On Tuesday, the American Union Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a complaint to the US Equal Opportunities Commission (EEOC) against Facebook. He claims that the platform's ad options allow for gender-based ads.
“Facebook has built and profited from a powerful tool that stands out Women and non-males on job applications," the complaint states.
The ACLU's complaint was filed on behalf of three job seekers when they discovered that advertisements for jobs considered male, such as engineer, technician and security officer, are not being displayed on their timeline.
How does the Facebook ad targeting system work?
Before an ad is published, Facebook allows advertisers to choose who can see their ad by adjusting their audience to a particular age group, gender, and location. Therefore, ads can be modified to exclude certain demographic (social) groups.
The ACLU's complaint states 10 different employers, who were found to have excluded all women. One of these companies was Rice Tire, which allegedly published advertisements targeting only young men, and excluded all women.
It should be noted that this is not the first time that Facebook's ad targeting options have come under fire. Last month the company announced it would be removing more than 5.000 characteristics ads in an effort to prevent advertisers from discriminating against users based on religion or nationality.
This complaint was submitted to the American Ministry Στέγασης και Αστικής Ανάπτυξης (HUD) των ΗΠΑ, και ανέφερε ότι τα εργαλεία στόχευσης διαφημίσεων του Facebook μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν για να εμποδίσουν την προβολή σε people ορισμένων φυλών, θρησκειών και οικογενειακής κατάστασης.
At a time when there are conflicts in the company's relationship with the public and with governments, Facebook has no choice but to update the practice of targeting its ads. Although the ACLU complaint only refers to 10 cases, the role played by Facebook in blocking certain demographic groups from job ads is obvious.
The "unfortunate" thing is that the company has not already taken the necessary measures to correct its policy before this complaint.
Image (edited) TheVerge
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