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After years of criticism and legal responses, Facebook has agreed to overhaul its system for housing, credit, and employment ads as part of a settlement with several parties who alleged discrimination.
On Tuesday, Facebook announced it had reached a settlement in multiple lawsuits alleging discrimination in the platform's advertising practices. The settlement includes significant changes to Facebook's advertising system around ads for housing, credit, and employment opportunities, which has allowed advertisers to target viewers according to their age, race, gender, and other categories protected under civil rights laws.
Going forward, Facebook will separate advertisements for housing, credit, and employment from other kinds of ad content. Among other things, advertisers will be required to disclose early on whether their ad belongs in this category, and will no longer be able to target recipients using any phrases associated with groups protected by local or federal civil rights laws.
See also: ACLU Lawsuit Says Facebook's Targeted Job Ads Exclude Women, Older Men
Plaintiffs participating in the settlement include the ACLU, Outten & Golden LLP, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and the Communications Workers of America. The New York Times reported that the financial portion of the settlement allocates "less than $5 million" in damages for the five related lawsuits. The company plans to implement the changes by the end of this year, which will also apply to Instagram and Facebook Messenger.
“Housing, employment and credit ads are crucial to helping people buy new homes, start great careers, and gain access to credit,” wrote chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg in a blog post tied to the announcement. “They should never be used to exclude or harm people.”
Galen Sherwin, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, commented in a teleconference with press that the tech giant has agreed to "sweeping changes [that] result from months of negotiation ... as well as years of pressure from civil rights organizations."
See also: Facebook Talks Goals, Civil Rights During NAACP Boycott Of Its Platforms
In 2016, a series of ProPublica articles drew wide attention to the discriminatory nature of many of Facebook's ad-targeting options. A related complaint brought by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is still pending. Peter Romer-Friedman, Civil Rights Attorney at Outten & Golden LLP, also noted in a press call that related lawsuits against several other tech giants will proceed.
Lisa Rice, Executive Vice President of the National Fair Housing Alliance, told press that Facebook's settlement amounts to "a game-changer" in the field of fighting discriminatory targeting online. Over the coming year, she said, plaintiffs will take a "trust-but-verify" approach to monitoring Facebook's progress, and participate in helping Facebook to educate its advertising clients on fair practices.
"It's an important first step that they are taking, [and] we applaud them for doing that," Rice said. "Technology really is the next civil rights frontier."
See also: Facebook Removes 'Black People Problem' Note, Then Quickly Restores It
