Facebook accused of excluding women from recruitment adverts

Facebook’s advertising platform is facing legal action for allegedly allowing employers and agencies to target male users with jobs – excluding women and non-binary users, TechCrunch reports.

The class action lawsuit filed on behalf of three female workers and backed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), alleges that 10 employers and employment agency advertisers ran discriminatory job adverts.

The charges, filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claim that the job adverts in typically male-dominated fields including police, software development, retail and installation and repair companies, were selectively only shown to male Facebook users.

The case alleges that Facebook delivered job adverts based on age and sex categories that employers selected and that it earns revenue from placing adverts that exclude women and older workers from being targeted.