美国国家公共电台 NPR Housing Department Slaps Facebook With Discrimination Charge

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Facebook says that it wants to make it harder for advertisers to use Facebook as a tool for discrimination. But whatever it's trying was apparently¹ too little for the Department of Housing and Urban Development because HUD says it is charging Facebook with violating the Fair Housing Act over the way that it allowed advertisers to target and exclude some users. We should note before going on that Facebook is one of NPR's financial supporters. We are nevertheless reporting independently on it, and NPR's Brakkton Booker is here. Brakkton, good morning.

BRAKKTON BOOKER, BYLINE²: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: According to HUD, how does Facebook discriminate³?

BOOKER: Well, as you said in the intro there, HUD is saying that Facebook violated the Fair Housing Act. And that, of course, is a federal protection that was established in 1968. It protects homebuyers and renters from being discriminated⁴ against on the basis of race and religion and other protected classes. Now, HUD is saying that Facebook is - allows advertisers to shield who can see which ads appear on their platform on the basis of race.

INSKEEP: Do you mean that if an advertiser only wanted white people to see an apartment ad - just to give a hypothetical - that Facebook would allow that to happen?

BOOKER: Yes, there are certain things that advertisers can click on the platform that allow certain people to see. So if they are - if a Facebook user kind of identifies as a African-American dog-lover and Facebook only wants to appear to, say, an Anglo cat-lover, they can select different things on the platform that allows - that shields certain people from seeing certain ads on their platform.

INSKEEP: On the most basic level, I'm genuinely curious how Facebook is convinced it knows the race of people because, of course, the platform asks for your name, asks for your phone number, asks for your birthday, a lot of other things. I don't know if they directly ask for race, but they must get it from somewhere.

BOOKER: Well, HUD is saying in their charging document that Facebook mined extensive data about users and uses that data to determine which users can see housing-related ads. So in theory, because of things that you like and things that you share, there are some kind of algorithms that allow advertisers and Facebook to know kind of who these people are.

INSKEEP: One of the reasons that this feels meaningful to me, Brakkton, is that I've done a lot of reporting on discriminatory housing or some reporting on discriminatory housing in the past and spoke⁵ with real estate brokers⁶ around Chicago who described the process of racial steering⁷. Like, who do you show a house to? Who do you hint to about whether they should or shouldn't live in a particular neighborhood? It can be very subtle, but very powerful in segregating⁸ neighborhoods. You're telling me that is exactly what Facebook did, according to HUD.

BOOKER: Well, it's really the advertiser. So it's the advertiser's...

INSKEEP: Facebook allowed...

BOOKER: Allow - allows advertisers - when they want to create an ad, when they're trying to look for the perfect tenant⁹ or the perfect homebuyer, they can start to select certain characteristics to make sure that, you know, the people that are seeing these ads are kind of the target audience that they want.

INSKEEP: And the excluded person doesn't even know they're being excluded.

BOOKER: They don't know. They don't know.

INSKEEP: They don't see the ad. They never see the availability. What has Facebook been saying about these accusations¹⁰, which I think have been out for a little while?

BOOKER: Yes, so this comes on the heels of what Facebook and some housing advocates say was a historic settlement that happened last week. Facebook said they were going to do better, and they were going to make changes to the platform to not allow advertisers to selective - to...

INSKEEP: Selectively - yeah.

BOOKER: ...Selectively put out their ads. So they said they were making changes. They vowed¹¹ to do better, and they said these changes are going to come about later on this year.

INSKEEP: And now HUD's coming after them. Brakkton, thanks so much - really appreciate it.

BOOKER: Absolutely.

INSKEEP: That's NPR's Brakkton Booker.

1 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 discriminate   

v.区别，辨别，区分；有区别地对待

参考例句：

• You must learn to discriminate between facts and opinions.你必须学会把事实和看法区分出来。
• They can discriminate hundreds of colours.他们能分辨上百种颜色。

4 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 brokers   

n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排…

参考例句：

• The firm in question was Alsbery & Co., whiskey brokers. 那家公司叫阿尔斯伯里公司，经销威士忌。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• From time to time a telephone would ring in the brokers' offices. 那两排经纪人房间里不时响着叮令的电话。 来自子夜部分

7 steering   

n.操舵装置

参考例句：

• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
• Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵，口吻也马上变得温和了。

8 segregating   

（使）分开( segregate的现在分词 )； 分离； 隔离； 隔离并区别对待（不同种族、宗教或性别的人）

参考例句：

• The government has just repealed the law segregating the public facilities. 这个政府已经撤销了分离公共设施的法律。
• Siblings and dizygotic twins share only 50% of their segregating genes. 同卵双生双胞胎和双卵双生双胞胎分享仅50%的基因。

9 tenant   

n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用

参考例句：

• The tenant was dispossessed for not paying his rent.那名房客因未付房租而被赶走。
• The tenant is responsible for all repairs to the building.租户负责对房屋的所有修理。

10 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

11 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。