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Facebook is Being Sued Over Housing Discrimination (fastcompany.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

The National Fair Housing Alliance, along with three other nonprofit housing advocacy organizations around the country, has filed a lawsuit against Facebook over its alleged discriminatory advertisements. From a report: The nonprofits, over the last few months, created a fake real estate company and used the Facebook ad platform to place housing ads. According to the lawsuit, the NFHA was able to place advertisements that "[excluded] families with children and women from receiving advertisements, as well as users with interests based on disability and national origin." In the NFHA's press release, the organization writes that "Facebook's advertising platform enables landlords and real estate brokers to exclude families with children, women, and other protected classes of people from receiving housing ads."

The lawsuit follows extensive reporting from ProPublica that investigated these potentially discriminatory practices. For over a year, the journalism outlet tested various ways that landlords could place ads for housing, and found that the targeting allowed for many people to be kept out of the loop. Given Facebook's massive user base of over 2 billion users, the group believes that the social network is in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

5 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. So let me get this right... by swirlingbrain · · Score: 3, Funny

    They're being sued because people are not getting spam? O_o

  2. Violation of the Fork Fairness Act by meta-monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    In other news, I bought a fork, and attempted to stab minorities in the eye with it. Nothing the fork manufacturer did prevented me from stabbing minorities in the eye with the fork they made. Therefore, the fork manufacturer needs to give me millions of dollars.

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    We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
    1. Re:Violation of the Fork Fairness Act by jbmartin6 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I think the FFA would read if you are going to stab 100 people in the eye with your fork, you must stab them in proportion to each group's representation in the general population. Good luck finding 0.2 Pacific Islanders

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      This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
    2. Re:Violation of the Fork Fairness Act by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      I think the FFA would read if you are going to stab 100 people in the eye with your fork, you must stab them in proportion to each group's representation in the general population. Good luck finding 0.2 Pacific Islanders

      Dude, that's what the knife is for.

  3. Re:not all is off limits by fluffernutter · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Roommate must be blond, at least a B-cup and hot". Facebook please help me.

    --
    Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.