DOJ Sides With Groups Suing Facebook Over ‘Discriminatory’ Housing Ads
A federal court should deny Facebook’s attempt to block a lawsuit claiming the platform is liable for advertisements that violate fair-housing law through ad targeting filters, DOJ argued Friday. Facebook’s argument that the Communications Decency Act immunizes it from the…
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Fair Housing Act “rests on the faulty premise that it is merely an interactive computer service,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman argued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The groups suing Facebook are the National Fair Housing Alliance, Fair Housing Justice Center, Housing Opportunities Project for Excellence and the Fair Housing Council of Greater San Antonio. Citing the groups’ argument, Berman said Facebook “creates and harvests user data to develop profiles for each user, categorizing them into groups based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and other criteria.” He argued the platform could be liable for advertisers that discriminate against potential renters and buyers based on filtering mechanisms for race, sex, religion and other personal information. Facebook didn’t comment.