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african american man logging into facebook on a laptop

 

UPDATE:

  • The Court dismissed this case Aug. 20, 2021.

Facebook has been hit with a class action lawsuit from users alleging that the company violates the Fair Housing Act (FHA) by discriminating against them in advertisements placed on the platform.

Plaintiffs Rosemarie Vargas, Kisha Skipper, Jazmine Spencer, and Deillo Richards claim that Facebook creates a list of certain demographics, interests, and behaviors, which allows real estate brokers and landlords to hide ads from certain populations.  

The Facebook class action lawsuit claims that the company developed an advertising platform that created ads for housing. “This Ad Platform allowed and/or facilitated omission of certain Facebook users based on their real or perceived personal characteristics, by purposefully and intentionally creating, developing, and/or using the ‘Exclude People’ feature,” the plaintiffs allege.

In addition, the Facebook class action lawsuit also states that the Ad Platform includes users who have “favored” characteristics, which thus excludes those who do not have those certain features.

The Facebook class action lawsuit states that throughout 2017 and 2018, numerous non-profit organizations investigated the company’s conduct of discrimination. These organizations found out that Facebook gives the advertiser the option to exclude “(a) families with children; (b) women; (c) users with interests based on disability; and/or (d) users with interests based on national origin, from receiving advertisements.”

The plaintiffs allege that by having an “exclude people” and “include people” feature, Facebook stops ads from being shown to users who do not match certain criteria. These characteristics include: African American, Asian American, immigrant, Hispanic, Christian, moms, and “people ages 21 to 55 who live or were recently in the United States.”

“Facebook’s affirmative conduct in promoting its advertisers’ use of its Multicultural Affinity, Exclude People, or Include People tools has resulted in the unlawful discrimination of many Facebook users in violation of the Fair Housing Act,” the Facebook class action lawsuit states.

The Facebook class action lawsuit claims that Facebook requires users to provide their name, gender, date of birth, email or phone number when they sign up for the service. In addition, the company stores additional personal data, which is used in targeting ads.  

The plaintiffs allege that Facebook gathers and stores data about every ad that users click on, any personal information that is added to a users’ profile, and all of the users’ activity on the platform.

“Facebook collects millions of data points about its users, draws inferences about each user based on this data, and then charges advertisers for the ability to micro target ads to users based on Facebook’s inferences about them,” the plaintiffs allege.

In addition, the plaintiffs claim that Facebook promotes its advertising program with “success stories,” which include stories from real estate agencies, mortgage lenders, and a real estate focused marketing agencies.

The Facebook class action states that Facebook sells to advertisers the capacity to target advertisements to individuals who share personal information or who are likely to click on a personal ad.

“However, users disclose most of this data unwittingly through the actions they, and those associated with them, take, on and off of Facebook’s platforms,” the Facebook class action lawsuit claims.

The plaintiffs are represented by Michael D. Seplow and Aidan C. McGlaze of Schonbrun Seplow Harris & Hoffman LLP and Gerard V. Mantese, David Honigman, and Kathryn Eisenstein of Mantese Honigman PC and Patricia A. Stamler, Elizabeth Thomson, and Matthew Turchyn of Hertz Schram PC.

The Facebook Housing Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit is Vargas, et al. v. Facebook Inc. Case No. 3:19-cv-05081, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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49 thoughts onFacebook Class Action Says Ad Platform Allows Housing Discrimination

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