Facebook facing federal complaint
Ads’ role in housing discrimination may result in lawsuit.
WASHINGTON — Housing Secretary Ben Carson accused Facebook on Friday of enabling illegal housing discrimination by giving landlords and developers advertising tools that made it easy to exclude people based on race, gender, zip code or religion — or whether a potential renter has young children at home or a personal disability.
The action, which comes after nearly two years of preliminary investigation, amounts to a formal legal complaint against the company and starts a process that could culminate in a federal lawsuit against Facebook. It stands accused of creating advertising targeting tools — which classified people according to interests such as “English as Second Language” or “Disabled Parking Permit” — that resulted in violations of the Federal Housing Act.
The move by the Department of Housing and Urban Development came on the same day that the Justice Department also targeted Facebook on similar issues. In that action, the government took the side of several fair-housing groups in opposing Facebook’s efforts to have a discrimination lawsuit dismissed, arguing that Facebook can be held liable when its ad-targeting tools allow advertisers to unfairly deprive some categories of people of housing offers.
Taken together, the moves mark an escalation of federal scrutiny of how Facebook’s tools may create illegal forms of discrimination, allegations that also are central to separate lawsuits regarding the access to credit and employment opportunities, which, like housing, are subject to federal legal protection. The federal action also suggests limits on the reach of a key federal law, the Communications Decency Act, that long has been interpreted as offering technology companies broad immunity against many types of legal claims related to online content.
Facebook said in a statement Friday afternoon, “There is no place for discrimination on Facebook; it’s strictly prohibited in our policies. Over the past year we’ve strengthened our systems to further protect against misuse. We’re aware of the statement of interest filed and will respond in court; we’ll continue working directly with HUD to address their concerns.”
In March, several housing groups, led by the National Fair Housing Alliance, sued in federal district court in New York for engaging in illegal housing discrimination through its advertising tools. Facebook asked the court last month to dismiss the case, citing immunity because it was an “interactive computer service” protected by the Communications Decency Act.
But Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, sided with the plaintiffs, arguing that Facebook was instead an “internet content provider” under federal law because it collects and analyzes data and offers user categories that advertisers can choose, “based on demographics, interests, behaviors and other criteria.”
That means that Facebook, at least in providing online tools to advertisers, falls beyond the reach of the Communication Decency Act’s immunity provisions, which are cherished by Silicon Valley and frequently portrayed as key to the ability of the technology industry to innovate freely.