This article was last updated on February 20, 2025
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Human rights body: advertising algorithm Facebook discriminates
Meta, Facebook’s parent company, discriminates based on gender when showing advertisements to Facebook users. That is the opinion of the Commission for Human Rights. The case against the tech company was brought by, among others, Bureau Clara Wichmann, a foundation that is committed to women’s rights and gender equality.
Research in 2022 and 2023 revealed a clear gender inequality in meta’s advertising algorithm. This algorithm determines to whom advertisements are shown. For example, almost exclusively women were shown a vacancy for the position of receptionist and a vacancy for mechanic was shown almost exclusively to male Facebook users. The advertising texts themselves were prepared gender -neutral.
As a result, according to Bureau Clara Wichmann, there are no equal opportunities for both groups to see interesting vacancies for them. The algorithm also reinforces and maintain stereotypes.
First time
It is probably the first time that an official European human rights body finds that the algorithm of a platform on social media discriminates based on gender.
The Commission finds that Meta must ensure that the algorithm does not maintain stereotypes. According to the college, the Mark Zuckerberg company has not demonstrated that it meets this duty of care. That is why Meta must take additional measures to prevent his advertising algorithm from discriminating.
Inconvenient
The Commission’s opinion is not binding, but Bureau Clara Wichmann expects Meta to take the Commission’s opinion seriously. The organization is also considering tensioning a lawsuit in the Netherlands, but also says it is open to “a constructive dialogue” with meta about a fairer system.
The ruling comes shortly after Meta announced with his internal Diversity program, to stop equality and inclusion and lower the threshold for what the platform regards hate speech and discrimination.
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