Facebook to stop ads that target, exclude races

The move comes amid growing scrutiny of how the world’s largest online social media network’s policies and algorithms shape what content appears in a user’s newsfeed. The unexpected victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election this week has prompted questions over how much voters were swayed by inaccurate or misleading news items shared on Facebook, mostly in favour of Trump. Facebook will disable use of the advertising tool, called ‘ethnic affinities’, for ads that offer housing, employment and the extension of credit; areas where certain groups have historically faced discrimination, Facebook said in a blog post. Facebook collects vast amounts of data on its users, including photographs, allowing it to demographically categorise them in ways that allow advertisers to precisely target content to those they want to reach. The company said it will now use tools that automatically detect and disable ads offering housing, employment or credit that rely on ethnic affinity marketing. It will also update its policies to more explicitly require advertisers to not engage in discriminatory advertising.