Facebook will restore an advert promoting renters’ rights, which it banned for being “discriminatory”.
The advert was promoting an opinion piece in Tribune Magazine, which called for rents to be lowered. Tribune appealed against the ban, but the appeal was rejected.
It was only after news of the ban went viral, with the editor asking if he was being “discriminatory against… landlords”, that Facebook realised the error.
In 2019 Facebook was charged with violating the US Fair Housing Act by allowing landlords to target advertising to particular geographies and demographics. Facebook changed its algorithms to outlaw the practice. It appears Tribune was caught in the same net.
