Ads for jobs, loans, and credit cards will now be searchable for all U.S. Facebook users as part of a legal settlement to eliminate discrimination. This follows a plan that Facebook made in March to make U.S. housing searchable by advertiser and location. Previously, ads could be delivered only to select users based on demographics like age, gender, ethnicity, education level, household income, and shopping habits. This practice made it incredibly difficult to manage social media compliance for banks as such targeting could run afoul with the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
In May of 2018, Facebook hired an auditor to assess its performance on vital social issues. Led by former American Civil Liberties Union executive Laura Murphy, this yearlong audit produced a 26-page report that detailed ad handling, content moderation and enforcement, and new efforts to prevent interference with the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Murphy said that she is “very excited” about the changes to Facebook’s advertisements and believes it will help promote the social mobility of millions of people in the United States.
Facebook has come under fire for censoring posts, a topic our favorite social media attorney spoke about on a recent episode of Larry King Live. Now, with these new efforts, the social media giant is doing what it can to prove it is adequately policing its own service and doesn’t need more oversight from the U.S. government.
As part of a settlement with the ACLU and the National Fair Housing Alliance, Facebook agreed not to target people based on their demographics, including age, gender and zip code and to also eliminate such categories as national origin and sexual orientation. And while Facebook still faces a complaint from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development over housing ad-targeting and delivery, as well as privacy and anti-trust investigations in Europe and the U.S., it is taking steps in the right direction. In fact, it is in talks to create an external oversight board to monitor advertising issues independent of its own monitoring processes. With these processes in place, it should help improve the state of social media compliance for credit unions.
While future changes to remove harmful content are still in the works, Facebook is already increasing its efforts to reduce harmful content on its network. This is a tall order indeed, and it will take a lot of effort from Facebook’s teams to accomplish their goal.
Have questions about Facebook’s recent settlement or any other legal social media issues? Then you’ve come to the right place. Contact The Social Media Law Firm today for more information on social media use, how to keep your business in compliance, and what you can do to eliminate social media risks at your company.
