Following up on last week’s story regarding Facebook’s new ad practices, HUD announced that it charged Facebook with violating the Fair Housing Act by encouraging, enabling and causing housing discrimination through the company’s advertising platform. HUD alleges that Facebook unlawfully discriminates based on race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, sex and disability by restricting who can view housing-related ads on Facebook’s platforms and across the internet. Further, HUD claims Facebook mines extensive data about its users and then uses those data to determine which of its users view housing-related ads based, in part, on these protected characteristics.
HUD’s charge will be heard by a United States Administrative Law Judge unless either party elects to have the case heard in federal district court. If an administrative law judge finds that discrimination has occurred, they may award damages for harm caused by the discrimination. The judge may also order injunctive relief and other equitable relief, as well as payment of attorney fees. In addition, the judge may impose fines to vindicate the public interest. If the matter is decided in federal court, the judge may also award punitive damages.
The Washington Post reports that HUD is also investigating Twitter and Google’s ad practices for discrimination. Though Facebook offers the most extensive targeting categories to advertisers, Google, Twitter, Amazon and others all offer the ability to target by zip code — which is commonly used to indicate race — interest and demographics, including ethnic categories such as Spanish speakers.
