A Watchful Eye on Facebook’s Advertising Practices

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Before the Department of Housing and Urban Development on March 28 announced that it has charged Facebook with violating the Fair Housing Act by enabling advertisers to engage in housing discrimination, Facebook said that it would change its ad-targeting methods to forbid discriminatory advertisements about housing, employment and credit opportunities. This plan, announced the week of March 18, is part of its settlement agreement with the civil rights groups that filed suits against the company over the past few years. The substantive terms are not radical. But they outline a basic framework for how policymakers might begin thinking about reforming big tech in ways that are suited to our times.

But, the reforms embodied in the settlement are hardly enough. First, even if Facebook substantially narrows the scope of targeting, there is no reason to believe that its algorithms might not revert to discriminatory ad distribution patterns. Also, Facebook does not have to be transparent about the actual workings of its algorithms. Despite these limitations, there is much in the settlement that is worth applauding. At a minimum, it sets out the blueprint for how to regulate big tech going forward. The other important lesson from the settlement is not about any of its specific terms. It is that policymakers should ensure that Facebook and other big tech companies continue to contemplate the real threat of litigation. The lawyers who represented plaintiffs filed complaints that plausibly forced Facebook to revamp its powerful advertising business model. But this is a rare case. Narrowing the scope of protection under the Communications Decency Act would help to make sure that Facebook and influential companies like it are beholden to the laws that protect the most vulnerable among us, or at least stay vigilant to the cause. Details for such reform are not easy to sort out. This settlement is a good start.


A Watchful Eye on Facebook’s Advertising Practices