Facebook slammed with lawsuit over bias

Facebook is facing renewed pressure over the “ethnic affinity” option within its ad-targeting tool courtesy of a lawsuit that claims the feature is racially biased.

Ethnic affinity essentially enables marketers to exclude certain demographics — such as African-Americans, Asian-Americans or Hispanics — from their promos on the social network.

Following the release of a report in October that labeled the feature unlawful, Facebook issued a statement defending targeted advertising as an industry norm. The company also emphasized its aggressive enforcement action against discriminatory ads.

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The suit, which was filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, retains the arguments put forward in the recent report by news outlet ProPublica. It alleges that Facebook’s advertising platform enables illegal discrimination and is in violation of the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

The latter outlaws employers from discriminating against prospective employees as part of the hiring process based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The former makes it illegal to do the same in regards to housing advertisements.

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