discrimination
Latest
US government charges Facebook with housing discrimination
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has charged Facebook with violating the Fair Housing Act. It says the company encouraged, enabled and caused housing discrimination through ad targeting. The charge follows a complaint the department filed against Facebook in August.
Facebook limits ad targeting following discrimination settlement
Facebook has settled the lawsuit accusing the company of violating housing discrimination law through its ad system, and it's making changes to reduce the chances of future issues with housing ads and beyond. Marketers who want to run ads for credit, employment or housing will no longer have options to target using age, gender or ZIP code. They'll also have a "much smaller" range of categories to use in the first place, and won't have access to "detailed" targeting that relates to protected social classes. As a user, you'll eventually have access to a tool to search for housing ads targeted at locations across the US, even if you wouldn't normally see them.
Study says 37 percent of Americans have faced 'severe' online harassment
It might be premature to claim the internet is becoming more civil. A YouGov study commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League indicates that 37 percent of Americans dealt with "severe" online harassment and hate speech in 2018, or more than twice as much as they reported in 2017. Moreover, women and minorities reported at least some kind of harassment based on their identity. About 63 percent of LBGTQ+ respondents said they'd been targeted, while Muslims (35 percent), Hispanics (30 percent), African-Americans (27 percent), women (24 percent), Asian-Americans (20 percent) and Jews (16 percent) also encountered hate speech.
Facebook reportedly agrees to share an update on its civil rights audit
The civil rights advocacy group of Color of Change released a statement today describing a meeting it had with Facebook leaders regarding a civil rights audit the organization has demanded from the social network since 2016. At the meeting, attended by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Color of Change President Rashad Robinson, the company agreed to publicly release an update on the audit by the end of the year. "Facebook, like much of Silicon Valley, desperately needs a cultural transformation," Robinson said in a statement. "Leaders must see that addressing the needs of Black users and employees, collaborating with civil rights groups to correct existing issues and rooting out the internal forces hostile to civil rights are essential for the company's future success."
Google settles with contractor over alleged racial discrimination
As much as Google talks about being inclusive of other cultures, it might have some more work to do. The Guardian has learned that Google recently settled a racial discrimination claim from a British contractor who collected shopping mall WiFi data for the Maps team in Europe. Allegedly, the company withdrew an offer for a new contract after the man (going by the pseudonym Ahmed Rashid) complained about harassment and racial profiling from mall staff and security due to his Moroccan roots. The company had a "complete disregard" for safety by insisting on secrecy for the project, Rashid said -- he couldn't tell others he was coming or flash ID to allay their suspicions.
Google Walkout leaders call for transparency on sexual misconduct
The organizers of the Google employee walkout have outlined how they want the company to address sexual misconduct at the company, and they're quite clear in their demands. The Walkout for Real Change group is primarily focused on accountability and transparency, starting with an end to forced arbitration for harassment and discrimination cases, which tends to keep cases secret. This would give staff the power to take these cases to court. Employees also want the right to bring a "co-worker, representative or supporter" with them when meeting human resources to discuss claims.
Twitter's new content policy takes aim at 'dehumanizing speech'
Though Twitter has a policy against hateful conduct, which prohibits threats of violence against others based on factors like their race, ethnicity or sexual orientation, the platform has come under frequent criticism for what it still allows on its site. But the company is now considering a new policy and before it's implemented, Twitter is asking users what they think. The new policy addresses dehumanization and it says users can't "dehumanize anyone based on membership in an identifiable group, as this speech can lead to offline harm," and Twitter is asking you to weigh in on the proposed rule.
PayPal is the latest company to ban InfoWars
InfoWars has been issued another ban, this time from PayPal. The company notified InfoWars on Thursday that it would no longer process the site's store transactions, giving InfoWars 10 days to find a new processor. PayPal said the site had violated its "acceptable use policy," according to InfoWars. The payment company confirmed the move to The Verge. "Our values are the foundation for the decision we made this week," said a spokesperson. "We undertook an extensive review of the InfoWars sites, and found instances that promoted hate or discriminatory intolerance against certain communities and religions, which run counter to our core value of inclusion."
Spotify sued over executives' alleged gender discrimination
Spotify has been accused of turning a blind eye to sexism in its workplace. Former sales executive Hong Perez has sued the streaming service over allegations that male execs have perpetuated systemic gender discrimination. The global head of sales reportedly provided higher compensation (including equity) to men, while multiple male executives received little punishment (and in one case, a promotion) despite sexual harassment claims.
ACLU: Facebook allowed gender-discriminating job ads
The ACLU has filed a complaint against Facebook with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for what it says is unlawful gender-based targeting of job ads. The organization filed the charges on behalf of three women, the Communications Workers of America and the women the CWA represents. Its charges allege that Facebook allowed employers to target their job ads toward men and it names 10 companies that it says took advantage of that feature.
Why PayPal’s crackdown on ASMR creators should worry you
In June, China banned and excised videos of sound effects while claiming to cleanse its internet of pornography. YouTube had already demonetized the genre in a sex panic; now PayPal is banning people for life and holding individuals' funds, ignorant of the facts and marching lockstep to the tune of 8chan trolls enacting a campaign to punish "whores." The most bitter punchline in all this? A tiny percentage of the entire video genre is even remotely sexual, and those suffering — female creators — aren't even making sex content.
Uber will pay 56 employees a total of $1.9 million for harassment claims
Uber is nearing a final settlement regarding numerous sexual harassment and discrimination claims. Bloomberg reports today that 56 current and former employees who filed claims of sexual harassment will split $1.9 million, receiving just under $34,000 each on average. Additionally, members of a class action suit who claimed the company discriminated against women and people of color, will each receive nearly $11,000 apiece on average as part of a $10 million settlement.
Facebook removes 5,000 ad targeting options to prevent discrimination
Earlier in the summer, Facebook signed an agreement with Washington to keep advertisers from using the platform's tools to selectively exclude certain demographics, which the company first got in trouble for back in 2016. But that wasn't enough for HUD, which filed a complaint last week with similar allegations. In response, Facebook announced today that it has stripped over 5,000 targeting options from its ad tool suite to ensure groups of people aren't deliberately left out.
Facebook hit with federal complaint over discriminatory housing ads
Despite past efforts, Facebook hasn't avoided federal-level trouble over allegations it enabled discriminatory housing ads. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has officially filed a complaint against Facebook, accusing the social network of violating the Fair Housing Act. HUD claimed that Facebook's ad personalization let advertisers redline ZIP codes and exclude people based on gender, race, religion, accessibility, national origins and even parental status. The company was limiting home choices for protected classes "under the guise" of targeted ads, HUD said.
Facebook deal with Washington ends ad filtering for ethnicity
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced today that Facebook has signed an agreement that will prevent advertisers promoting housing, credit, employment, insurance or businesses open to the public from excluding individuals from seeing their ads based on that person's race, creed, color, national origin, veteran or military status, sexual orientation or disability status. The agreement concludes a 20-month investigation conducted by the state's attorney general's office. While the deal makes these changes legally binding in the state of Washington, Facebook already implemented them broadly back in April.
Uber is under US investigation over gender discrimination
Uber is still grappling with its legacy of sexism well after it launched its bid to reform its corporate culture. Sources for both Engadget and the Wall Street Journal have reported that the ridesharing firm is under a US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation of gender discrimination allegations. The investigators, who quietly started their work in August 2017, have been grilling employees (both current and previous) and requesting files on subjects ranging from pay gaps to hiring practices and "other matters."
Uber agrees to pay $10 million in discrimination lawsuit settlement
The San Francisco Chronicle reports today that Uber has agreed to a $10 million settlement in a class action lawsuit that claimed it discriminated against minorities and women who worked for the company. The lawsuit was filed in October and represents 420 women and people of color who were employed by Uber as software engineers going back to 2013. Additionally, the Chronicle reports that the company has also agreed to change how it manages compensation and promotion. The lawsuit alleged that women, black and Latino/Latina employees were not given raises, bonuses, stock and benefits at the same rate as male and white or Asian coworkers.
Facebook faces lawsuit over discriminatory housing ads
In 2016, the Congressional Black Caucus said that Facebook had violated the Fair Housing Act (FHA) by allowing advertisers to exclude racial and ethnic groups when buying ads for housing, employment or even credit. Last year, ProPublica said that the social media company was still approving discriminatory ads that exclude ethnic groups. Now, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) has filed a lawsuit against Facebook that alleges the advertising platform allows landlords and real estate brokers to exclude families with women and children from even seeing housing ads.
Lyft faces lawsuit over lack of wheelchair access in SF
Uber was sued at least thrice over the past year for failing to accommodate passengers with wheelchairs, but a new lawsuit proves that it's not the only ride-hailing service with poor accessibility. Non-profit org Disability Rights Advocates has filed a class-action lawsuit against the company on behalf of Independent Living Resource Center and two wheelchair users in the San Francisco Bay Area. The lawsuit accuses Lyft of violating the Unruh Civil Rights Act, which says people with disabilities are entitled to full and equal accommodations, and of the California Disabled Persons Act.
Ex-recruiter's lawsuit alleges hiring bias at YouTube
YouTube is being sued by one of its former employees, who claims that the company stopped hiring white and Asian men for technical positions. The Wall Street Journal reports that the reasons behind this decision was efforts to increase diversity in the company's employee pool.
