Facebook limits ad targeting some marketers linked to race

Facebook Inc. will retire a controversial ad targeting option that let marketers reach users based on a “multicultural affinity” for certain racial and ethnic groups, including African Americans and Hispanics.

The company doesn’t allow advertisers to target users by race, but critics have argued that other features could help marketers work around that prohibition. Users can be solicited based on “multicultural affinity,” for example, a category based in part on data collected from their activity outside the Facebook app, such as purchase history and device usage, a spokesperson said.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development accused Facebook in 2019 of enabling discrimination by letting advertisers prohibit housing ads from appearing for users based on traits such as gender and race, a practice that is barred by law.