Facebook will remove 5,000 ad targeting categories to prevent discrimination

Facebook's latest attempt at placating activists and lawmakers who say its advertising platform permits discrimination is to remove 5,000 options that can be used to exclude certain religious and ethnic minority groups.

The company's response, outlined in a blog post today, arrives just a few days after the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed an official complaint against the company alleging it violated the Fair Housing Act. The HUD investigation findings were just the latest in a multi-month series of mea culpas from Facebook representatives and ongoing litigation from nonprofit groups. The HUD complaint also opened the door to a federal lawsuit, reports The Washington Post, perhaps prompting Facebook to take...

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