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Facebook To Stop Ads that Target, Exclude Races (usatoday.com)
An anonymous reader shares a USA Today report: Facebook says it will no longer allow advertisers to exclude specific racial and ethnic groups when placing ads related to housing, credit or employment. "We are going to turn off, actually prohibit, the use of ethnic affinity marketing for ads that we identify as offering housing, employment and credit," Erin Egan, Facebook's vice president of U.S. public policy, told USA TODAY. Facebook will also require advertisers to affirm that they will not place discriminatory ads on Facebook and will offer educational materials to help advertisers understand their obligations, Egan said. The policy changes came after discussions with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Illinois) and the Congressional Black Caucus, and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
"...prohibit, the use of ethnic affinity marketing for ads that we identify as offering housing, employment and credit"
Why only those types of adverts? Why not just turn it off altogether?
Marketing to various demographics based on race is indeed widespread, and generally valid. However, the financial services industry, have very specific laws to follow about that kind of thing, based on a long history of discrimination and abuse. Even if Facebook wasn't originally aware of that (which, frankly, they should have: every advertising and media company are aware of them, and that's what Facebook is), the people actually crafting the ads should have known.