San Francisco (AFP)
US lawyers have sued Facebook on Thursday, accusing it of discriminating against women and older people in accessing certain advertisements, including loans, investments and other financial services.
The complainant, a 54-year-old woman, considers that the social networking giant allows advertisers to use its advertising targeting tools to exclude certain categories of people.
Two firms have filed a lawsuit in a San Francisco federal court and are going to ask the judge for class action status.
"Women and seniors are entitled to full and identical services from companies like Facebook and the financial services companies that advertise on the Facebook platform," said lawyer Matthew Handley in a statement. .
Facebook has indicated to review the complaint.
"We have made significant changes to the way housing, jobs and credits are managed on Facebook and we continue to work to prevent potential abuse," said a spokeswoman for the California group at AFP.
In March, Facebook announced that it would change its management of ads targeting minorities and economically vulnerable populations in the areas of housing, credit or employment, thus ending the prosecution of civil rights in the United States.
"There is a long tradition of discrimination in housing, employment and credit, and this toxic behavior should not be perpetuated through Facebook ads," said Facebook's number two, Sheryl. Sandberg.
One of the measures taken was to prohibit anyone wishing to advertise in any of these three areas to target by age, gender or postal code category.
© 2019 AFP