Facebook Faces Civil Lawsuit for Ethnic Ad Targeting

Facebook is facing a potential civil rights lawsuit from three users who claim it has violated US laws prohibiting advertisers from publishing housing or job ads that discriminate on factors such as race, religion and gender.

Last week, non-profit newsroom ProPublica reported that Facebook is enabling advertisers to prevent their ads being shown to users who belong to certain 'ethnic affinity' groups; adding that it had been able to use Facebook's tool to create an ad for an event aimed at housing tenants, and then block the ad from pages of users with black, Asian-American, or Hispanic ethnic affinities. This drew condemnation from the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), which represents black members of the US Congress.

US residents Karen Savage, Victor Onuoha and Suzanne-Juliette Mobley now say they have looked at Facebook housing and job vacancy ads in the past year, and that Facebook's race-based ad targeting options violate the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In a class-action complaint filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, the plaintiffs allege: 'Facebook has operated and is operating an advertising platform that publishes, and causes to be published, discriminatory and illegal housing and employment advertisements. By clicking on a button labelled 'Exclude People', ad buyers can prevent their ads from being displayed to users matching characteristics such as African American (US), Asian American (US), or Immigrant'.

Facebook spokeswoman Genevieve Grdina said in a statement that what Facebook is referring to in these affinity groups is not their genetic makeup, but their affinity to the cultures they are interested in. The firm says the lawsuit is 'utterly without merit' and that it plans to vigorously defend itself.