ACLU reaches settlement with Facebook over discriminatory ads
I&#x27;ve never really understood how targeted ads, aside from things like job or housing opportunities, would be considered harmful discriminatory. Yes it&#x27;s <i>discrimination</i> in the basic sense of the word - the same way that my company discriminates between men and women in our work experience surveys so that we can see any differences in trends.<p>If I&#x27;m selling high heeled shoes, why should I not be able to target my ads to women? If I&#x27;m trying to solicit support for, say, a charity focused on helping South American immigrants why should I not be able to target Latin immigrants if I have a belief that they will be more invested and likely to follow up? If I built a new church why shouldn&#x27;t I be able to advertise to Christians?<p>Certainly, using such categories for job and housing advertisements should not be allowed. But if I&#x27;m reading Facebook&#x27;s announcement correctly targeting on race and gender is being completely removed [1]. I&#x27;d make more sense for me to just forbid it for jobs and housing. If that&#x27;s too difficult, explicitly limit it to selling people consumer goods like shoes, concert tickets, and video games.<p>1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.facebook.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;news&#x2F;keeping-advertising-safe-and-civil" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.facebook.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;news&#x2F;keeping-advertising-s...</a>