Facebook cancels ads for minority communities

Yet again, Facebook is under fire for its handling of online ads. This time, the company has mischaracterized ads by community groups as political ads. Facebook removed dozens of ads for including race-related words such as “African-Americans” or “Hispanics.” According to USA Today, ads that were unfairly targeted by Facebook included those with LGBT content and Greek organization’s ad for 3D mammograms to promote breast cancer awareness. Advertisers expressed that “they received no clear explanation from Facebook for why their ads were rejected and, despite an appeals process, had little recourse. They object to registering their organizations as political, as they say that would be a misrepresentation of their business or mission.”

Mischaracterizing and pulling ads due to supposedly political content shows how arbitrarily the company enforces its policies and how incapable Facebook is of fixing its largest problems -- problems that are impacting political discourse in our country. This and other controversies, such as Facebook’s repeated failure to protect the online privacy of its users, and EEOC charges alleging sexual discrimination in job ads, point to a powerful monopoly that threatens our democracy.

Earlier this year, CWA joined Freedom From Facebook, a coalition demanding the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) curb Facebook’s power. The coalition isurging regulators to spin off Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger into competing networks, require interoperability, and impose strong privacy rules that empower and protect users. You can read the coalition’s full petition at freedomfromFB.com.

Links:

Facebook takes down ads mentioning African-Americans and Hispanics, calling them political (USA Today, Oct. 17, 2018)

Senate Committee Vents About Hijacking Of Big Tech For Information War (NPR, Sept. 5, 2018)

Facebook fails to protect its users’ online privacy – again (Speed Matters, Oct. 1, 2018)

Class action bias charges target Facebook, 10 employers for excluding women from receiving job ads on Facebook (Speed Matters, Sept. 18, 2018)

Top Communications Union Joins Group Pushing for Facebook’s Breakup (Bloomberg, July 9, 2018)