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1/ Big news: Facebook will no longer allow advertisers to target users by age, gender and ZIP code for housing, employment and credit offers. It’s part of a major settlement with civil rights orgs who sued FB following our coverage. propub.li/2Y75Rqx
2/ Facebook says it has “not seen the kind of explicit discriminatory behavior that civil rights groups are concerned about.”
But we found dozens of examples, thanks to those of you who participated in our crowdsourcing project.
But we found dozens of examples, thanks to those of you who participated in our crowdsourcing project.
3/ There were job ads that excluded workers over 40… propub.li/2Y761y9
4/ ...and job ads on Facebook that excluded women: propub.li/2TixzNx
5/ As longtime readers will recall: We’ve been long been detailing how Facebook has let advertisers discriminate. Our test housing ads – in which we deliberately excluded by race, religion & other categories – often sailed through in a matter of seconds.
6/ And in a 2017 test, we bought ads specifically targeting users the platform categorized as “Jew haters.” propub.li/2Y8e7qj
7/ Today’s promised changes are part of Facebook’s settlement in five discrimination lawsuits. The company was up against @ACLU, @natfairhouse, @CWAUnion, as well as individual consumers and job seekers.
8/ “There is a long history of discrimination in the areas of housing, employment and credit, and this harmful behavior should not happen through Facebook ads,” Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg wrote in a statement. newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/03/p…
9/9 If you want more of our awesome reporting – the kind that changes big companies’ dubious practices – sign up for our Big Story newsletter: go.propublica.org/bigstory-social
