HUD brings charges of housing discrimination against Facebook

April 5, 2019 By
Dr. Ben Carson, United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Photo credit: hud.gov.


Dr. Ben Carson, United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Photo credit: hud.gov.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced a charge against Facebook, alleging the tech giant violated the Fair Housing Act “by encouraging, enabling, and causing housing discrimination through the company’s advertising platform.”

In a recent press release, the agency previewed its case. “Today’s action follows HUD’s investigation of a Secretary-initiated complaint filed on August 13, 2018…HUD alleges that Facebook unlawfully discriminates based on race, color, national origin, religion, familial status, sex, and disability by restricting who can view housing-related ads on Facebook’s platforms and across the internet. Further, HUD claims Facebook 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.”

The Washington Post reports that HUD also “alerted Twitter and Google last year that it was scrutinizing their practices for possible housing discrimination.”

The New York Times reports that Facebook officials voiced surprise:

“Facebook, which HUD said controlled about 20 percent of the online advertising in the United States, appeared to be taken aback by the suit.”

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Housing Rules Yet Another Huge SCOTUS 5-4 Decision

June 30, 2015 By

 

Photo from CNN report: Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court

Photo from CNN report: Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court

Obamacare and same-sex marriage naturally dominated attention over recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, but a huge housing issue also got a 5-4 ruling that leans toward the court’s liberal side. The court, in effect, re-affirmed a federal law passed in 1968 to combat housing discrimination by, as CNN explained, “… holding that the law allows not only claims for intentional discrimination but also, claims that cover practices that have a discriminatory effect, even if they were not motivated by an intent to discriminate.”
 
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the 5-4 opinion for a closely divided Court concerning the scope of the Fair Housing Act. He noted that “… much progress remains to be made in our nation’s continuing struggle against racial isolation.” His opinion was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer.
 
Opponents including the state of Texas argued that the law punished outcomes without any intent of harming anyone, and actually injects more, not less, race into housing development decisions.
 
Read the CNN coverage here.
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