EthnicAffinity
Latest
Facebook will try fighting ad discrimination with algorithms
Facebook is making changes to its advertising policy following last fall's revelation that ad purchasers could discriminate by race. The social network's solution at the time was to use algorithms that would weed out posts that used "ethnic affinity" for ads offering housing, employment or credit. Now, the anti-discrimination methods are going further.
Facebook disables 'ethnic affinity' ads for housing, jobs
Facebook will disable settings that let advertisers exclude racial and ethnic groups when buying ads for housing, employment or credit, the company wrote in a blog post. It first started allowing "ethnic affinity" marketing several years ago, letting advertisers target specific multicultural groups. However, Propublica noticed that it was able to place housing ads that excluded African Americans, Hispanics, and other groups. That caught the eye of the Congressional Black Caucus, which called it a violation of the Fair Housing Act.
