The Mercury News Weekend

Inside: Facebook faces allegation­s that financial ads are sexist, ageist.

- By Joel Rosenblatt Bloomberg News

Facebook was sued over claims that tailored advertisin­g for financial services on the social media network discrimina­tes against its older and female users who might be interested in products such as mortgages, personal loans and insurance.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court, alleges Facebook helped financial services companies target users based on age and gender, resulting in younger people and men getting a disproport­ionate number of services and opportunit­ies.

Facebook has “aided and abetted numerous financial services companies” in denying its users “full and equal” advantages, according to the suit.

The social media giant said it’s reviewing the complaint.

“We’ve made significan­t changes to how housing, employment and credit opportunit­ies are run on Facebook and continue to work on ways to prevent potential misuse,” the company said in a statement. “Our policies have long prohibited discrimina­tion and we’re proud of the strides we’re making in this area.”

Separately, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunit­y Commission alleges several Facebook advertiser­s broke the law by restrictin­g job postings on the social network to people of certain ages or genders. The EEOC claim is part of a wider government probe, including with the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Developmen­t, of so- called digital discrimina­tion.

The case is Opiotennio­ne v. Facebook, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco)

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