On August 17, 2018, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) announced a formal complaint against Facebook for violating the Fair Housing Act by allowing landlords and sellers to use its advertising platform to engage in housing discrimination.
HUD claims Facebook enables advertisers to control which users receive housing-related ads based on the recipients race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, disability, and/or zip code. Facebook then invites advertisers to express unlawful preferences by offering discriminatory options, effectively limiting housing options for these protected classes under the guise of ‘targeted advertising.’
The complaint provides the following examples of how Facebook is permitting the discriminatory actions:
- Facebook enables advertisers to discriminate based on sex by showing ads only to men or only to women;
- Facebook enables advertisers to discriminate based on disability by not showing ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in “assistance dog,” “mobility scooter,” “accessibility,” or “deaf culture;”
- Facebook enables advertisers to discriminate based on familial status by not showing ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in “child care” or “parenting,” or by showing ads only to users with children above a certain age;
- Facebook enables advertisers to discriminate based on religion by showing ads only to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in the “Christian Church,” “Jesus,” “Christ,” or the “Bible;”
- Facebook enables advertisers to discriminate based on national origin by not showing ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in “Latin America,” “Southeast Asia,” “China,” “Honduras,” “Somalia,” the “Hispanic National Bar Association” or “Mundo Hispanico;” and
- Facebook enables advertisers to discriminate based on race and color drawing a red line around majority-minority zip codes and now showing ads to users who live in those zip codes.
Facebook markets its ad targeting platform as a useful tool for providers of housing-related services. For example, Facebook promotes its ad targeting platform with “success stories” for finding “the perfect homeowners,” “reaching home buyers,” “attracting renters,” and “personalizing property ads.”
Industry professionals have expected this action for some time since there have been numerous complaints about Facebooks ads by fair housing proponents. To say the least, it will be interesting to see how Facebook responds. It is likely that their defense will be that they are a “platform” and not a publisher, which is the defense they have used recently relative to the Russian election activities. How that argument stands up we’ll just have to wait and see.