France’s equality regulator has determined that Facebook’s job advertising algorithm is discriminatory towards women, following an investigation that revealed a bias in job ads for mechanics favoring men, while ads for kindergarten teaching positions were predominantly shown to women.
The watchdog group, Défenseur des Droits, contended that Facebook’s targeted job ad system discriminates based on gender, which constitutes indirect discrimination. The regulator advised Facebook and its parent company, Meta, to implement measures to eliminate discriminatory practices in advertising and granted the company three months to inform French authorities of its actions.
According to the regulator’s ruling, “The system implemented for distributing job listings treats Facebook users differently based on their gender, thereby resulting in indirect gender discrimination.”
This ruling followed an initiative from Global Witness, a campaign organization focused on examining the influence of major tech firms on human rights, which posted advertisements on Facebook that included links to various job opportunities across countries like France, the UK, Ireland, and South Africa.
The findings revealed that, notably in France, 90% of individuals seeing ads for mechanic positions were men, whereas the same percentage of those encountering kindergarten teacher ads were women. Additionally, 80% of viewers for psychologist job ads were women, while 70% of those seeing pilot job ads were men.
Global Witness, along with French women’s rights organizations La Fondation des Femmes and Femme Ingénue, which had reached out to the rights group, praised the ruling.
In a joint statement, they remarked, “This seems to be the first instance where a European regulator has ruled that a social media platform’s algorithms exhibit gender discrimination, marking significant progress in holding these platforms accountable under existing legislation.”
“This decision conveys a powerful message to all digital platforms that they will be held responsible for such biases,” stated attorney Josephine Sheffet, representing the plaintiffs. “This legal principle establishes a crucial precedent for future legal actions.”
Mr. Mehta disputed the ruling, with a spokesperson stating: “We disagree with this decision and are exploring our options.”
Meta had agreed to modify Facebook’s algorithms in 2022 after allegations from the U.S. Department of Justice suggested that the platform’s housing advertising system discriminated against users based on criteria like race, religion, and gender.
Source: www.theguardian.com
