Facebook’s parent company Meta is facing heat from human rights group for allegedly using an algorithm that targets users with companies’ job advertisements based on historical gender stereotype. The four complaints by the human rights groups in Europe, comes years after Meta pledged to crack down on the gender discrimination issue worldwide.
The allegations against Facebook were brought about based on research conducted by nonprofit organistaion Global Witness. The research was reported by media outlet CNN.
In the report it was stated that Facebook’s ad platform often targets users with job postings based on historical gender stereotypes. Job advertisements for mechanic positions, for example, were overwhelmingly shown to male users, while ads for preschool teachers were shown mostly to women users, according to data Global Witness obtained from Facebook’s Ad Manager platform.
Additional research that was reported in the CNN article shows that the gender discriminatory job ad was not just limited to Europe, but was a ‘global issue’.
“Our concern is that Facebook is exacerbating the biases that we live with in society and actually marring opportunities for progress and equity in the workplace,” Naomi Hirst, who leads Global Witness’ campaign strategy on digital threats to democracy told media outlet CNN.
Global Witness filed the complaints against Meta and Facebook in France and Netherlands. The organisation have urged agencies to look into suspected human rights violations.
If Meta is found guilty of adhering to gender discriminatory job ads algorithm, the company could face fines, sanctions or pressure to make further changes to its product.
The research showed that in France, 93% of the users shown a preschool teacher job ad and 86% of those shown a psychologist job ad were women, while women comprised just 25% of users shown a pilot job ad and 6% of those shown a mechanic job ad, according to Facebook’s ad manager platform.
Facebook has faced various claims of discrimination, including in its delivery of job advertisements, over the past decade. In 2019, as part of an agreement to settle multiple lawsuits in the United States, the platform promised to make changes to prevent biased delivery of housing, credit and employment ads based on protected characteristics, such as gender and race.
Efforts to address those disparities included removing the option for advertisers to target employment ads based on gender, but this latest research suggests that change is being undermined by Facebook’s own algorithm, according to the human rights groups.
With more than 2 billion daily active users around the world, Facebook can be a key source for helping users find job openings.
The platform’s business model relies on its algorithm’s careful targeting of advertisements to the users it thinks are most likely to click on them — so that ad buyers see returns from their spending on the platform. But Global Witness’ research suggests that this results in job ads being targeted to users based on gender stereotypes.
In some cases, human rights advocates say, the biases that appear to be shown by Facebook’s ad system may exacerbate other disparities.
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
Updated: 12 Jun 2023, 07:53 PM IST