Facebook Ads Haven't Figured Out the Fair Housing Act

Reporting for ProPublica, Julia Angwin and Terry Parris Jr. reveal that Facebook's advertising platform could violate the Federal Fair Housing Act.

The problem arises as a result of Facebook's self-service advertising portal, which "allows advertisers to target users by their interests or background" and "also gives advertisers the ability to exclude specific groups it calls 'Ethnic Affinities.'"

The team at ProPublica purchased an advertisement "targeted to Facebook members who were house hunting and excluded anyone with an 'affinity' for African-American, Asian-American or Hispanic people."

The ability to exclude populations based on ethnicity runs afoul of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which made it illegal "to make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin."

Angwin and Parris go into more detail about the Facebook advertising platform as well as some of the best practices in place at the New York Times to avoid potentially discriminatory content in ads printed in its print and its web versions.