"Facebook faces new allegations of gender discrimination in its delivery of job ads. Research by human rights group suggests it's a global concern", 12 June 2023

Facebook-parent Meta is facing four new complaints from human rights groups in Europe alleging that the algorithm it uses to target users with companies' job advertisements is discriminatory, years after the company first pledged to crack down on the issue in other regions.

The allegations are based on research by international nonprofit Global Witness that it says shows 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 shared exclusively with CNN by Global Witness suggests that this algorithmic bias is a global issue, the human rights group says. Global Witness, jointly with nonprofits Bureau Clara Wichmann and Fondation des Femmes,... filed the complaints regarding Meta (FB) to the human rights agencies and data protection authorities in France and the Netherlands, based on their research in both countries. The groups are urging the agencies to investigate whether Meta's practices violate the countries' human rights or data protection laws. If any of the agencies find the allegations substantiated, Meta could ultimately face fines, sanctions or pressure to make further changes to its product. Global Witness previously filed complaints with the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission and Information Commissioner's Office over similar discrimination concerns, which remain under investigation.

The European complaints also mirror a complaint filed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in December by women's trucking organization Real Women in Trucking, alleging that Facebook discriminates based on age and gender when deciding which users to show job ads to. Meta declined to comment to CNN about the Real Women in Trucking complaint.

Meta spokesperson Ashley Settle said in a statement that Meta applies "targeting restrictions to advertisers when setting up campaigns for employment, as well as housing and credit ads, and we offer transparency about these ads in our Ad Library." Those targeting restrictions are in place in the United States, Canada and more than 40 European countries and territories, including France and the Netherlands, according to Meta.

Meta did not comment specifically about the new complaints filed in Europe.

Missing out on jobs because of your gender

Facebook has faced various claims of discrimination, including in its delivery of job advertisements, over the past decade.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. As a result, the groups say, countless users may be missing out on the opportunity to see open jobs they could be qualified for, simply because of their gender. They worry this could exacerbate historic workplace inequities and pay disparities.

Gendered targeting

To conduct the experiments cited in the complaints, Global Witness ran a series of job ads in France and the Netherlands over two-day periods between February and April. ...The results mirrored those Global Witness has found in the United Kingdom, where women were more often shown ads for nursery teacher and psychologist jobs, and men were overwhelmingly shown ads for pilot and mechanic positions.

In some cases, the degree of gender imbalance in how users were targeted for certain jobs varied by country — in India, just 39% of the users shown a psychologist job ad were women, while in Europe and South Africa, women were more likely than men to be shown psychologist job ads. A further exception was pilot ads shown in South Africa, which were more balanced, with 45% of users shown a pilot ad being women. Global Witness also ran tests in Indonesia, but Facebook's ad manager was unable to identify the genders of many of the users who were shown the advertisements, making it difficult to conduct a robust analysis of the results there. 

Meta did not respond to questions from CNN about how the algorithm that runs its ad system is trained.

Seeking algorithmic transparency

In addition to restricting advertisers from targeting employment, housing and credit ads based on gender, Facebook also prohibits targeting based on age and requires that location targeting have a minimum radius of 25 kilometers (or about 15.5 miles), the company says. For all advertisements on its platform, Facebook in 2022 removed targeting options based on sensitive characteristics, such as religious practices or sexual orientation. The company also requires advertisers to comply with its non-discrimination policy, and makes all ads available for anyone to view in its Ad Library. 

Still, researchers have continued to find evidence that Facebook's delivery of job advertisements may be discriminatory, including a study out of the University of Southern California published in 2021. 

In December, Real Women in Trucking filed its EEOC complaint alleging that Facebook's job ads algorithm discriminates based on age and gender. Meta declined to comment on the EEOC complaint from Real Women in Trucking; filings in cases with the agency are not publicly available. 

The French and Dutch agencies will have discretion about whether to take up the investigations requested in the latest complaints. Global Witness and its partners say they hope that potential decisions by the human rights agencies on their findings could put pressure on Meta to improve its algorithm, increase transparency and prevent further discrimination.