Facebook vows to stop ad discrimination against Blacks after lawsuits

Social media platform willing to dish out millions in settlement to stop lawsuits

Facebook is willing to pay approximately $5 million dollars in settlements regarding for five lawsuits that claim advertisers were allowed to discriminate against certain groups, including older Black workers.

Brianna Rhodes

Mar 20, 2019

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It looks like Facebook is about to cough up some money. The social media platform is willing to pay approximately $5 million dollars in settlements regarding five lawsuits that claim advertisers were allowed to discriminate against certain groups, including older Black workers.

According to USA Today, “protected groups” such as minorities, women and older workers were reportedly blocked from viewing ads about housing, employment and credit through the platform’s targeting technology.

The agreement was made with civil rights and labor groups, and the company will be partnering with organizations such as the National Fair Housing Alliance, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Communication Workers of America union to try and prevent discrimination on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger to ever happen again.

“This is part of our commitment to take the next step and the next step and the next step working together to prevent future discrimination,” Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer told USA Today.

After negotiating for 18 months, the settlement made on Tuesday is supposed to guarantee that Americans will not be blocked from ads for job, apartment or loan opportunities, according to the organizations involved in the case.

Facebook recently dealt with some issues regarding regarding age discrimination in September.

The ACLU and the Outten & Golden law firm represented the CWA and other job seekers, filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Facebook and other employers allegedly discriminatory ads that targeted Facebook users who were younger and male.

Another complaint filed in January 2018 for Facebook ads that excluded older workers. The CWA and individual workers are planning to receiver almost $3 million from Facebook.

The social media platform first dealt with discrimination in 2016, when ProPublica found that Facebook advertisers had the ability to block housing ads from African-Americans, Hispanics, along with other minorities through the site’s targeting tools.