Facebook wants to limit discrimination by adjusting advertising guidelines

Facebook is changing its advertising policy to try to prevent advertisers from discriminating on the basis of race. For example, with certain types of advertisements it is no longer possible to show them to specific ethnic groups.

The advertising policy changes are detailed in a blog post posted online by Facebook. The intention is that advertisements that are classified as offering housing, credit and work can no longer be specifically targeted to certain ethnic groups. This should prevent advertisers from discriminating, for example by not showing vacancies to minorities.

Facebook is building tools to determine whether or not an ad can be turned off via the so-called ‘ethnic affinity’ program. Through software, the social networking site hopes to automatically detect which advertisements fall into the housing, credit or work category. Facebook will also indicate more clearly in its advertising policy that it is not the intention for advertisers to discriminate.

Facebook claims to have made these changes based on complaints from authorities and human rights movements. Incidentally, because of its advertising options, the company also has to justify itself in court.