Thread by @JuliaAngwin

Thread alert. Facebook’s changes to its ad targeting system are a huge win for civil rights.

I want to tell a story about how that a few journalists helped that change came about - it’s a story of curiosity, persistence, teamwork, tips and expertise. /1

https://twitter.com/fbnewsroom/status/1108065626340364288

It started with curiosity + expertise. In 2016 @suryamattu and I were curious about what Facebook knew about us. So he built a tool that let people see how FB had categorized them & noticed a racial category called “Ethnic Affinity.” /2
propublica.org/article/breaki…

Next up: a tip. @rachelegoodman1 called me to tell me how FB’s racial categories could be used in illegal ways. So @terryparrisjr & I bought a housing ad & targeted it to be only shown to whites - and oops! - it was approved. /3
propublica.org/article/facebo…

@suryamattu Facebook told us that we were making a mountain out of a molehill. Never mind the fact that the Fair Housing Act prohibits discriminatory advertising. Facebook said we didn’t understand how ad targeting worked. (But a few days later they did vow to fix it) /4

@rachelegoodman1 @terryparrisjr Next up: persistence + curiosity. A year later, we wondered if Facebook had truly fixed it. So @ariana_tobin and @tenuous and I bought some housing ads excluding African-Americans, mothers, Spanish speakers etc. And - oops! - they were approved. /5

propublica.org/article/facebo…

Next up: persistence + curiosity. A year later, we wondered if it had been fixed. So @ariana_tobin and @tenuous and I bought housing ads - ones that excluded African-Americans, mothers, Spanish speakers etc. And - oops! - they were approved. /5

propublica.org/article/facebo…

@Ariana_Tobin @tenuous Facebook said sorry and they would try harder. (You’ve heard this one before). /6

Next up: teamwork & expertise. We looked for age discrimination. Using a tool that @thejefflarson built, and working with @noamscheiber at @NYTimes, we found that dozens of the nation’s top companies were only showing job ads to younger people. /7

propublica.org/article/facebo…

Facebook defended the practice of allowing advertisers to target ads by age. “We completely reject the allegation that these advertisements are discriminatory,” Facebook said of its own employment ads, which were also targeted by age. /8
newsroom.fb.com/news/h/address…

Flash forward three years, and now Facebook is eliminating all sensitive ad targeting categories for housing, employment and credit. This is a huge change, and it will hopefully open up more opportunities for people who would otherwise have been denied them. /9

It’s worth noting, however, that the investigative journalism awards don't reward multiple year persistence on one story. Most awards are consider just the work of the prior calendar year. That means that stories where impact happens years later are often overlooked. /10

This is not a personal complaint. I have plenty of awards on my wall. But it is a structural issue in the journalism field that could be addressed by things such as -- just spitballing here - adding award categories for long-term impact or multiple-year investigations. /11

This multi-year investigation is the type of persistent, curious tech-informed work that I started @team_markup to do - and we will do it regardless of award cycles. But we need more such work.

Because bringing real change in the world takes time, patience and persistence. /end