Senator Calls Facebook Response on Discriminatory Ads “Inadequate”
The exchange followed a Markup report showing Facebook allowed targeting by age for financial services By Alfred Ng
A senator who demanded Facebook explain why it allowed advertisers to target credit card ads by age—a violation of written company policy and potentially civil rights laws—is now criticizing the company for failing to provide clear answers.
“Having now been given a second chance to clarify its policies, Facebook has provided an evasive and inadequate response,” U.S. senator Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, said in a statement.
The exchange follows a back-and-forth between the senator and company executives that began when Facebook’s vice president of content policy, Monika Bickert, testified that Facebook doesn’t allow discriminatory targeting for “certain types of advertisements, such as financial services” during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on April 27. Two days later, The Markup published an investigation showing Facebook was doing just that. We found several ads for credit cards and other financial services targeted by age.
In a letter dated May 13, first reported by The Washington Post, Hirono demanded an explanation for the discrepancy between Bickert’s testimony and The Markup’s findings.
