Facebook Inc. FB, -0.52% was sued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for violating the Fair Housing Act by allowing landlords and home sellers to use its advertising platform to engage in housing discrimination. Facebook enables advertises to display ads either only to men or women, not show ads to Facebook users interested in an "assistance dog," "mobility scooter," "accessibility" or "deaf culture"; not show ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in "child care" or "parenting," or show ads only to users with children above a specified age; not display ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in a particular place of worship, religion or tenet, such as the "Christian Church," "Sikhism," "Hinduism," or the "Bible;" not show ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in "Latin America," "Canada," "Southeast Asia," "China," "Honduras," or "Somalia;" and draw a red line around zip codes and then not display ads to Facebook users who live in specific zip codes. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a statement of interest, joined in by HUD, in U.S. District Court on behalf of a number of private litigants challenging Facebook's advertising platform.
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