Federal regulators have filed a complaint against Facebook

[Kimmich]

Federal regulators have filed a complaint against Facebook for letting landlords and home sellers pick and choose who gets to see their ads.

Facebook is getting in trouble again for housing ads that a US agency says are discriminatory.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said Friday that it's filed a formal complaint against Facebook for violating the Fair Housing Act because the social network lets landlords and home sellers engage in housing discrimination.

Facebook allows advertisers to decide who gets their housing-related ads based on the users' race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, disability and ZIP code, according to a HUD press release. This conduct helps advertisers limit housing options for certain people as part of "targeted advertising," which is discriminatory.

This is an ongoing issue with Facebook. A ProPublica investigation on the tech giant's advertising platform in 2016 showed that people could target housing advertisements to and away from specific races and ethnicities. Facebook said it'd try to fix it.

A year later, ProPublica found that the social network was still letting such housing ads get through. The groups excluded from seeing those ads are all protected under the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination against potential renters or buyers on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin."

HUD also said Facebook promotes its targeted advertising platform with "success stories" for finding "the perfect homeowners," "reaching home buyers," "attracting renters" and "personalizing property ads."

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York also joined HUD in district court on Friday because of other private litigants challenging Facebook's advertising model, according to the release.

"There is no place for discrimination on Facebook; it's strictly prohibited in our policies. Over the past year we've strengthened our systems to further protect against misuse," said Joe Osborne, a Facebook spokesperson, in an email statement. "We're aware of the statement of interest filed and will respond in court; and we'll continue working directly with HUD to address their concerns."

 

Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-takes-heat-from-hud-over-allegedly-discriminatory-housing-ads/

[lewdicrous]

Source?

[koolerone]

sounds interesting but technically to fit the standards for tech news you need a quote or two from a website/news article and your personal opinion on the matter 

[Kimmich]

7 minutes ago, lewdicrous said:

Source?

Sorry About that, I updated

[lewdicrous]

Just now, Kimmich said:

Sorry About that, I updated

Add a link to the article please

[airdeano]

please review our posting guidelines here: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/11724-posting-guidelines-read-before-posting/

 

Quote

When creating a thread in the News subforum, please make sure your post meets the following criteria:

• Your thread must include some original input to tell the reader why it is relevant to them, and what your personal opinion on the topic is. This needs to be MORE than just a quick, single comment to meet the posting guidelines.
• Your thread must include a link to at least one reputable source. Most of the time, this should be a respected news site.
• Your thread should also include quotes from the cited source(s). While you shouldn't just copy the entire article, your quote should give the reader a summary of the article in a way that gives the key details, but also leaves room for them to read the full article on the linked website. Please use quote tags to show that you have copied this content from another site.
• The title of your thread must be relevant to the topic and should give a reader a good idea of the contents of the thread. Copying the title of the source is permitted but absolutely not required. It should be to the point and not be done in such a way as to mislead a reader, such as clickbait, etc.
• If your article is about a product or some form of media, images are always appreciated, although they are not required.

once corrected, then it'll be moved back to Tech News

[Tog Driver]

Wait, how could people target there ads? Have a list of checkboxes that you can uncheck for all those you don't want to see the ad?

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

3 hours ago, TheClueLessMajority said:

Have a list of checkboxes that you can uncheck for all those you don't want to see the ad?

Exactly.

[Mooshi]

lol Normiebook. Keep using the platform if you want more of this, glad I quit ages ago.

[Drak3]

The Federal regulators can go fuck themselves, for stepping on the rights of home owners.

[8uhbbhu8]

3 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

The Federal regulators can go fuck themselves, for stepping on the rights of home owners.

No Facebook can go fuck themselves for allowing discrimination. No reason anyone should not be able to view a public ad.

[Drak3]

Just now, 8uhbbhu8 said:

No Facebook can go fuck themselves for allowing discrimination. No reason anyone should not be able to view a public ad.

Facebook allowing discrimination, though morally fucked up, is their right. Facebook is not a necessity, not even close. It is a luxury. A luxury with alternatives.

 

Instead of combating morally wrong of the individual by stepping on their rights through the morally wrong of a government, stop using Facebook.

 

 

Home owners not wanting to sell their home, for what ever reason, is their right. Owning explicitly thier home is not a necessity. There are plenty of home owners and builders that'll happily take your money.

 

 

Instead of making Government fuck over citizen rights to "fix" this issue, let the market, capitalism, and the pursuit of money, drive Facebook out of business and prevent that home owner from a potential sale.

[danomicar]

2 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Facebook allowing discrimination, though morally fucked up, is their right. Facebook is not a necessity, not even close. It is a luxury. A luxury with alternatives.

 

Instead of combating morally wrong of the individual by stepping on their rights through the morally wrong of a government, stop using Facebook.

 

 

Home owners not wanting to sell their home, for what ever reason, is their right. Owning explicitly thier home is not a necessity. There are plenty of home owners and builders that'll happily take your money.

 

 

Instead of making Government fuck over citizen rights to "fix" this issue, let the market, capitalism, and the pursuit of money, drive Facebook out of business and prevent that home owner from a potential sale.

The big issue with this argument is who gets to determine what things are luxuries and necessities. We should be able to get whatever we want without being openly discriminated against.

 

[Drak3]

Just now, danomicar said:

The big issue with this argument is who gets to determine what things are luxuries and necessities

Necessities, by definition, are the basic needs to survive. Luxuries are all else.

1 minute ago, danomicar said:

We should be able to get whatever we want without being openly discriminated against.

In an ideal world, whatever we can afford, we should have the opportunity to procure.

 

But we don't live in an ideal world. We have no right to procure the property of others, even if they're looking to sell it.

 

And Facebook is not actively preventing anyone from getting homes in general. They're allowing sellers, those owning the property, to sell to the people they want to, as they should be able to do.

[danomicar]

On 8/18/2018 at 5:32 PM, Drak3 said:

Necessities, by definition, are the basic needs to survive. Luxuries are all else.

So the access to advertisements for housing aren't a necessity? 

[Drak3]

1 minute ago, danomicar said:

So the access to advertisements for housing aren't a necessity? 

Access to advertisement for all housing  available on Facebook is not a necessity.

 

Especially when real estate agencies will list housing on housing boards, and home owners that are serious about selling will too.

[Tog Driver]

21 hours ago, danomicar said:

So the access to advertisements for housing aren't a necessity? 

Yes, viewing advertisements are important to life. . .

[Worstcaster]

On 8/18/2018 at 6:32 PM, Drak3 said:

Necessities, by definition, are the basic needs to survive. Luxuries are all else.

 

Basic survival necessities - food, water, SHELTER.

[Drak3]

3 minutes ago, Worstcaster said:

Basic survival necessities - food, water, SHELTER.

Believe it or not, Facebook is far from having a monopoly on advertising housing.

 

You don't need Facebook to get a house. You don't even need an internet connection.

[Worstcaster]

Just now, Drak3 said:

Believe it or not, Facebook is far from having a monopoly on advertising housing.

 

You don't need Facebook to get a house. You don't even need an internet connection.

You're right there are other sources of advertising, but it is still limiting access for something that is deemed a necessity.  If your water stops working in your apartment your landlord would still be required to fix it, even if there is a store selling water or a free to access river nearby.  In addition, the federal government is right, this is discriminatory and therefore against the law.