Facebook suspends ability to target ads by excluding racial groups

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Facebook Inc (FB.O) said on Wednesday it was temporarily disabling the ability of advertisers on its social network to exclude racial groups from the intended audience of ads while it studies how the feature could be used to discriminate.

Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, told African-American US lawmakers in a letter that the company was determined to do better after a news report said Facebook had failed to block discriminatory ads.

The US-based news organization ProPublica reported last week that, as part of an investigation, it had purchased discriminatory housing ads on Facebook and slipped them past the company’s review process, despite claims by Facebook months earlier that it was able to detect and block such ads.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer. /AFP Photo

"Until we can better ensure that our tools will not be used inappropriately, we are disabling the option that permits advertisers to exclude multicultural affinity segments from the audience for their ads," Sandberg wrote in the letter to the Congressional Black Caucus, according to a copy posted online by ProPublica.

It is unlawful under US law to publish certain types of ads if they indicate a preference based on race, religion, sex or certain classifications.

Facebook, the world’s largest social network with 2.1 billion users and 36 billion US dollars in annual revenue, has been on the defensive for its advertising practices.

Sandberg said in the letter that advertisers who use Facebook’s targeting options to include certain races for ads about housing, employment or credit will have to certify to Facebook that they are complying with Facebook’s anti-discrimination policy and with applicable law.

Facebook Inc has also eliminated transaction fees on donations made to non-profit organizations on its platform.

Source(s): Reuters