Facebook advertising system allows you to filter the audience by race

Explicit racial segregation in the United States has already been overcome for several decades, and numerous human rights defenders and fighters against racial discrimination have almost erased the line between “white” and “colored”.



But not on Facebook. The social network ads-system offers the advertiser to target not only by the generally accepted parameters of gender, age, place of residence or interests, but also by the race of the potential client.



The racial distinctions in Facebook are hidden behind the politically correct term “Ethnicity”, which, based on the words of the company's representatives, is formed on the basis of activity, preferences and other information from the user’s page.

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According to the Facebook Ads site, “ethnicity” only works in the case of the United States. If you specify a different region or country, the detailed targeting settings will not change.



In total, it is proposed to filter consumers by the combined racial-language basis. At the same time, the list contains only “colored” ethnic groups. Apparently, the white man is the target audience by default.







Surprisingly, the most accurate advertising can be customized for Latinos - Hispanic migrants are divided into three categories: English-speaking, Hispanic, and bilingualists.



And, at first glance, there is nothing racist in such targeting settings. However, the journal journal propublica came across an ad for the sale of a hunting house on Facebook, in the settings of which the entire “color” audience was completely excluded:







The problem is that, according to US law, it is prohibited to restrict the possibility of buying a home on a racial basis. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 reads:

it is prohibited to create, print, publish or call for any notice, statement or advertisement to be made, printed or published regarding the sale or rental of residential premises, which indicates any preference, restriction or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, marital status or national origin.

Violation of this law may result in heavy fines. In addition, Facebook risks becoming the goal of SJW (Social Justice Warriors) - an aggressively-minded group of people who, under the guise of fighting inequality and social injustice, are massively “persecuting” individuals and entire companies if, in their opinion, they are somehow connected with racism or discrimination on any grounds.



Facebook claims that their targeting system cannot be used as an instrument of discrimination or harassment of anyone.



“We take action when we determine that ads violate our policies,” said Steve Satterfield, manager of privacy and public policy on Facebook. But to comment on the fact that the ad, a screenshot of which is attached above, was approved within just fifteen minutes, the social network refused.