Trump admin files formal complaint against Facebook for 'discriminatory' policy

[Swordsmyth]

The Trump administration announced a fair housing discrimination complaint against social media giant Facebook on Friday, saying the way the company targets ads can be used to screen out people based on race, sex or other protected categories.
The complaint goes to the heart of Facebook’s business model, which depends on being able to offer advertisers micro-targeting.
“Facebook mines extensive user data and classifies its users based on protected characteristics. Facebook’s ad targeting tools then invite advertisers to express unlawful preferences by suggesting discriminatory options,” the Housing and Urban Development Department said in the complaint.


Among those options are physical disabilities, parents with children and even religious practices — advertisers are allowed to show their ads only to people Facebook deems interested in “Jesus” or the “Christian Church,” for example.
Those practices could violate the Civil Rights Act, HUD said in the complaint, dated August 13.
The government had begun an investigation in 2016 after learning that Facebook allowed people running ads to narrow down those who can see their advertising based on protected categories.


Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but has previously said its policies tell advertisers not to discriminate. The company also insisted it had safeguards to stop advertisers from selecting based on race or ethnicity.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...ver-ad-target/

[RonZeplin]

Essentially The Donald wants to force Zuckerberg to bake gay wedding cakes, or whatever HUD orders .

[Swordsmyth]

Essentially The Donald wants to force Zuckerberg to bake gay wedding cakes, or whatever HUD orders .

Since Zuck is a flaming lib he can suffer from their policies without any sympathy from me, maybe he will now lobby to roll back the discrimination regs.

[aGameOfThrones]

Since some triggered idiot reported me for wrongthink on fedbook my old account has been locked until I identify myself with the name I was born with. I feel that I'm now triggered that fedbook refuses to let me identify with the name I picked and is discriminating unfairly on my name identity. Also, they are being racist.

[kpitcher]

On the one hand the Trump admin files this saying it violates fair housing rules including race, on the other hand HUD is getting rid of some fair housing rules addressing racial barriers.