Facebook let advertisers target users via antisemitic terms like 'Jew hater'
Facebook has allowed advertising to target users interested in the topics of “Jew hater” and “How to burn Jews”, according to an investigation that adds to mounting criticisms of the way the company allows and profits from unethical ads.
ProPublica, an investigative news organization, reported on Thursday that the social network’s self-service ad-buying system allowed people to direct advertisements to nearly 2,300 users interested in several explicitly antisemitic subjects, including a category labeled “History of ‘why Jews ruin the world’”.
The journalists tested the legitimacy of the ad categories by paying $30 to target “promoted posts” to those specific groups. ProPublica said three ads were approved within 15 minutes. Facebook later took down the offensive categories after ProPublica contacted the company for comment.
Facebook says likely Russia-based group paid for political ads during US election
Read more
Asked about ProPublica’s findings, Rob Leathern, product management director at Facebook, confirmed in a statement to the Guardian that it had “removed the associated targeting fields”, adding, “We know we have more work to do, so we’re also building new guardrails in our product and review processes to prevent other issues like this from happening in the future.”
A Facebook algorithm had created the antisemitic categories, and the company said it is considering changes to prevent this kind of problem.
The embarrassing findings have come at a time when Facebook is facing widespread scrutiny for its ad practices. Earlier this month, Facebook disclosed that a group that appeared to be based in Russia had spent $100,000 on ads promoting political messages in a two-year period. The ads had spread divisive views on topics such as immigration, race and LGBT rights and had promoted 470 “inauthentic” pages and accounts later suspended by Facebook, according to the company.