Fordham Law Associate Professor Olivier Sylvain was quoted in a New York Times story regarding a lawsuit alleging Facebook violates the Fair Housing Act in the way the company’s advertising targeting tools work.
Fair housing groups filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday saying that Facebook continues to discriminate against certain groups, including women, disabled veterans and single mothers, in the way that it allows advertisers to target the audience for their ads. The suit comes as the social network is scrambling to deal with an international crisis over the misuse of data belonging to 50 million of its users. …
The suit says Facebook’s actions are a violation of the Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to publish housing ads that indicate preferences or limitations based on race color, religion, handicaps, familial status or national origin.
“Facebook’s ability to customize an online audience for advertisements based on its vast trove of user data has made it the biggest advertising agency in the world — the advertising platform of choice for millions of businesses,” the lawsuit states. “But Facebook has abused its enormous power.” …
“Facebook is essential to the information flow that comprises our public discourse,” said Olivier Sylvain, a law professor at Fordham Law School, who is not involved in the suit. “But in that role, they should take on the responsibility of minding the flow of information, including the algorithms that produce the results.”