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The columnist of vox.com,
How the internet keeps poor people in poor neighborhoods
In October, ProPublica journalists went to Facebook and bought a housing-related ad.
They wanted to expose how Facebook allowed advertisers to discriminate based on race. So they used Facebook’s advertising tools to exclude certain users from seeing the ad: African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanics.
This was clearly a violation of the Fair Housing Act, which says real estate ads can’t show a preference for people based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, or familial status.
Housing discrimination happens all the time. But the shocking thing here was just how visibly the tool let advertisers discriminate. On Facebook, all they had to do was check a box.
It was reminiscent the overt systems that forced housing segregation in America, now and in the past. In the 1940s, the federal housing administration refused to back home loans for black people — and those who wanted to live near black people. (Vox)
Source: http://blackpoliticsontheweb.com
