Facebook says it will block ads that exclude racial, ethnic groups
SAN FRANCISCO – Responding to criticism from black lawmakers, Facebook says it will temporarily block advertisers from excluding racial and ethnic groups when placing ads on the giant social network.
The move is the most serious response yet to concerns Facebook’s “multicultural affinity marketing” feature can be used to discriminate against minorities, particularly in sensitive areas where historically they have faced discrimination such as housing, credit and employment.
“Until we can better ensure that our tools will not be used inappropriately, we are disabling the option that permits advertisers to exclude multicultural affinity segments from the audience for their ads,” Facebook said in a letter to Cedric Richmond, D-La., chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, that was shared with USA TODAY.
Facebook says it’s suspending the targeting capability while conducting an audit of how advertisers exclude groups. The audit will include groups beyond multicultural affinity such as the LGBT community and religious groups, the company said.
The results will be shared with the groups focused on discrimination in ads. Facebook will work with those groups to make improvements and then will publish the steps it’s taking, it said.
Ads that target specific racial and ethnic groups will be subject to additional review before appearing on Facebook, and advertisers will have to certify that they understand the law and anti-discrimination policies. These measures will be introduced over the next several weeks, Facebook says.
“Facebook’s decision to disable its multicultural affinity advertising function is an appropriate action until the serious concerns associated with that feature are remedied,” Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and ranking member of the IT subcommittee, said in a statement.
Following an investigation from ProPublica in 2016, the social network pledged it had built a system to stop Facebook advertisers from targeting housing ads to whites only in what would likely be a violation of federal law. Last week, the news organization said it was able to buy dozens of rental housing ads on Facebook that were not shown to African Americans, mothers of high school kids, people interested in wheelchair ramps, Jews, expats from Argentina and Spanish speakers.
Each ad was approved within minutes, said ProPublica, which targeted these groups because they are protected under the federal Fair Housing Act.
“This was a failure in our enforcement,” said Rob Goldman, Facebook’s vice president of ads growth and solutions. “We must do better.”