HUD Charges Facebook With Housing Discrimination

MENLO PARK, CA -- Facebook is accused by the feds of housing discrimination through the company's advertising platform.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday that it is charging Facebook with violating the Fair Housing Act by encouraging, enabling, and causing housing discrimination. HUD conducted an investigation prompted by a complaint filed Aug. 13.

Read HUD’s Charge against Facebook. HUD's Secretary Ben Carson 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 the information to determine which of its users view housing-related ads based, in part, protected characteristics as outlined in the Fair Housing Act.

"Facebook is discriminating against people based upon who they are and where they live,” Carson said. “Using a computer to limit a person’s housing choices can be just as discriminatory as slamming a door in someone’s face.”

HUD General Counsel Paul Compton added: “Even as we confront new technologies, the fair housing laws enacted over half a century ago remain clear - discrimination in housing-related advertising is against the law.

Compton contends using a computer program to deliver advertising may be considered "opaque and complex," but it still doesn't exempt the social media company from scrutiny.

According to HUD’s charge, Facebook "enabled advertisers to exclude people" who the company classified as parents; non-American natives; non-Christian; interested in accessibility; of Hispanic descent; among a wide variety of other interests that closely align with the Fair Housing Act’s protected classes. The complaint also accuses Facebook of advertisers "to exclude people based upon their neighborhood by drawing a red line around those neighborhoods on a map."

Facebook also allegedly gave advertisers the option of showing ads only to men or only to women. In addition, the charge asserts that Facebook uses "the protected characteristics of people" to determine who will view ads regardless of whether an advertiser wants to reach a broad or narrow audience.

Through machine learning techniques, Facebook allegedly combines data it collects about user attributes and behavior with other information it obtains about user behavior on other websites to decipher, classify and group potential prospects.

“We're surprised by HUD's decision, as we've been working with them to address their concerns and have taken significant steps to prevent ads discrimination. Last year we eliminated thousands of targeting options that could potentially be misused, and just last week we reached historic agreements with the National Fair Housing Alliance, ACLU, and others that change the way housing, credit, and employment ads can be run on Facebook," a Facebook spokeswoman told Patch. "While we were eager to find a solution, HUD insisted on access to sensitive information - like user data - without adequate safeguards. We're disappointed by today’s developments, but we’ll continue working with civil rights experts on these issues.”

Moreover, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg issued a statement over a week ago declaring that "one of our top priorities is protecting people from discrimination on Facebook," explaining that it will change how the company manages "housing, employment and credit ads on our platform."

She insists the changes hinted to weeks ago by Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg in outlining a directional shift are "the result of historic settlement agreements with leading civil rights organizations and ongoing input from civil rights experts."

Over half of small businesses on Facebook say they’ve hired more employees due to growth since joining the platform, the Menlo Park-based company reported.

"There is a long history of discrimination in the areas of housing, employment and credit, and this harmful behavior should not happen through Facebook ads," Sandberg added.

The National Fair Housing Alliance, American Civil Liberties Union, Communication Workers of America and other private parties filed litigation against Facebook last year, claiming that it needs "to build stronger protections against abuse." Other civil rights groups have also raised concerns about the issue.

"Our policies already prohibit advertisers from using our tools to discriminate. We’ve removed thousands of categories from targeting related to protected classes such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion. But we can do better," Sandberg said.

Facebook's memorandum of understanding related to the issue as follows:

• Anyone who wants to run housing, employment or credit ads will no longer be allowed to target by age, gender or zip code.
• Advertisers offering housing, employment and credit opportunities will have a much smaller set of targeting categories to use in their campaigns overall.
• A tool will be used for searching and viewing all current housing ads in the United States targeted to different places across the country, regardless of whether the ads are shown to a specific person.

Facebook has been in the news on a regular basis since announcing its change in direction with a focus on encryption and user privacy.

See also

• Facebook To Ban White Nationalism, Separatism

For the housing matter, a statement of interest was filed by HUD in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of a number of private litigants challenging Facebook's advertising platform. The charge will be heard by a U.S. Administrative Law Judge unless either party opts for the case to be heard in federal district court.

HUD asks that those who believe they have experienced discrimination may file a complaint by contacting its Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at 800-669-9777 or 800-927-9275.