Facebook mines users’ extensive personal data and uses characteristics protected by law — race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, sex and disability — to determine who can view housing ads, regardless of whether an advertiser wants to reach a broad or narrow audience.
“By grouping users who ‘like’ similar pages and presuming a shared interest or disinterest in housing-related advertisements, [Facebook’s] mechanisms function just like an advertiser who intentionally targets or excludes users based on their protected class,” the complaint said.
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