Facebook Says it Will Stop Allowing Some Advertisers to Exclude Users by Race

Facing a wave of criticism for allowing advertisers to exclude anyone with an “affinity” for African-American, Asian-American or Hispanic people from seeing ads, Facebook said it would build an automated system that would let it better spot ads that discriminate illegally.

Federal law prohibits ads for housing, employment and credit that exclude people by race, gender and other factors. Facebook said it would build an automated system to scan advertisements to determine if they are services in these categories. Facebook will prohibit the use of its “ethnic affinities” for such ads. Facebook said its new system should roll out within the next few months. “We are going to have to build a solution to do this. It is not going to happen overnight,” said Steve Satterfield, privacy and public policy manager at Facebook. He said that Facebook would also update its advertising policies with “stronger, more specific prohibitions” against discriminatory ads for housing, credit and employment.