I do technology at an MLS and we police our listings and have agents change terminology that may violate fair housing laws, including things like "man cave" (a frequent violation). For a while we were also contacting agents if they used drone photos of the property, because of restrictions on the commercial use of drones.
HUD Files Housing Discrimination Complaint Against Facebook
501–510 of 568 posts
Re: HUD Files Housing Discrimination Complaint Against Facebook
#502Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody asks a Christian to confirm that their beliefs are sincere, and that they aren't just pretending to believe in God, for the social benefits it brings.
Well just the last week, the Dutch highest administrative court ruled that Pastafarianism is not a real religion. Do you at least see why (you don't have to agree, just understand)?
I can understand the reasoning. However, that ruling does not apply to the US.
It’s something of a cultural identity issue in the US. Mocking religious beliefs in the abstract is often acceptable, but mocking specific people is far less so.
Re: HUD Files Housing Discrimination Complaint Against Facebook
#503Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're missing the point, though, which is not that the advertisers can target the models in the ads, but so they can choose _not_ to show ads to "undesireable" people, like people with kids, or of a certain ethnicity or religion. This sort of practice is an extremely pervasive problem that has led to enormous amounts of systemic inequality.
I have kids and am of Muslim origin and I have absolutely no problem with this: > _not_ to show ads to "undesireable" people, like people with kids, or of a certain religion What if I have a bar in Vegas almost exclusively frequented by young people in their twenties who go their to get drunk and meet singles. Why would I want to waste money showing an ad to people with kids who will not be interested and bring way l…
This isn’t a blanket law against everything. Your bar ad for twenty-somethings for example is perfectly fine and exactly what everyone would do.
Re: HUD Files Housing Discrimination Complaint Against Facebook
#504Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sometimes. They sold it to you. Example: I worked at a pharmacy with the self-serve digital photo services. A customer brought in a CD and made christmas cards from a family picture. It turns out the picture was taken by a local photographer the customer had hired. The pharmacy I worked at got the legal notice. Supposedly, we were partly to blame since we profited off of the cards the customer printed. Nevermind the…
>a pharmacy with the self-serve digital photo services ...Why does a pharmacy print photographies? I've never heard of a pharmacy selling something that isn't drugs.
I did once hear that part of it is historical. That in some places, many years ago, because photo developing was a much more manual process using more primitive means, and given that pharmacists of the time were used to handling and storing chemicals, and carefully following chemical processes and so on, that there was a natural link between the two. This would be back before the time of posting your film to Snappy Snaps, or there being a centralised photo-developing laboratory with an associated chain of collection huts that simply acted as the interface to the public. Once an association is created - exposed film goes to the pharmacy to be developed - it tends to linger.
However, I've not been able to find any evidence of this. It could just be a just-so story.
Re: HUD Files Housing Discrimination Complaint Against Facebook
#505Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sometimes. They sold it to you. Example: I worked at a pharmacy with the self-serve digital photo services. A customer brought in a CD and made christmas cards from a family picture. It turns out the picture was taken by a local photographer the customer had hired. The pharmacy I worked at got the legal notice. Supposedly, we were partly to blame since we profited off of the cards the customer printed. Nevermind the…
>a pharmacy with the self-serve digital photo services ...Why does a pharmacy print photographies? I've never heard of a pharmacy selling something that isn't drugs.
It's very common in UK for pharmacies to print digital photos (and in the past, develop films). German drug stores also have this service.
Re: HUD Files Housing Discrimination Complaint Against Facebook
#506Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And that’s not even necessarily a bad thing. ...what? Are you suggesting it's a good thing that we bring back red lining and other discriminatory practices?
"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
It's very clear what they were saying, is that if one follows the law at all time there is no chance that a bad thing will "accidentally" happen.
You are actually the one violating that policy.
Re: HUD Files Housing Discrimination Complaint Against Facebook
#507Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am convinced half these commenters are just being disingenuous just for the sake of it. These sorts of cases are settled and straightforward, we have a half century of case law plus multiple publications from HUD that directly address this issue. Craigslist actually does an excellent job of summarizing the laws and giving specific examples of illegal advertisements. https://www.craigslist.org/about/FHA
It may be easier to believe they are being disingenuous but the real answer is probably that they are in fact racist. Its a hard truth to swallow. The rest of this isn't directed just at you astura. If this was some random Facebook or 4chan comment would you be so quick to come to that rationalization? I feel we like to think the individuals we associate with on HN are like minded. To admit they aren't is almost a pe…
Give me a break. Not everybody that disagrees with you is a racist. Landlord that prefer to not have couples with children aren’t racist.
I too am confused how targeting may be illegal under a law that forbids discrimination and discriminating content of ads - I am not familiar with the law. Lack of knowledge/understanding doesn’t make me “racist”.
Some other comments in this inflammatory thread helped me get the point, but your attacks on everybody as racists-by-defaul are deeply bigoted and insulting.
Re: HUD Files Housing Discrimination Complaint Against Facebook
#508Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s slightly different with roommates. You can’t discriminate in advertising when it comes to roommate but you can discriminate when it comes to housing according to one ruling. https://www.sharinghousing.com/what-the-fair-housing-act-mea... Craigslist says something different. https://www.craigslist.org/about/FHA#roommates Under federal Fair Housing law, the prohibition on discriminatory advertisements applies to a…
> will be sharing a bathroom, kitchen, or other common area, you may express a preference based upon sex only. I wonder if someone who has a particular dietary restriction (kosher, halal, gluten free, vegan, etc.) can express a preference for a like minded person.
My understanding is that the "shared housing" clause is still only applying to landlords, not individuals seeking a roommate.
So if you're the Catholic Church running a women's boarding house on the upper east side of Manhattan, you are allowed to advertise to (and rent to) only women, but you can't restrict it further to only Catholic women.
Re: HUD Files Housing Discrimination Complaint Against Facebook
#509Earlier quoted context omitted.
dennisgorelik is correct, and you are wrong, as to a specific scenario which I would still consider to be a "housing transaction". It is 100% legal to discriminate on the basis of race, sex, or any other characteristic at all when choosing a roommate (a special form of renting out your property). It is 100% illegal to place advertisements indicating that you will reject roommates based on race, sex, or other protecte…
So are you saying it's not the spirit and letter of the Fair Housing Act to forbid discrimination? Or are you saying that HUD is not arguing that Facebook enables illegal discrimination on their platform?
Well, since housing discrimination is fully legal under some circumstances, I would indeed say that it is neither the spirit nor the letter of the Fair Housing Act to forbid discrimination. What is the alternative view?
Re: HUD Files Housing Discrimination Complaint Against Facebook
#510What many commenters do not understand here is that Facebook is making a killing by allowing this kind of illegal targeting. They know what's going on but they clearly don't care unless they get sued. In the meanwhile they made millions/forced the competition out/made it "standard"...