Thread by @ProPublica

1/ Earlier this year Facebook said it had rolled out a system that would catch advertisers who tried to buy housing, credit and employment ads that excluded people by race.

We tested it. Our discriminatory ads for rental apartments sailed through.
propub.li/2mPl29n

2/ The Fair Housing Act makes it illegal to publish ads for housing that discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.

We bought ads that discriminated in each category. All were approved.

3/ Facebook says it was a glitch.

4/ In case you are feeling a sense of deja vu – yes, this happened last fall too.

We bought an ad in Facebook’s housing categories that discriminated against African Americans, Asian Americans and Spanish-dominant Hispanics. propub.li/2mPJqI2

5/ After our story appeared, Facebook said it would fix its system:

5/ So this year, we retried our ad-buying experiment to test Facebook’s new enforcement.

Facebook didn’t reject a single ad we submitted.

We never saw a “self-certification screen.”

6/ In fact, the only two changes we could identify between 2016-2017 were wording tweaks. “Ethnic affinity” is now “multicultural affinity,” and moved from the “demographics” bucket to “behaviors.”

7/ Here are just a few examples of the housing ads Facebook approved this time around:

8/ This is a housing ad that excludes "expats" from Guatemala, Mexico, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. It was approved in about a minute.

9/ This is a housing ad that excludes many types of Jews. It was approved within a minute or two.

10/ This is a housing ad that excludes many types of Muslims. This one took a little longer – 22 minutes. But, yes, approved.

11/ This is a housing ad that only includes men, and only those who are “interested in” women. Approved in about two minutes.

12/ This is a housing ad that excludes people interested in braille and guide dogs for the blind. Approved in 30 seconds.

13/ This is a housing ad that excludes parents, “stay at home moms,” “moms of grade school kids, “corporate moms,” “green moms,” and more. It was approved in about two minutes.

14/ This is a housing ad that targets specific majority-white zip codes in Brooklyn. See those blue lines? Approved within three minutes.

15/15 Stay tuned for what happens next.

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