The first step is educating advertisers that they are not to discriminate based on age, color, disability, ethnicity, family status, gender, gender identity, genetic or medical condition, national origin, race or religion. The next is another implementation of machine learning that flags ads for employment, housing or credit. Should one run afoul of anti-discrimination guidelines the advertisement will be disapproved. In the process of creating an ad, the social network will also remind the creator of the new rules and ask them to verify that the ad isn't discriminatory Whether these new methods will actually cause any change is up for debate. Putting it in the hands of advertisers to ensure they aren't violating anti-discrimination laws seems like a lazy form of regulation. And, given that this is using algorithms to look over ads versus the humans that Facebook seems to despise so much, there's even more room for error. Or excuses when the code inevitably doesn't work as advertised. Just ask all those not-dead people or folks marking themselves safe following the Bowling Green Massacre.
Facebook is stepping up its efforts to prevent discriminatory advertising with the introduction of a two-step process. First is an attempt to "educate" advertisers not to create content that discriminates based on age, colour, religion, sexual orientation and many other categories. The second step, which will be rolled out in coming weeks, involves removing any ads from users who are found to have violated Facebook's community standards. Critics have argued asking the advertisers to police their own content is "lazy".