Civil and Human Rights Coalition ‘Likes’ Facebook for Finalizing Prohibition of Ethnic Affinity Advertisements on Housing, Employment, and Credit
WASHINGTON – (RealEstateRama) — Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement in response to today’s announcement by Facebook that it has finalized its prohibition of the use of ethnic affinity marketing that enables ad buyers to exclude racial minorities from ads offering housing, employment, or credit. Facebook will also require advertisers to affirm that they will not engage in discriminatory advertising on its platform. This follows on a commitment made by Facebook in November of last year:
“We ‘like’ Facebook for following up on its commitment to combatting discriminatory targeting in online advertisements. Our nation’s nondiscrimination laws apply in both the real and virtual worlds, and we applaud Facebook for working with the civil rights community to reach today’s announcement.
Facebook’s actions today are bold – they not only strengthened their advertising policies, but they are committed to working to educate new advertisers and have put in place robust enforcement rules.
We hope other companies will review their own policies and follow Facebook’s example. Online companies must have strong safeguards against discriminatory ad targeting based on gender, sexual orientation, religion, and other protected characteristics.”
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. Through advocacy and outreach to targeted constituencies, The Leadership Conference works toward the goal of a more open and just society – an America as good as its ideals.
The Leadership Conference is a 501(c)(4) organization that engages in legislative advocacy. It was founded in 1950 and has coordinated national lobbying efforts on behalf of every major civil rights law since 1957.
Contact:
Scott Simpson,
