The ... administration today charged Facebook Inc. with violating housing discrimination laws. The social media company allows advertisers to divert housing listings away from users who mention terms such as “assistance dog” and “mobility scooter,” or who live in certain zip codes, in violation of the Fair Housing Act, HUD alleged. In addition, the Justice Department today joined a lawsuit against Facebook, saying in a “statement of interest” that the company discriminates by helping advertisers pick preferred users. The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing transactions, including print and online advertising, on the basis of race, religion or sex, among other things. Facebook allows advertisers to pinpoint certain potential tenants or homebuyers while filtering out others, HUD alleges..." https://www.politico.com/story/2018...-administration-housing-discrimination-786302
Yes, I've seen reports about Facebook ad targeting being used for all sorts of discrimination. Regarding race and age, as I recall. I wonder if Google offers similar targeting capabilities for its ads.
I wouldn't be surprised if Google does. Being an elderly, disabled vet, I've encountered this type of discrimination myself, and find it repulsive in the extreme.
These platforms are precisely for the purpose of discriminating on whatever basis they get fed. Which of course includes much prejudice whether that's legal, lawful or bigoted. Ultimately, if you use any services,loans, seek employment, probably date anyone, etc., you will likely be vetted according to obscure criterion and be judged according to opaque filters that cannot be challenged and is unlikely even known to the algorithms. You will also likely be judged if you don't use these platforms too - you're obviously subversive.
"HUD is reviewing Twitter’s and Google’s ad practices as part of housing discrimination probe... The Department of Housing and Urban Development alerted Twitter and Google last year that it is scrutinizing their practices for possible housing discrimination, a sign that more technology companies could be ensnared in a government probe of their lucrative demographic ad targeting tools,..." https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...ousing-discrimination/?utm_term=.c3b942405454
