The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), Communications Workers of America (CWA), several regional fair housing organizations, and individual consumers and job seekers settled civil rights claims against Facebook on March 19. NFHA and the other plaintiffs asserted that Facebook’s advertising platform contained pre-populated lists that allowed advertisers to place housing, employment, and credit ads that could exclude certain groups protected by the Fair Housing Act, such as African Americans, Latinx, and Asian Americans. They also claimed the platform was not designed so that whites could be excluded in this manner.
The plaintiffs challenged:
- The ability of housing, employment, and credit advertisers to include or exclude Facebook users from receiving ads based on their sex or age, or based on interests, behaviors, or demographics that allegedly relate to or are associated with race, national origin, sex, age, disability, or family status;
- The ability of housing, employment and credit advertisers to set a narrow geographical area for ad viewership, which could have an adverse impact based on race or national origin; and
- Facebook’s “Lookalike Audience” tool that allegedly allowed advertisers to create audiences of Facebook users in a way that could have an adverse impact on various groups, including based on gender, race, and age.
NFHA and four local nonprofit organizations originally filed suit against Facebook in March of 2018 in the Southern District of New York, alleging that Facebook’s advertising platform created pre-populated lists that made it possible for landlords and real estate brokers to exclude people of color, families with children, women, people with disabilities, and other groups protected by the Fair Housing Act from viewing or receiving rental or sales ads. The fair housing groups conducted investigations that confirmed Facebook’s alleged discriminatory practices.
Because of the settlement, Facebook has agreed to establish a separate advertising portal for advertisers seeking to create housing, employment, and credit ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. The portal will limit advertisers’ targeting abilities to prevent them from illegally discriminating. Housing advertisers will no longer be allowed to target consumers based on race, ethnicity, color, national origin, gender, age, religion, family status, disability, or sexual orientation. Housing advertisers will also be prevented from advertising based on ZIP code. Instead, they will be permitted to advertise based on a 15-mile radius from a city center or address.
Facebook will restructure its “Lookalike Audience” feature, which formerly allowed advertisers to target ads to Facebook users who were similar to an advertiser’s existing customers. Facebook will restructure and rename this tool so that it will not consider users’ age, relationship status, religious or political views, school, interests, ZIP code, or membership in “Facebook Groups.”
Facebook will also create a page for consumers to view all housing ads placed on its platform, post a self-certification agreement that advertisers must agree to regard all anti-discrimination laws, provide anti-discrimination and civil rights educational materials to advertisers, and continually work with scholars, organizations, experts, and researchers to examine algorithmic modeling and its potential for discriminatory impact and bias.
The Settlement Agreement is at: https://bit.ly/2HUrHbW
More information is on NFHA’s website at: https://nationalfairhousing.org/facebook-settlement