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Federal government charges Facebook with housing discrimination because of its targeted advertising

The federal government charged Facebook Thursday with allowing its massive trove of personal demographic data to enable housing discrimination, an allegation the company fiercely denied.

The allegations set up a lengthy legal battle between the Trump administration and one of the world's largest social media companies. At issue is whether the company's sophisticated algorithms and artificial intelligence capability still allows landlords to reach certain demographics and not others with rental advertisements.

Facebook said it was surprised by the charges, particularly after last week's announcement of a court settlement on the same issue.

The company had already agreed to shield race-based data to landlords and creditors looking to advertise, and said it would go a step further by shielding zip code, gender and age.

Last week, Facebook and fair housing advocates announced it had reached a legal settlement on accusations that Facebook enabled discrimination. As part of the deal, Facebook agreed to block landlords and creditors from using certain demographic data including a persons zip code, gender and age, when buying online advertisements.

Original article
Author: Abc News

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