Facebook will now remove ad targeting via age, gender and zip code for housing, employment, and credit card ads (HEC ads) as part of its settlement with American civil rights groups. 'Multicultural affinity' targeting and any other targeting option relating to protected groups will be removed. Facebook's settlement was reached with civil liberty groups National Fair Housing Alliance, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and others which had sued Facebook last year for allowing exclusion of users by race, disability, and other categories. It is illegal under US federal law for housing, job and credit advertisers to discriminate against protected groups. The specific requirements in the settlement (find a copy at the bottom) are: Facebook will create a separate advertising platform for housing, employment, and credit ads for Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger that will have limited targeting options The organisation will not have any targeting options relating to personal characteristics or protected groups, which include targeting options related to race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, family status, disability, and sexual orientation Advertisers cannot target users in a geographic area smaller than a 15-mile radius Facebook's "Lookalike Audience" tool can no longer consider gender, age, religious views, zip codes, Facebook Group membership to target such ads If advertisers create ads independent/outside of the HEC ads portal, Facebook will block and re-route the advertiser via the portal Facebook will build a searchable ads library for all active HEC ads in the US. So it…
