Meta Platform Inc., Accused Of Featuring Ads For Working Lows In Certain Groups

Real Women in Trucking, sued Meta Platform Inc., for directing ads on certain groups. (photo: twitter @TheBreTV ·)

JAKARTA - Meta Platforms Inc is accused of illegally directing dozens of recruitment ads from truck transport and other advertisers to most of the gender or age group. The allegation comes from an advocacy group for female truck drivers accused of complaints in the US on Thursday, December 1 citing data on the social media giant itself.

In June, Meta said it plans to introduce a "variant reduction system" to its algorithm to ensure ads for housing and work reach diverse audiences with regards to age and gender on its Facebook platform.

The new allegations underscore the issues Meta's planned system will oppose. Meta last Thursday said it was reviewing complaints and the new system was also under testing.

"Taking justice in advertising is an industrial challenge and we have collaborated with civil rights groups, academics and regulators to promote justice in our advertising system," the company said.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has faced years of criticism from civil rights groups and regulators about how its settings and algorithms allow bias in access to work and housing lists. US law prohibits discrimination by gender or age in the ad.

"Facebook is one of the resources for this kind of life opportunity, the consequences of this kind of discrimination are very broad," said Mitra Ebadlausi, senior project director at Upturn, an advocacy group representing Real Women in Trucking who served the Equivariant Employment Commission.

Real Women's in Trucking complaint lists about 80 ads from Meta's public archives showing inclined viewers.

In one example, the company seeking truck drivers in North Carolina reaches an audience consisting of 5% women and 11% aged 55 years or over.

"Women are 54% of people on Facebook who are interested in finding work. People aged 55 years or over are 28%," said Peter Romer-Friedman, head of law firm Gupta Wessler, representing Real Women in Trucking.

"There is no reason that job advertising should be sent to a fraction of these numbers regularly," he said. Most employers intend to reach a wider audience." he added.

But the bill cites three ads Meta lets advertisers choose age-constrained viewers, the promised option will be blocked for job advertising in 2019.

"If Meta struggles to identify job ads, it may also face difficulties in implementing planned variance reductions," said Romer-Friedman.