Facebook's Automated Systems Skew Ad Delivery Based on Race, Gender

Study finds site served housing, employment ads to different groups even when targeting parameters were identical  

Facebook’s ad targeting systems automatically skew the delivery of ads based on gender, race and other characteristics, even when advertisers specify that they’d like their ads to run in front of a broad audience, a new study concluded.

Researchers from Northeastern University, the University of California and the digital rights nonprofit Upturn spent more than $8,500 on Facebook ads to see how ads were delivered through Facebook’s systems even when they controlled for factors like their targeting parameters, bidding strategies and the ads’ runtimes.

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