Facebook being charged for enabling discriminatory housing ads

WASHINGTON -- Facebook is being charged with housing discrimination by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The claim Thursday from HUD comes less than a week after Facebook said it would overhaul its ad-targeting systems to prevent discrimination in housing, credit and employment ads as part of a legal settlement with a group that includes the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Fair Housing Alliance and others.

HUD claims Facebook's ad platform was "encouraging, enabling, and causing housing discrimination." The agency said Facebook technology illegally restricts who can view housing-related ads on its platforms and across the internet. It also claims Facebook gathers extensive data about its users and then uses that data to determine which users view housing-related ads.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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