April 1, 2019
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has brought charges of Fair Housing Act violations against Facebook.
HUD announced it would charge Facebook “with violating the Fair Housing Act by encouraging, enabling, and causing housing discrimination through the company’s advertising platform.”
HUD’s case claims that Facebook illegally restricted “who can view housing-related ads on Facebook’s platforms and across the internet” and also that the media giant “mines extensive data about its users and then uses those data to determine which of its users view housing-related ads based, in part, on these protected characteristics” according to a press release issued by HUD.
There’s more; the HUD press release also mentions a HUD claim that additionally, “Facebook combines data it collects about user attributes and behavior with data it obtains about user behavior on other websites and in the non-digital world.”
“Facebook then allegedly uses machine learning and other prediction techniques to classify and group users to project each user’s likely response to a given ad, and in doing so, may recreate groupings defined by their protected class”.
Fair Housing laws forbid discrimination in housing. It also states that it is illegal to discriminate in connection with “housing-related services” which can include advertising (online or otherwise) that targets race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or family status.
The complaint against Facebook will be heard by a United States Administrative Law Judge “unless any party to the Charge elects to have the case heard in federal district court” according to HUD. If the case is ruled in favor of HUD, the judge may award damages against Facebook “for harm caused by the discrimination”. Punitive damages are also a possibility.
In many cases the victims of housing discrimination are the ones who report the problem; often there can be no resolution or justice without the injured parties coming forward to bring their complaint. This case is an instance where this process was initiated by the federal government at its’ own behest rather than due to a complaint lodged by an individual seeking housing.
Reporting discrimination in the housing process is vital in any case.
If you believe you have experienced discrimination in the housing process at any stage, file a complaint by contacting the HUD Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at (800) 669-9777 (voice) or (800) 927-9275 (TTY).
Bruce Reichstein has spent over three decades as an experienced FHA and VA home loan mortgage banker and underwriter where he was responsible for funding “Billions” in government backed mortgage loans. He is the Managing Editor for FHANewsblog.com where he educates homeowners on the specific guidelines for obtaining FHA guaranteed home loans.
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