Facebook was sued on Thursday by the San Francisco federal court for allegedly discriminating against older and female users by blocking advertisements for financial services such as bank accounts, insurance, loans, and investments.
According to the complaint, Facebook continues to allow financial services advertisers to target potential customers by age and gender, despite recent edits in other ads.
The California-based social media company violates that state’s civil rights law, exposing billions of dollars in potential damages to users worldwide.
The complaint was filed several months after Facebook acknowledged changing its ad system targets, including Instagram and Messenger, to settle lawsuits against discrimination based on age, gender, and zip code for credit, jobs, housing ads.
"The Internet is not a place where you can discriminate against people because of their age or gender, particularly in financial services opportunities," Peter Friedman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said, adding that It would be like a car maker refusing to offer women or older clients the same options on a car as men.
A 54 years old woman from Washington said Facebook has deprived her of financial services ads and information because of her gender and age.
Facebook's ads limit such financial services to users ages 24-40, and men ages 20 and older, and other similar groups.
"Getting this right was deeply important to me and all of us at Facebook because inclusivity is a core value for our company," Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said.
Facebook is the world’s second-largest trader of online ads and despite allegations, its share price posted $191.65, up 1.81%
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