Facebook still approving discrimatory housing ads
Company says a ‘tech failure’ led to excluding users by race
SAN FRANCISCO— Facebook is still allowing people to place discriminatory housing ads that exclude users by race.
Following an investigation from ProPublica in 2016, the giant social network pledged it had built a system to stop Facebook advertisers from targeting housing ads to white people only in what would likely be a violation of U.S. federal law.
Last week, the news organization says 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 user groups because they are protected under the federal Fair Housing Act. One ad for an apartment rental that excluded African Americans, Asian Americans and Spanish-speaking Hispanic audiences was approved in under a minute.
Ami Vora, VP of product manage- ment at Facebook, blamed a “technical failure” and said in an emailed statement that the company has flagged millions of ads in the credit, employment and housing categories.
This is just the latest incident in which Facebook has failed to police discriminatory advertising. The revelation also comes as the company is taking heat from Washington after hundreds of fake accounts out of Russia injected inflammatory ads on politically divisive issues into unsuspecting Facebook users’ news feeds during the U.S. election.
There are three areas in which U.S. federal law prohibits discriminatory ads: housing, employment, credit.
“This was a failure in our enforcement and we’re disappointed that we fell short of our commitments,” Vora said. “The rental housing ads purchased by ProPublica should have but did not trigger the extra review and certifications we put in place due to a technical failure.”
At its scale, Facebook, which has more than two billion monthly active users, relies heavily on automated software to sell ads and to monitor activity on the social network. And that increasingly is landing the company in hot water, from violence on its streaming service, Facebook Live, to racial targeting of ads.