Facebook faces lawsuit for hiding job ads from women
Washington, Sep 19 : The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing Facebook on behalf of three women job seekers who accused the social media giant of posting ads that are shown only to men.
The ACLU, along with the Communications Workers of America and the employment law firm Outten & Golden LLP, on Tuesday filed charges with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Facebook.
The women job seekers accused Facebook for targeting ads for jobs in male-dominated fields to younger male Facebook users only -- excluding all women and non-binary individuals, as well as older male users.
"The case is brought on behalf of three job seekers and the Communications Workers of America, on behalf of a proposed class of millions of job applicants. It alleges that these job advertising practices violate federal civil rights laws prohibiting sex and age discrimination in employment," Galen Sherwin from ACLU Women's Rights Project wrote in a blog post.
Facebook requires users to identify their sex in the binary categories of male or female in order to even open an account.
"While users can later change their sex designation and select from among a few dozen options to describe their gender identity, Facebook still requires users to choose gendered pronouns (male, female, or neutral), which it then offers to advertisers for purposes of gender-based ad targeting.
"Facebook delivers the ad accordingly, including a notice that the user is seeing the ad because of their sex," the ACLU said.
The lawsuit claimed that Facebook let 10 employers, including a police department, to run advertisements excluding women and nonbinary users.
Facebook responded to the allegations, saying there is no place for discrimination on Facebook.
"It's strictly prohibited in our policies, and over the past year, we've strengthened our systems to further protect against misuse," Download reported, quoting a Facebook spokesperson.
Facebook is "reviewing the complaint and look forward to defending our practices," the spokesperson added.
According to the ACLU, Facebook also offers advertisers the ability to use what it calls "Lookalike Targeting," which allows advertisers to target customers with traits similar to those of their customer base.
It's important to note that online platforms like Facebook are generally not liable for content published by others.
"But in this case, Facebook is doing much more than merely publishing content created by others. It has built the architecture for this discriminatory marketing framework, enabled and encouraged advertisers to use it, and delivered the gender-based ads according to employers' sex-based preferences," the ACLU emphasised.
Facebook must change its platform to prevent advertisers from exploiting user data for discriminatory purposes, and ensure once and for all that all users, regardless of gender, race, age, or other protected status, are given a fair shake, said the ACLU.
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Lokayukta raids govt officials in Karnataka
Bengaluru (PTI): The Lokayukta on Thursday conducted simultaneous raids at the premises of several government officials across different districts of Karnataka in connection with alleged possession of disproportionate assets, officials said.
The searches were carried out at multiple locations linked to officials working in various government departments in districts including Bengaluru, Mandya, Dharwad, Hassan, Mysuru, Vijayapura and Yadgir, among others, they said.
According to Lokayukta officials, the raids targeted officials holding posts such as Assistant Executive Engineer, Junior Engineer, Deputy Electrical Inspector and Taluk Backward Classes Welfare Officer.
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Among those raided was Assistant Executive Engineer M C Satyanarayana of the Hassan Municipal Corporation.
High drama unfolded during the raid at Satyanarayana’s residence in Hassan, where Lokayukta officials were forced to wait outside the house for more than an hour before gaining access as the door was not opened, sources said.
When Satyanarayana failed to respond to requests to open the gate, officials attempted to enter the house by climbing to the first floor.
In another case, officials conducted searches at the residence of Chief Engineer Vasantappa Nayak of Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited located in Akshaya Colony in Hubballi, sources said.
Currently serving in Bengaluru, Nayak had been transferred from Hubballi to Bengaluru in April last year. Officials are carrying out searches at his residence in Akshaya Colony, they said.
The raids were conducted by multiple teams of Lokayukta officials early in the morning at the residences and offices of the suspects following complaints regarding disproportionate assets.
