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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U'khand: Too poor to afford ambulance, woman ties brother's body to taxi roof, travels 195 kms
Haldwani (Uttarakhand), Dec 8: Unable to afford a private ambulance service, a woman took her brother's body, tied to the roof of a taxi, to a village in Pithoragarh district, 195 kilometres away.
Taking cognizance of the incident, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had ordered an inquiry into the matter and directed the officials to take strict actions against the culprits.
According to police, Shivani (22), a resident of a village in Berinag lived with her younger brother Abhishek (20).
On Friday, Abhishek came from work early and complained of a headache. He was later found unconscious near a railway track and taken to Sushila Tiwari Government Medical College in Haldwani for treatment. The doctors declared him dead.
After conducting the post-mortem, the police handed over the body to Shivani on Saturday.
She reportedly spoke to many ambulance drivers standing outside the hospital mortuary to take her brother's body home but they asked for Rs 10,000 - 12,000 as fare.
Being unable to arrange for the fare price, she called a taxi driver from her village and was forced to take the body by tying it to the roof of the vehicle and travel 195 kilometres.
When asked about the incident, Dr Arun Joshi, Principal of Sushila Tiwari Government Medical College, said that the incident happened outside the hospital because of which it did not come to his notice.
He said, "If it had happened inside the hospital or if I was asked for help, I would have helped."
The patient's relatives who were standing outside the hospital said that no one supervises private ambulances and they charge exorbitant fares for taking patients.
Dhami has asked the state Health Secretary Dr R Rajesh Kumar to conduct a detailed investigation into the matter and take strict action against the culprits, a government spokesperson said.
हल्द्वानी, उत्तराखंड में 20 साल के अभिषेक की मौत हो गई। घर 200 KM दूर था। एंबुलेंस वालों ने लाश पहुंचाने के 10-12 हजार रुपए मांगे। बहन शिवानी पर इतने पैसे नहीं थे। हाथ-पैर जोड़कर बहन ने एक टैक्सी वाले को राजी किया। टैक्सी की छत पर लाश बांधी, पिथौरागढ़ पहुंचाई।
— Sachin Gupta (@SachinGuptaUP) December 8, 2024
शुक्रिया UK सरकार pic.twitter.com/acl5Z9iLFY
