The federal government is suing Facebook over allegations of housing discrimination in the social network's advertising platform.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Thursday announced that it is charging Facebook with violations of the Fair Housing Act stemming from an ad-serving program that determines which users get to see housing advertisements based on race, gender, family status and other characteristics protected under the statute.
"Facebook is discriminating against people based upon who they are and where they live," HUD secretary Ben Carson said in a statement. "Using a computer to limit a person's housing choices can be just as discriminatory as slamming a door in someone's face."
"Even as we confront new technologies," said HUD general counsel Paul Compton, "discrimination in housing-related advertising is against the law."
The charges come close on the heels of a settlement Facebook reached with civil rights groups in which it agreed to modify its advertising program to limit the ability of lenders, creditors and employers to reach users on the basis of race, gender and other protected categories.
"We're surprised by HUD's decision, as we've been working with them to address their concerns and have taken significant steps to prevent ads discrimination," Facebook spokeswoman Elisabeth Diana said in an emailed statement.
Facebook says that it had been collaborating with HUD to address the issue of housing discrimination through its ad platform, but that federal authorities had overstepped in their demands for access to the company's network of users.
"While we were eager to find a solution, HUD insisted on access to sensitive information -- like user data -- without adequate safeguards," Facebook said. "We're disappointed by today's developments, but we'll continue working with civil rights experts on these issues."
Announcing changes to its ad platform under the settlement earlier this month, Facebook chief operating office Sheryl Sandberg explained that housing, job and credit ads would no longer be eligible for some of Facebook's microtargeting categories. Accordingly, "any detailed targeting option describing or appearing to relate to protected classes" would be off-limits, as would targeting by age, gender and ZIP code, Sandberg wrote.
"Getting this right is deeply important to me and all of us at Facebook because inclusivity is a core value for our company," Sandberg said.
HUD had earlier been probing Facebook's policies for targeting housing ads, and last August had filed a complaint against Facebook alleging discrimination on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability."
Now that talks between the two parties have broken down, HUD is alleging a host of violations of the Fair Housing Act, claiming that Facebook allowed advertisers to structure their campaigns so that their ads would not be seen by users identified as non-Christians, foreign-born, interested in accessibility and other characteristics covered by the law.