Facebook announced Friday that it would be disabling the
controversial "Ethnic Affinity" tool that allowed advertisers to exclude
certain ethnic groups from target audiences.
"We will disable the use of ethnic affinity
marketing for ads that we identify as offering housing, employment or
credit," wrote Facebook's chief privacy officer, Erin Egan, in a post.
Facebook said it had worked with civil rights
organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and would
update the language in its advertising policies to make it more explicit
that discrimination by advertisers will not be tolerated, Egan said.
Facebook came under harsh scrutiny on earlier this month after a report emerged
that showed the social network was offering advertisers ways of
excluding specific races by checking a category it called "Ethnic
Affinity." Advertisers could choose to exclude African Americans, Asian
Americans and Hispanic Americans on the self-service advertising portal,
as investigated by Pro Publica.
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