One of the nifty features of Facebook is the ability to create posts and ads that can target certain demographics, making it easier to reach a variety of audiences without spamming the feeds of your friends or followers. However the company has come under fire in the past for what appeared to be discriminatory filters.In fact a recent report revealed that despite having it been pointed out, Facebook has still allowed such filters to exist, or at least until now. Facebook has since announced that they will be temporarily stopping advertisers from excluding racial or ethnic groups in their ads, at least until they can figure out a better way to prevent the abuse of the system.
In a letter shared with USA Today, Facebook wrote to Cedric Richmond (D-La.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus in which it reads, “Until we can better ensure that our tools will not be used inappropriately, we are disabling the option that permits advertisers to exclude multicultural affinity segments from the audience for their ads.”
Facebook has also stated that they will be working with various groups to make improvements, publish the steps that they are taking, and also put ads that target specific races or ethnicities under additional reviews before allowing them to go live.
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