{"id":133754,"date":"2019-03-28T17:18:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T17:18:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=133754"},"modified":"2025-07-01T22:10:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T05:10:25","slug":"hud-charges-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/hud-charges-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"HUD charges Facebook with discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MarkThe U.S. Department of<\/strong> Housing and Urban Development charged Facebook today,<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0claiming it violated the Fair Housing Act.<\/a><\/p>\n

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HUD’s charge in a nutshell<\/h2>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

HUD alleged that Facebook is discriminating against its users<\/strong>\u00a0by restricting which of them can view its ads for homes and apartments. HUD also alleges that Facebook is data-mining its users<\/strong>, using that data to determine who is viewing housing-related ads based on\u00a0race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, sex, and disability.<\/p>\n

According to HUD, Facebook allowed advertisers to avoid users who were parents, born outside the U.S., non-Christian, interested in accessibility, interested in Hispanic culture, or fell under other categories protected by the Fair Housing Act.<\/p>\n

Facebook also allowed housing advertisers to choose not to advertise to users based on their neighborhood<\/strong> by drawing a red line around said neighborhoods on a map. “Redlining” has a long and ugly past in the United States.<\/a>\u00a0Advertisers were also allowed to exclude women from their housing ads.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Facebook is discriminating against people based upon who they are and where they live. Using a computer to limit a person\u2019s housing choices can be just as discriminatory as slamming a door in someone\u2019s face. Read more: https:\/\/t.co\/ZKdVQrIAXB<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ben Carson (@SecretaryCarson) March 28, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Is Bing a racist search engine?<\/p>\r\n Read now \u25ba<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

Facebook’s response<\/h2>\n

\"Facebook<\/p>\n

Both Mark Zuckerberg\u00a0and the Facebook Newsroom <\/a>have remained silent about the charge, but Facebook spokesman Joel Osborne offered this statement: “We\u2019re surprised by HUD\u2019s decision, as we\u2019ve been working with them to address their concerns and have taken significant steps to prevent ads discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than a week before HUD announced the charge, Facebook posted an article<\/a> about how the company plans to do more to stop discrimination in housing advertising.<\/p>\n

“Our policies already prohibit advertisers from using our tools to discriminate. We\u2019ve removed thousands of categories from targeting related to protected classes such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation,\u00a0and religion. But we can do better,” Sheryl Sandberg<\/a>, Facebook’s chief operating officer, wrote.<\/p>\n

The article goes on to say that Facebook will take these steps to protect its users from discrimination:<\/p>\n