Facebook ads seek Nazi ‘Jew haters’
The categories were created by an algorithm-like system, which Facebook vows to change.
Facebook empowered white-supremacist groups by helping them reach “Jew haters” and members rs of the “Nazi Party” through ads, a report says.
“Want to market Nazi memorabilia, or recruit marchers for a farright rally? Facebook’s self-service ad-buying platform had the right ht audience for you,’’ according to the non-profit Web site ProPublica, which investigated the issue.e
Users who described themselves as “Jew haters” or “liked” d” subjects such as “How to burn Jews” or “Why Jews ruin the world” would then be targeted by the ads, according to the nonprofit media group.
To test the ad platform, ProPublica paid $30 for promoted posts in the three anti-Semitic groups. It found Facebook approved all of the posts within 15 minutes — and quickly selected audience categories from its ad-buying platform.
The categories included “Jew haters,” “Nazi Party” and “German Schutzstaffel.”
The company boasted that the ads would reach 5,897 people and generate 101 clicks and 13 “engagements” such as a “like” or a “share,” according to the investigation.
Facebook yanked the anti-Semitic ad categories earlier this week after ProPublica inquired about them, according to the article, published Thursday.
The categories were created with an algorithm-like system, not by Facebook employees, according to the company, which said it would “explore ways to fix the problem.”
“There are times where content is surfaced on our platform that violates our standards,” Facebook product management director Rob Leathern said.
“In this case, we’ve removed the associated targeting fields in question. We know we have more work to do, so we’re also building new guardrails in our product and review processes to prevent other m issues like this from happening in the future.”
In 2009, Facebook launched an “advanced targeting” ad system based on users’ “likes” and interests. A company spokesman declined to say how long the current ad system outed by ProPublica had been up and running.
In a statement, Facebook elaborated on upcoming changes. “To help ensure that targeting is not used for discriminatory purposes, we are removing these self-reported targeting fields,” the statement said.
Facebook’s policy has long forbidden race- and religion-based attacks, according the statement.
“Our community standards strictly prohibit attacking people based on their protected characteristics, including religion, and we prohibit advertisers from discriminating against people based on religion and other attributes.’’