Facebook disables feature that let companies hide adverts from ethnic minorities

Facebook has paused an advertising system that allows brands to pick which ethnic and racial groups they can target after it emerged it could be used to discriminate for housing, credit and and job vacancies.

The practice, which has been condemned by the social network, was exposed in 2016 but a recent investigation suggests that the company has not managed to stop it from happening a year on.

Investigative journalists at ProPublica said that they were able to buy discriminatory housing adverts using a fake apartment rental company.

They requested that a dozen adverts would not be shown to African Americans, mothers of high school children, people interested in wheelchair ramps, Jewish people, expats from Argentina and Spanish speakers.

Just months prior to this, Facebook said it had stopped the problem and put a safety net in place to block targeting in this way.

"Until we can better ensure that our tools will not be used inappropriately, we are disabling the option that permits advertisers to exclude multicultural affinity segments form the audience for their ads," wrote Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer in a letter to the Congressional Black Caucus, after they met her to discuss racist advertising concerns.

"In addition, all advertisers will have to complete the certification described above when they choose to include any of the multicultural affinity segments," she added.

Sandberg defended race selection among advertising, claiming it was commonly used across the industry and a helpful way to to "reach people with content that reflects the community with which they identify or products that are highly purchased by a specific community".