Keeping Advertising Safe and Civil

Facebook Business

August 21, 2018

Earlier this year, we shared ways we’re working to prevent misuse of our ad platform. Today, we’re providing some updates to our ad targeting tools and education that align with our advertising principles.

Removing some targeting options

We’re committed to protecting people from discriminatory advertising on our platforms. That’s why we’re removing over 5,000 targeting options to help prevent misuse. While these options have been used in legitimate ways to reach people interested in a certain product or service, we think minimizing the risk of abuse is more important. This includes limiting the ability for advertisers to exclude audiences that relate to attributes such as ethnicity or religion.

Expanding advertiser education

We want to help educate advertisers about their obligations under our policies. For over a year, we have required advertisers we identify offering housing, employment or credit ads to certify compliance with our non-discrimination policy. In the coming weeks, this new certification will roll out gradually to US advertisers via our Ads Manager tool. Advertisers will be required to complete this certification in order to continue advertising on Facebook. We’ve designed this education in consultation with outside experts to underscore the difference between acceptable ad targeting and ad discrimination.

We’ll expand this to advertisers using our other tools and APIs, and those in additional countries, over time.

Facebook's non-discrimination policy

We’ll share more targeting updates in the coming months as we continue to refine our tools for people and businesses.

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