Facebook Lets Advertisers Exclude Users by Race (how wonderful)

Oh boy, somehow this seems real bad. At first glance, cool I can market baby clothes to women 18-37, Hurrah.

Facebook’s system allows advertisers to exclude black, Hispanic, and other “ethnic affinities” from seeing ads.

Then you get the feeling that they are selling your info to make money, and by gosh we are all just sectioned off consumers that are so different that a multi billion $ corp can use back door discrimination to make a little more $.

Imagine if, during the Jim Crow era, a newspaper offered advertisers the option of placing ads only in copies that went to white readers. That’s basically what Facebook is doing nowadays.
The ubiquitous social network not only allows advertisers to target users by their interests or background, it also gives advertisers the ability to exclude specific groups it calls “Ethnic Affinities.” Ads that exclude people based on race, gender and other sensitive factors are prohibited by federal law in housing and employment.

How wonderful that Facebook considers their users as “Ethnic Affinities” to be sliced up and sold to the advertisers. How wonderful.


The author took out an add, read what fun it led to.

The ad we purchased was targeted to Facebook members who were house hunting and excluded anyone with an “affinity” for African-American, Asian-American or Hispanic people.

And finally the author showed the new advertising opportunity to a lawyer and the lawyer was surprised.

When we showed Facebook’s racial exclusion options to a prominent civil rights lawyer John Relman, he gasped and said, “This is horrifying. This is massively illegal. This is about as blatant a violation of the federal Fair Housing Act as one can find.”

These large corps are really out of touch. From my perspective they will stare blankly at the law suits unblinkingly and not "understand what the big deal is "Bra"". I wait to see the law suits roll in.

www.propublica.org...

a reply to: seasonal

Isn't the part of advertising is to target specific consumers? I don't need advertisements in spanish but perhaps spanish people would prefer it..same thing goes for advertisement specifically geared to women..

Not a big deal at all..

There is no point targeting white or Asian people when selling afro combs..

a reply to: chrismarco

When an advertiser (realtor) wants to sell a house let's say, there is an option to exclude certain races.

From my perspective this is a very big deal.

a reply to: seasonal

Demographics my friend..

a reply to: chrismarco

Racial discrimination, try to sell a home,car, furnace, pizza or anything else to a specific race, put it in the add and see what that gets ya. (law suit)

a reply to: seasonal

If it would keep advertisers away from me welcome being 'discriminated' against.

a reply to: seasonal

Pish posh...there is already awards set up for latin people black americans...big deal. They seem to discriminate..Essence/Latin awards..there is also BET...nobody crying over that..what's the difference?

And I'm totally fine with that..i think advertisers are using "demographics" to advertise on that channel or the spanish channels are they not?

a reply to: chrismarco

Cool. So if you were to use this app to look for a house and the seller only wanted a certain race to see the add, and that race isn't you, you are now being singled out because of your race.

I guess that's ok in today's world? But I think when this inevitably reaches a court, there will be some $ rewards to the plaintiffs.

a reply to: seasonal

It's called target audience, would it be racist to target Jordan shoes to Black American age 18-30? Nope, it's just an audience that is more likely to take interest in it...

There's a difference between marketing and selling, i'm sure when the time comes the seller will accept payment from just about anyone. It would've been wrong if the seller refused to take payment from a certain group.

a reply to: Shuye

You bring up some good points. But.

I hope this helps.

FAIR HOUSING ADVERTISING MANUAL HOUSING DISCRIMINATION IS AGAINST THE LAW!

ARE YOUR ADS DISCRIMINATORY

The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act together make up the Fair Housing Act. The law provides protection against discrimination based on race, color , national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and handicap.

Section 804 of the federal fair housing law states it is against the law to”... make, print, publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or any intention to make any such preference limitation or discrimination.

voiceofdetroit.net...

When advertisements are to targeted to an audience that is most likely to buy their product, it is called incentive for improved sales.

When advertisements are used to exclude an audience, to restrict the purchase of the advertised items from a particular group, it call racism.

Facebook is walking a very thin line. If anything can be corrupted or abused, there will always be someone out there that will use and abuse it.

Facebook is supposed to be knowledgeable and advanced in the workings of the human psyche, so they have to know what they are doing, and they have to know they are riding the line on the near illegal side.

So, you think advertisers should have to pay to advertise to caucasian and asian audiences about a hair product that is only really applicable to african descent folks?

a reply to: pirhanna

I think you are talking apples I am talking oranges.

This isn't TV ads.

This is targeted adds, that exclude on race that are for facebook.

This isn't a auto parts store advertising on NASCAR.



These are the laws in housing.

FAIR HOUSING ADVERTISING MANUAL HOUSING DISCRIMINATION IS AGAINST THE LAW!

ARE YOUR ADS DISCRIMINATORY The Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act together make up the Fair Housing Act. The law provides protection against discrimination based on race, color , national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and handicap.

Section 804 of the federal fair housing law states it is against the law to”... make, print, publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or any intention to make any such preference limitation or discrimination.

that's an insult to people in general. segregation much FB?

In a system where you pay for each time an ad is served, Im personally happy that I can target specific demographics.

I think what you need to prove is adverse impact. Do that, and its racism.

a reply to: seasonal

i thinnk that law likely doesn't apply until you put out an ad that says, "no coloreds".

originally posted by: Misterlondon
There is no point targeting white or Asian people when selling afro combs..

No happy little tree for you!

a reply to: burdman30ott6

But it is a fair point. If i have to pay for each person thta the ad is served to, then I want control over who gets it. Otherwise I would be advertising tampons to teenage boys. That seems like a waste of my money, and somewhat inappropriate.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan
Free tampons in the Rutgers men's bathrooms?

People of all races can have different textures of hair.

We live in a global world, and are supposed to be working towards a global economy. The trend would seem to be toward global inclusiveness, not exclusivity.

At least is what thy keep saying.