Facebook STILL allowing racist property rental ads
Ads banning groups such as African Americans, people interested in wheelchair ramps, and Spanish speakers were approved almost instantly - despite the firm promising months ago they would be banned
FACEBOOK let undercover investigators place property rental adverts that excluded black, Jewish and disabled users.
US-based public interest group ProPublica bought dozens of ads on Facebook but asked that they not be shown to certain categories of people.
They excluded African Americans, mothers of high school children, people interested in wheelchair ramps, Jews, and Spanish speakers. Other ads sought to exclude potential renters “interested in Islam, Sunni Islam and Shia Islam”.
Every ad was approved within minutes.
The expose comes a year after ProPublica first revealed it had managed to buy adverts on Facebook that discriminated racially.
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It led to Facebook promising in February it would no longer approve ads for housing, employment or credit that targeted racial categories.
It has now apologised for its latest bungle.
Vice-president Ami Vora said: “This was a failure in our enforcement and we’re disappointed we fell short of commitments.”