Facebook vs. The Department of Housing & Urban Development
Redlining has its origins in discriminatory housing practice, where individuals within neighborhoods were identified as dangerous by those seeking to contain financial risk due to social status. Digital redlining in the real estate industry is still mitigated by brokerages’ adherence to The Fair Housing Act of 1968, but has recently been challenged by Facebook’s inclusion of micro-targeted advertising tools.
Facebook collects a broad range of demographic data about its users. These include social identifiers such as ethnicity, gender, location and income level. These became attractive demographic dimensions for realtors looking to target their online advertising to reach more efficient audiences for their listings. In doing so, they were able to exclude groups redlined by race, income and background. This is a violation of the 1968 Fair Housing Act, and discriminatory practice. In 2019 The Department of Housing and Urban Development launched an inquiry into Facebook. In 2022 Meta agreed to stop its tool being used to target protected classes for housing advertising (Feiner, 2022).
Echoing Chris Gilliard’s example of Google Maps’ location commenting, Facebook either didn't anticipate this or didn't care enough to prevent it from happening (Gilliard, 2023). It attempted to pass accountability on to the user. The law disagrees. Facebook does have a responsibility to actively remove their users’ agency to discriminate. Not only did this practice weaponize personal data for predatory practice, it framed it in the highly unethical terms of financial efficacy. That targeted reach would find more ‘qualified’ potential buyers. Such practice reinforces digital ‘steering’ but is also sadly reflective of settlement and legislative consequence happening years after the violation.
References:
Feiner, L. (2022). DOJ settles lawsuit with Facebook over allegedly discriminatory housing advertising. CNBC.com. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/21/doj-settles-with-facebook-over-allegedly-discriminatory-housing-ads.html.
Gilliard, C. (2023). Unit 2.5 Guest talk: Chris Gilliard on Digital Redlining and Luxury Surveillance (53:56). [Digital Audio File]. Retrieved from https://canvas.upenn.edu/courses/1693062/pages/unit-2-dot-5-guest-talk-chris-gilliard-on-digital-redlining-and-luxury-surveillance-53-56?module_item_id=26838807.
