Facebook Promises to Block Discriminatory Ads

[SciTechPress]

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...

1. There will be a new advertising process tailored specifically for marketers purchasing ads in those sectors.
2. 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.