Facebook lets advertisers exclude users by race
arstechnica.com
Facebook lets advertisers exclude users by race
1–10 of 21 posts
Re: Facebook lets advertisers exclude users by race
#2I see no problem here. There aren't excluding certain races from purchasing their products, merely excluding them from seeing the advertising for it.
If I'm a white male, why would I want to see advertisements for skincare products designed for African-American women?
The advertisers would lose money as well, because instead of advertising to me, they could advertise it to someone that has a higher chance of clicking/buying.
I also find it a little hypocritical that users regularly use adblock toward websites they dislike (could be political or racial)..and this is allowed.
Re: Facebook lets advertisers exclude users by race
#3I see no problem here. There aren't excluding certain races from purchasing their products, merely excluding them from seeing the advertising for it. If I'm a white male, why would I want to see advertisements for skincare products designed for African-American women? The advertisers would lose money as well, because instead of advertising to me, they could advertise it to someone that has a higher chance of clicking…
Because you might have African-American girlfriend?
Re: Facebook lets advertisers exclude users by race
#4I see no problem here. There aren't excluding certain races from purchasing their products, merely excluding them from seeing the advertising for it. If I'm a white male, why would I want to see advertisements for skincare products designed for African-American women? The advertisers would lose money as well, because instead of advertising to me, they could advertise it to someone that has a higher chance of clicking…
Because you might have African-American girlfriend?
Did you just assume his black and imaginary significant other's gender?
Shame on you HN.
Re: Facebook lets advertisers exclude users by race
#5I see no problem here. There aren't excluding certain races from purchasing their products, merely excluding them from seeing the advertising for it. If I'm a white male, why would I want to see advertisements for skincare products designed for African-American women? The advertisers would lose money as well, because instead of advertising to me, they could advertise it to someone that has a higher chance of clicking…
Because you might have African-American girlfriend?
Possibly, but the advertiser might already know that the chances are still lower that they would get clicks/buys and they have to pay for every click on Facebook.
It shouldn't really be up to you to decide.
Re: Facebook lets advertisers exclude users by race
#6I see no problem here. There aren't excluding certain races from purchasing their products, merely excluding them from seeing the advertising for it. If I'm a white male, why would I want to see advertisements for skincare products designed for African-American women? The advertisers would lose money as well, because instead of advertising to me, they could advertise it to someone that has a higher chance of clicking…
Because you might have African-American girlfriend?
But do the statistics support advertising to all white males in order to convert the white males that both have African-American girlfriends and are educated enough about her hygiene habits/preferences to suggest/buy this cream for her?
I think that there are likely to be some products/services that would benefit from advertising based on race. Most products/services would likely benefit more from advertising based on culture though (since a single race can comprise of many cultures).
Re: Facebook lets advertisers exclude users by race
#7I see no problem here. There aren't excluding certain races from purchasing their products, merely excluding them from seeing the advertising for it. If I'm a white male, why would I want to see advertisements for skincare products designed for African-American women? The advertisers would lose money as well, because instead of advertising to me, they could advertise it to someone that has a higher chance of clicking…
You can't make a racist housing ad and then defend yourself by saying you're not actually blocking people by race. The racist ad is a crime in itself.
Re: Facebook lets advertisers exclude users by race
#8Obviously not a lawyer but however you feel about it I don't think this technically violates the fair housing act by the letter of the law.
The advertisement itself(as seen by the public) does not indicate "any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin."
Rather, who is shown the advertisement is limited. You can argue that targeted advertising should be illegal in certain circumstances, but AFAIK there are currently no laws governing it.
Re: Facebook lets advertisers exclude users by race
#9This is clearly discrimination: they literally excluded people based on ethnicity.
It'll be interesting to see if Facebook is financially liable for discrimination in ads. Unlike the NYT, Facebook built the tools to discriminate. Filtering the ads also gives an advantage to NYT (and Youtube, etc..) by raising the markets barrier to entry.
Re: Facebook lets advertisers exclude users by race
#10Obviously not a lawyer but however you feel about it I don't think this technically violates the fair housing act by the letter of the law. The advertisement itself(as seen by the public) does not indicate "any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin." Rather, who is shown the advertisement is limited. You can argue that targeted adv…
I'm struggling with this comment. The article is a conversation answering this very question. A lawyer thinks it does violate the Act, because the Act makes this form of "targeted advertising" illegal.
I might of course disagree with that assessment, but I would defer to a lawyer to make a case why it wouldn't be illegal.