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Yesterday was a historic one for Facebook (+0.69%). It announced big changes to its rules for advertisers to settle a cluster of lawsuits claiming it allowed ad buyers to illegally discriminate against minorities—mainly people of color. The backstory: Two years’ worth of investigative reports (and a handful of high-profile lawsuits) uncovered how some ad buyers abused FB’s platform to block minority groups from seeing ads about certain opportunities for housing, employment, and credit. Going forward, Facebook will remove age, gender, and ZIP code targeting for housing, employment, and credit-related ads on all platforms, plus... There will be a new advertising process tailored specifically for marketers purchasing ads in those sectors. And FB will launch an archive for housing ads (like it did for political ads) to allow users to search all active housing ads on FB, whether or not they’re being targeted by them. Zoom out: As Axios puts it, internet platforms that sell ads aren’t regulated the same way TV and radio are. This probably isn’t the last time you’ll watch a tech company address ad transparency.

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a legally binding plan that will force Facebook to "make significant changes to its advertising platform by removing the ability of third-party advertisers to exclude ethnic and religious minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals, and other protected groups from seeing their ads. The AG's office of Washington state joined a chorus of unhappy—and litigious—Facebook users in late 2016 after a ProPublica investigation revealed how easy it was for Facebook advertisers to discriminate against users who were defined by "ethnic affinities." These were labeled with clear demographics like African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic, and ProPublica's report pointed out that this was a clear violation of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. The Tuesday announcement confirmed that this report inspired AG Ferguson's office to launch an investigation in November 2016, which began with the purchase of 20 fake ads on Facebook. These ads ran the gamut of content types, including "nightclubs, restaurants, lending, insurance, employment, and apartment rentals" so that Ferguson could determine whether or not specific audiences would be blocked from seeing the ads and were therefore "unaware of the opportunities in the advertisements." https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/07/facebook-bows-to-wa-state-pressure-to-remove-discriminatory-ad-filters/

BBC News Facebook apologies for plus-size ad ban BBC News Facebook has apologised after refusing to run an advert featuring plus-sized model Tess Holliday wearing a bikini. The social network told the BBC it had made a mistake and has now approved the image. Australian feminist group Cherchez La Femme had ... What Kind of Standards?The Week Magazine Facebook reverses decision to ban ad featuring plus-size model Tess HollidayChron.com Too fat for Facebook: photo banned for depicting body in 'undesirable manner'The Guardian Mic -Cosmopolitan.com -Telegraph.co.uk -The Independent all 17 news articles » Google