Facebook Class Action Alleges Age, Gender Bias In Ads

Facebook has been hit with a class action lawsuit from users who claim that the social media company discriminates against them based on their age and sex in their delivery of advertisements.  

Plaintiff Neuhtah Opiotennione says Facebook denied her and proposed Class Members the opportunity to obtain financial services over the past three years due to its aiding and abetting of financial services companies’ discriminatory practices.

The plaintiff, a 54-year-old woman who lives in Washington, D.C., states that she is a regular user of Facebook and has been interested in seeing advertising about financial services opportunities on her news feed.

She also says that she has searched for housing and financial services opportunities on Facebook and was interested in seeing information on loans and insurance. However, she claims that she was continuously denied the opportunity to see these advertisements because Facebook has screened her from receiving such ads.

The Facebook class action lawsuit states that the company encourages its advertisers to exclude users from seeing advertisements based on their age and sex.

“Due to Facebook’s discriminatory practices, millions of older and female Facebook users have been denied the opportunity to receive valuable advertisements about financial services opportunities that advertisers sent to younger persons and men, and to pursue those financial services opportunities within and outside of Facebook,” the plaintiff alleges.

The Facebook class action lawsuit claims that the social media company has known that its advertising for financial service opportunities isolates users based on age and gender and denies them equal treatment.

That said, the plaintiff states that Facebook has not altered its discriminatory practices with respect to financial services in their advertising.

“There is no lawful or legitimate basis to exclude older persons or women from receiving the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, and services of Facebook and the financial services companies that advertise financial services opportunities via Facebook,” the plaintiff states.

The Facebook class action lawsuit claims that Facebook has violated the Unruh Act and aided and abetted financial services companies to violate the same act.

According to the plaintiff, Facebook has knowledge of the age and gender of each of its users as the company requires their customers to provide this information in order to utilize Facebook’s services.

The Facebook class action lawsuit alleges that age and gender information is used by Facebook to “segregate, classify, and categorize” users. The plaintiff claims that the primary purpose of doing this is to encourage their advertisers to target advertisements to users of the service based on their age and gender.

To be sure, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg has reportedly referred to this type of age and gender attention in their advertisements as “special sauce.”  

“Every time that Facebook sends an advertisement to Facebook users within an audience selection that excludes persons from receiving ads based on a protected status such as age or gender, Facebook knows that and intends for the ad only to be sent to the persons within the audience selection and it knows that and intends for the ad to be denied to persons who are excluded from the audience selection, including but not limited to ads for financial services opportunities,” the Facebook class action lawsuit claims.

Are you a Facebook user and have been excluded from seeing certain advertisements? Leave a message in the comment section below.

The plaintiff is represented by Jahan C. Sagafi, Adam T. Klein, Michael Litrownik, Peter Romer-Friedman and Pooja Shethji of Outten & Golden LLP, Jason R. Flanders of Aqua Terra Aeris Law Group, Matthew K. Handley and Rachel Nadas of Handley Farah & Anderson PLLC, and William Most.

The Facebook Advertising Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit is Opiotennione v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 3:19-cv-07185, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Read More Lawsuit & Settlement News:

Facebook Class Action Lawsuit Docs Reveal ‘Friendly Fraud’ Tricked Kids

Does Regions Bank Do FHA Loans?

Facebook Class Action Says Ad Platform Allows Housing Discrimination

Do I Need a Product Liability Lawyer in Nashville?