Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The Trump administration announced a fair housing discrimination complaint against social media giant Facebook on Friday, saying the way the company targets ads can be used to screen out people based on race, sex or other protected categories.
The complaint goes to the heart of Facebook’s business model, which depends on being able to offer advertisers micro-targeting.
“Facebook mines extensive user data and classifies its users based on protected characteristics. Facebook’s ad targeting tools then invite advertisers to express unlawful preferences by suggesting discriminatory options,” the Housing and Urban Development Department said in the complaint.
Among those options are physical disabilities, parents with children and even religious practices — advertisers are allowed to show their ads only to people Facebook deems interested in “Jesus” or the “Christian Church,” for example.
Those practices could violate the Civil Rights Act, HUD said in the complaint, dated August 13.
The government had begun an investigation in 2016 after learning that Facebook allowed people running ads to narrow down those who can see their advertising based on protected categories.
Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but has previously said its policies tell advertisers not to discriminate. The company also insisted it had safeguards to stop advertisers from selecting based on race or ethnicity.
Poster Comment:
Zuckerberg will be forced to bake gay wedding cakes and whatever else Donald & HUD (regulations made up by bureaucrats) tells him to do, or face prosecution to the full extent of the law?
This truly is fascism, where the government mandates how you must run your business.
Business doesn't have to serve anyone, they have the right to tell anyone to F' off! Even Trump snowflakes.
#1: Pinguinite To: hondo68 (#0)
The problem is when businesses acquire monopoly status, which FB certainly has done. Without monopoly status, there is no compelling interest for the state to tell a business how to operate, such as with a wedding cake maker, because customers can easily find a competitor that wants their money.
But once a business acquires monopoly status, there is no competitor to turn to. A more severe example is telling a utility company that they must serve everyone in there operating region. Allowing a utility company to refuse service to customers on the theory that it's a private business, leaving impacted customers with no choice but to leave the region is excessively burdensome.
FB, due to its huge size and lack of competition is a monopoly. While not as essential as a electric or gas utility company, it pretty much falls into that category.
As for fascism, I thought that is where companies willingly collude with government, not when government cracks down on companies.
Pinguinite posted on 2018-08-19 02:03:49 Reply Private Reply
#2: Vicomte13 To: Pinguinite (#1)
Vicomte13 posted on 2018-08-19 06:56:57 Reply Private Reply
#3: Hondo68 To: Vicomte13, Pinguinite (#2)
We don't need no government mandated "Safe Space" like China has. It's not too difficult to imagine this turning into a Snowflake Bill that will be enacted by congress and signed by the prez.
Gov meddling in freedom of speech, and freedom of association is specifically prohibited by the first amendment. If Zuck wants to only associate with snowflakes, that's his problem not the government's.
Hondo68 posted on 2018-08-19 08:26:51 Reply Private Reply
#4: Pinguinite To: hondo68 (#3)
There are many people that would accuse Trump of being a racist and a tyrant if he stated that the sky was blue. A lot of people are like that. CNN would interview them and everything.
I suppose there are people who are Trump fans and would never criticize him of any wrongdoing. Those view him as an anti-democrat. They are harder to see just because the Trump haters are so glaringly obvious.
Speaking for myself, being neither D no R, if some future D president does something, I'm not going to object to it because s/he is of D affiliation, has a particular hair style or is a past celebrity, which is all too often the motivation driving Trump haters.
Pinguinite posted on 2018-08-19 11:12:22 Reply Private Reply