Facebook has signed an agreement with Washington State to complete discriminatory adv. targeting

 


Facebook has signed an agreement with Washington State to stop third-party ads in the United States from excluding protected groups from seeing their ads, Washington's attorney general said Tuesday.

Facebook confirmed the agreement with the state and said the message is part of a long process to ensure that tools used to target ads on the social network are safe, civil, and fair.

"We have removed thousands of categories relating to potentially sensitive personal qualities - such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion - from our goal of exclusion," the company said, pointing to efforts over a year and a half.

The legally binding agreement with the state of Washington requires Facebook to make changes to its advertising platform within 90 days, according to Attorney General Washington Ferguson.

"The Facebook advertising platform allowed illegal discrimination based on race, sexual orientation, disability and religion," Ferguson said.

The agreement ends with a 20-month survey of Ferguson's office, which began after non-profit organization ProPublica published an article on Facebook's advertising targeting, Ferguson said.

"Discriminatory ads have no place on our platform and we will continue to improve our advertising products," says deputy citizen and local policy, Castleberry.