Facebook-owner Meta agreed to revamp the social network’s targeted advertising system under a sweeping settlement with the U.S. Justice Department, after the company was accused of allowing landlords to market their housing ads in discriminatory ways.
such settlement in which the company has agreed to change its ad systems to prevent discrimination. But Tuesday’s settlement goes further than the first one, requiring Facebook to overhaul its powerful internal ad targeting tool, known as Lookalike Audiences. Government officials said by allowing advertisers to target housing-related ads by race, gender, religion or other sensitive characteristics that the product enabled housing discrimination.
Under the settlement, Facebook will build a new automated advertising system that the company says will help ensure that housing related ads are delivered to a more equitable mix of the population. The settlement said that the social media giant would have to submit the system to a third party for review. Facebook, which last year renamed its parent company to Meta, also agreed to pay a $115,054 fee, the maximum penalty available under the law.
Advertisers will still be able to target their ads to users in particular locations but not based on their Zip codes alone and those with a limited set of interests, according to Facebook spokesperson Joe Osborne.
The agreement follows a string of legal complaints from the Justice Department, a state attorney general and civil rights groups against Facebook that are arguing that the company’s algorithmic-based marketing tools — which specialize in giving advertisers a unique ability to target ads to thin slices of the population — have discriminated against minorities and other vulnerable groups in the areas of housing, credit and employment.
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