Facebook Let Advertisers Target Users Interested in Nazis, According to Report

Company's ad targeting comes under fire—again

Facebook is allowing advertisers to target users based on their perceived interest in neo-Nazi terminology, musicians and Holocaust perpetrators, the Los Angeles Times reported today.

According to the Times, which conducted an investigation into the company’s targeting advertising keywords, the social media giant has allowed advertisers to target Facebook users based on the belief that those users are interested in certain neo-Nazi punk bands and the names of perpetrators of the Holocaust.

The Times was able to successfully place ads to hundreds of thousands of users who were interested in Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Josef Mengele—all infamous Nazis who helped perpetrate the Holocaust—as well as a white supremacist band.

Facebook’s automated advertising tools also recommended that Times reporters target users based on a series of other terms related to white supremacist ideology and neo-Nazis.

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