Dutch organization accuses Facebook of gender discrimination in job vacancy ads

Facebook discriminates when posting advertisements for job vacancies, the Dutch women’s rights organization Bureau Clara Wichmann said on Monday based on a study by Global Witness. The social media platform advertises certain positions only to men and others only to women, the researchers found. “We are submitting a complaint to the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights and we are asking the Dutch Data Protection Authority to enforce it,” Bureau Clara Wichmann said.

Global Witness posted 9 different gender-neutral ads linking to real jobs advertised on Indeed on Facebook between March 22 and April 23. It asked the social media platform to show the ads to Netherlands residents aged 18 or older. “But vacancies for electrician and mechanic were almost exclusively shown to men. Vacancies for receptionist, primary school teacher, and hairdresser appeared almost exclusively in women’s timelines,” the Dutch organization said.

Facebook told Global Witness that it does a lot to combat discrimination, for example, by not allowing advertisers to select based on gender. “But still, the algorithm seems to select based on gender,” Bureau Clara Wichmann said. “By showing certain professions almost exclusively to men or women, Facebook deprives job seekers of the opportunity.”

“Our concern is that Facebook is exacerbating the biases that we live within society and actually marring opportunities for progress and equity in the workplace,’ Naomi Hirst of Global Witness told CNN.

Working with local equal rights organizations, Global Witness also filed similar complaints of discrimination against Facebook in France on Monday and previously in the United Kingdom. In the United States in December, the women’s trucking organization Real Women in Trucking accused Facebook of discriminating based on gender and age when deciding which users see which job ads.

A spokesperson for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, told CNN that “we continue to work with stakeholders and experts across academia, human rights groups, and other disciplines on the best way to study and address algorithmic fairness.” Meta didn’t comment on the new complaints against Facebook in the Netherlands and France.