Patrick Kulp says, “A class-action lawsuit is accusing Facebook of breaking housing and job ad discrimination laws.

A Pro Publica investigation last week revealed that the social network lets marketers exclude users by “ethnic affinity.” The lawsuit, first reported by Business Insider, alleges that such targeting tools are a breach of federal housing and civil right laws.

The law states that advertisements can’t show obvious preference to specific groups of home or job-seekers.

Facebook has argued that its “ethnic affinity” tag doesn’t count as an actual identity trait — since it only judges whether or not people tend to favor a certain race. The company doesn’t actually ask its users to state their race.

But civil rights lawyer contacted by the nonprofit investigative news group emphatically disagreed”.

Lawsuit filed over Facebook’s ‘discriminatory’ ethnic preference ad tool

Mashable

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