Facebook is still allowing discriminatory housing ads that exclude users by race

Jessica Guynn | USA TODAY

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SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is still allowing people to place discriminatory housing ads that exclude users by race.

Following an investigation from Pro Publica in 2016, the giant social network pledged it had built a system to stop Facebook advertisers from targeting housing ads to whites- only in what would likely be a violation of federal law.

Last week the news organization says it was able to buy dozens of rental housing ads on Facebook that were not shown to African Americans, mothers of high school kids, people interested in wheelchair ramps, Jews, expats from Argentina and Spanish speakers.

Each ad was approved within minutes, according to Pro Publica, which targeted these groups of users because they are protected under the federal Fair Housing Act. One ad for an apartment rental that excluded African Americans, Asian Americans and Spanish-speaking Hispanic audiences was approved in under a minute.

Ami Vora, vice president of product management at Facebook, blamed a "technical failure" and said in an emailed statement that the company has flagged millions of ads in the credit, employment and housing categories.

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This is just the latest incident in which Facebook has failed to police discriminatory advertising. The revelation also comes as the Silicon Valley company is taking heat from Washington after hundreds of fake accounts out of Russia injected inflammatory ads on politically divisive issues into unsuspecting Facebook users' news feeds in the tense political climate surrounding the U.S. election.

There are three areas in which federal law prohibits discriminatory ads: housing, employment and credit.

“This was a failure in our enforcement and we’re disappointed that we fell short of our commitments,” Vora said. “The rental housing ads purchased by ProPublica should have but did not trigger the extra review and certifications we put in place due to a technical failure.”

At its scale, Facebook, which has more than 2 billion monthly active users, relies heavily on automated software to sell ads and to monitor activity on the social network. And that increasingly is landing the company in hot water, from violence on its streaming service Facebook Live to racial targeting of ads.

Rachel Goodman, an attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program, said her organization worked with Facebook to help solve the issue.

"Facebook’s representations to us indicated that this problem had been substantially solved, but it now seems clear that was not the case," Goodman said in an emailed statement.

According to the Fair Housing Act of 1968, it's 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."

If ads for employment opportunities are tailored to specific racial or ethnic audiences, the people posting those ads are in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, housing housing experts say.

"When an advertiser agrees to help hide property listings from minorities, it violates the law. When an advertiser helps housing providers sort their customers based on race, consumers lose the ability to choose integration. Housing segregation drives unequal housing and neighborhood conditions for minorities," said Stacy E. Seicshnaydre, a law professor at Tulane University.

In September, Facebook acknowledged it was possible to target ads to people who have expressed interest in such anti-Semitic topics as "jew hater," "how to burn jews" or "History of 'why jews ruin the world.'" Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said Facebook was taking steps to stop marketers from being able to target ads in offensive ways through its self-service ad-buying system.

At the time Pro Publica — running a separate test — said it paid $30 to reach nearly 2,300 people with anti-Semitic interests through three "promoted posts" on the self-service ad buying system. It says Facebook approved all three ads within 15 minutes. Most of Facebook's ads are placed through an automated system that allows marketers to select who they'd like to reach.

Facebook, like most major tech companies, lacks diversity at all levels of the company, from its board of directors to the engineers who build the company's products. Sandberg has committed to recruiting an African American to the all-white board. Three percent of employees in technical roles at Facebook are Hispanic and even fewer — 1% —are African American.