Women filed a lawsuit against Facebook for hiding jobs

The social media giant Facebook has been accused by three women job seekers for hiding jobs, they claim that ads are shown only to men.

Charges have been filed on Tuesday against Facebook with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) along with Communications Workers of America and the employment law firm Outten & Golden LLP.

Facebook has been indicted for targeting job ads in male-dominated fields to younger man excluding all women and non – binary individuals, and older male users.

Galen Sherwin from American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Women’s Rights Project wrote in a blog post.

“The case alleges that these job advertising practices violate federal civil rights laws prohibiting sex and age discrimination in employment. The three job seekers and Communication Workers of America have brought the case forward.”

It is a fact that in order to even open an account Facebook requires the users to identify their sex. Even though users can modify it later to identify their gender, Facebook still requires to choose from male, female or neutral. This is how advertiser are facilitated for gender-based ad targeting.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said “Facebook passes on the ad as required, including a notice that it is seeing the advancement because of their sex,”

However, Facebook has denied the allegation stating there is no place for discrimination on Facebook.

The Facebook spokesperson quoted that over the past year they have strengthened the system and it is strictly forbidden in Facebook policies. He further added that Facebook is reviewing the complaint and look forward to defending their practices.

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According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), with “Lookalike Targeting” job promotors are empowered by Facebook to target customers with qualities like those of their customer base.

As emphasized by American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), it is worth mentioning that Facebook and other similar online platforms are not responsible for contents published by others. But in the case of Facebook case is different as its architecture allows discriminatory marketing framework. It encourages the promotors to deliver advertisements according to gender preferences.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) further added that Facebook must change the platform to prevent such user data exploitations by the advertisers.