thehill : Facebook ads can exclude users by race: report

Facebook ads can exclude users by race: report

Facebook's ad portal allows users to exclude certain races from their advertising, ProPublica reported Friday.ADVERTISEMENT A screenshot taken after ProPublica purchased a housing ad on Facebook's platform showed a prompt allowing users to "EXCLUDE people who match with at least ONE of the following." The list below this text allows users to select from African-American, Asian-American or Hispanic.Civil rights lawyer John Relman called the option "horrifying" and "massively illegal.""This is about as blatant a violation of the federal Fair Housing Act as one can find," Relman told ProPublica.

Facebook reportedly allows advertisers to exclude racial groups in housing ads

Facebook advertisers can now exclude racial and ethnic groups when creating a housing ad on the social media site, according to a report from ProPublica.The feature, called "ethnic affinities," lets advertisers exclude certain groups of Facebook users.Under the federal Fair Housing Act, people are prohibited from discriminating based on race, gender, religion and other factors.

Advertisers can exclude racial groups on Facebook

09:13, 29 October 2016 SaturdayAdvertisers can exclude racial groups on FacebookWorld Bulletin / News DeskFacebook allows advertisers to screen users according to race, a practice that could violate federal anti-discrimination housing laws, a new report released Friday claims.The social media giant permits advertisers to target or exclude specific ethnic or racial groups using a marketing feature on the social network called "Ethnic Affinities." Researchers released the report in the non-profit investigative news outlet ProPublica."Imagine if, during the Jim Crow era, a newspaper offered advertisers the option of placing ads only in copies that went to white readers," Julia Angwin and Terry Paris, Jr. wrote in the article.