A giant thumbs-up button marks the entrance to the Facebook Inc. campus, located at 1601 Willow Road in Menlo Park, California.HUD Sues Facebook for Housing Discrimination
HUD's complaint comes in an ongoing SDNY litigation against the social media company for alleged discrimination on grounds such as sex, race and family status.
August 17, 2018 at 06:16 PM
2 minute read
The original version of this story was published on New York Law Journal
The Department of Housing and Urban Development hit Facebook Inc. with an administrative complaint alleging the social media company's advertising tools enable those managing property to discriminate in housing.
Filed on Aug. 14, HUD's administrative complaint alleges that both the social media company's ad targeting tools and user classification enable the limitation of ad audiences on characteristics “outright prohibited” by the Federal Housing Administration, said the government's formal statement of interest. Among the grounds on which Facebook is alleged to have allowed discrimination are “sex, religion, familial status, and natural origin, and pretexts for protected characteristics.”
In a letter to the court submitted Friday, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman for the Southern District of New York took HUD's side, noting that “the government has strong interest” in the matter, and agreed with its allegations that Facebook violated sections of the Fair Housing Act. Berman added that the government is in agreeance that Facebook “is not entitled to immunity” under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act,
The motion comes in a lawsuit brought by groups of fair housing advocates against Facebook in March 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs in the suit are National Fair Housing Alliance, the Fair Housing Justice Center Inc., Housing Opportunities Project for Excellence Inc. and Fair Housing Council of Greater San Antonio.
Representing Facebook in the suit are attorneys from Munger, Tolles & Olson. Presiding over the case is U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl of the Southern District of New York.
The statement of interest issued Friday was in response to a motion filed by Facebook in July to transfer venue to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. As an alternative, defense counsel also requested dismissing with prejudice an amended complaint by plaintiffs.
Read the Statement of Interest here:
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