Facebook is not only acknowledging a history of racial discrimination by business leaders, but is fighting to break that history.
Through the social network’s original policies, advertisers had the ability to exclude certain users from seeing their ads, based on race and ethnicity. This would enable them to continue the historical block of services like housing, employment, or credit enforced on groups like Blacks and Hispanics. With the use of “ethnic affinity” marketing practices, Facebook ignited reactions from activists, consumers, and politicians.
This weekend, their offices updated their policies for advertisers to promote inclusion. Facebook programmers will keep and eye out for and disable discriminatory marketing on services including those that have historically denied minorities.
The social network credits their updates to meetings with human rights, housing, legal, and civil rights advocates like the ACLU, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois and the Congressional Black Caucus, and U.S. Rep. Linda Sánchez of California and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and more.
