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by analog31 2449 days ago
The targeted ads in question relate to employment, which is governed by standards for what kinds of discrimination are legal and illegal.
1 comments

Ok, so are you allowed to place employment ads in Cosmo?

Is it Ok just because it’s overwhelming likely to be women who see it, versus algorithmically targeting women?

That is how it works legally, yes.
No, that is not how it works.

> The laws enforced by EEOC prohibit an employer or other covered entity from using neutral employment policies and practices that have a disproportionately negative effect on applicants or employees of a particular race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), or national origin, or on an individual with a disability or class of individuals with disabilities, if the polices or practices at issue are not job-related and necessary to the operation of the business. [0]

[0] https://www.eeoc.gov//laws/practices/

Are you a lawyer?

I'm not. But I don't believe you are right - advertising in a magazine doesn't exclude people just because their demographic doesn't target them.

If you ran a job ad for a make-up person in women's magazine there is nothing stopping a man who is also interested in make up seeing it and applying.

That is different to the Facebook system, where there was no way for someone from the excluded classes to see the ad.

I am not a lawyer, but I am directly quoting the US Government Agency that is responsible for enforcing these laws.

US employment law prohibits a large number of normally OK employment practices when they have a disparate impact on protected classes.

> For example, an employer's reliance on word-of-mouth recruitment by its mostly Hispanic work force may violate the law if the result is that almost all new hires are Hispanic. [0]

[0] https://www.eeoc.gov//laws/practices/

> Ok, so are you allowed to place employment ads in Cosmo?

Yes, if you take care to balance your ad placement so that your job opening advertising policy is not biased against protected classes.

> because it’s overwhelming likely to be women who see it, versus algorithmically targeting women?

That doesn't matter. What matters is the end effect of the advertising policy.

In that case the targeted facebook ads would not be illegal if they were balanced by targeted ads at the groups excluded from the first? Or also not illegal if it can't be proven to have had an actual effect?
Can someone tell me, does Cosmopolitan magazine run job ads?
It doesn't.
Working Mother Magazine runs ads for jobs if someone wants a more concrete example to use one way or another

https://jobs.workingmother.com/