Facebook’s anti-Semitic ad problem

Facebook is scrambling to update its advertising platform after it was revealed that advertisers could use it to market directly to anti-Semites, said Sarah Frier in Bloomberg .com. The social network temporarily disabled the ability to target users by their self-reported education, employer, or field of study last week after investigative news site ProPublica found that some users “were filling in those fields with offensive content.” As a result, marketers could target their ads to Facebook users who expressed interest in categories like “Jew haters.” Facebook automatically creates ad categories based on what users post about themselves, often relying on users to report abuses. It’s the latest black eye for Facebook’s self-service ad platform, which was recently revealed to have sold $100,000 worth of political ads to a Russia-linked “troll farm” during the election.