Article 22

30 / 11 / 2017 - Facebook disables ethnicity advert targeting system 
Man in wheelchair

Within this article, it talks about how Facebook have turned off a system that let advertisers choose which ethnic and minority groups saw their ads. A news organisation called "ProPublica" discovered that the system could be abused by posting discriminatory ads on the social network. Facebook stated that they would look for a change so that there would be no innapropriate posts. 

Last year, ProPublica first discovered the ethnic discrimination via advertising was possible.
US laws prohibit discrimination in the way ProPublica demonstrated - in adverts relating to housing, for example - was possible.
Last week, ProPublica tried again to post discriminatory ads that were not shown to people who were:
  • African-American
  • Jewish
  • Hispanic
  • interested in Islam
  • part of other ethnic or minority groups

All the ads it submitted were approved.
Facebook does not explicitly ask its users to declare their ethnicity, but it typically infers someone's ethnic group from their activity on the social network.
When the targeting was first uncovered, Facebook said it would find a way to spot and block attempts to post discriminatory ads.
Facebook's failure to do this raised questions about "its ability and commitment to police discriminatory advertising", said ProPublica.

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