The US government has sued Meta in New York for blocking certain users from viewing online real estate ads based on their nationality, race, religion, gender or marital status. The complaint alleges that Meta violates the U.S. Fair Housing Act (FHA), which protects people who want to buy or rent real estate from discrimination.

By law, landlords are prohibited from selling or renting their homes or advertising their homes to certain demographic groups or evicting tenants based on their demographics. Prosecutors sued Meta, alleging that its algorithms discriminated against users on the basis of “race, color, religion, gender, disability, marital status, and national origin” by targeting their housing ads.

Damian Williams, a US attorney with the Southern District Court of New York, said: “When a company develops and implements technology that completely or partially deprives users of housing opportunities based on protected features, companies engage in discriminatory advertising using more traditional advertising methods, and this violates the FHA. With this groundbreaking lawsuit, Meta will change its advertising system for the first time to eliminate algorithmic discrimination. But unless Meta can show that it has changed its system enough to protect against algorithmic bias, the office will continue to prosecute.”

Target agreed to pay a $115,054 fine to close the case. The company has also agreed to make necessary changes to its algorithms for its ad targeting system. The US government cannot impose a larger fine on a company because that is the highest penalty for breaking the law.

The agreement states that Meta will stop using an advertising tool to place ads called Custom Audience Audience Tool, which relies on a discriminating algorithm to find users who “look similar” to other users based on FHA-protected features.

Meta also agreed to develop a new system over the next six months to address racial and other differences caused by the use of the customization algorithm. This was the first time Meta has been sued for ad targeting and serving. Source