HUD Announces Social Media Housing Discrimination Complaint

HUD has announced a formal complaint against a large social media company alleging that the company violates the Fair Housing Act by enabling advertisers to target housing-related ads based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability.

HUD alleges that the company uses extensive data to classify its users based on protected characteristics, and invites advertisers to direct the delivery of ads to certain users and not others based on actual or imputed protected traits.  For example, HUD claims the company’s ad targeting tools enable housing-related advertisers, such as landlords and home sellers, to discriminate by:

• Displaying ads either only to men or women;
• Not showing ads to users categorized as interested in “assistance dog,” “mobility scooter,” “accessibility,” or “deaf culture”;
• Not showing ads to users categorized as interested in “child care” or “parenting,” or by showing ads only to users with children above a specified age;
• Showing ads only to users categorized as interested in the “Christian Church,” “Jesus,” “Christ,” or the “Bible”; and
• Drawing lines around majority-minority zip codes and not showing ads to users who live in those zip codes.

The complaint further alleges that the company markets its ad targeting platform as a useful tool for providers of housing-related services.

In a corresponding press release, HUD notes that Secretary-initiated complaints of this nature are not a determination of liability, but rather result in a formal fact-finding investigation to which the company will have an opportunity to respond.

The complaint can be found here.