Female truckers group alleges Facebook’s ad system is discriminatory

An advocacy group representing female truck drivers filed a complaint Thursday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging Facebook parent company Meta is steering ads for lucrative jobs away from women and older workers based on the type of role.

Real Women in Trucking alleges in the new complaint that the underlying algorithm powering the social media giant’s ad system is far more likely to show ads promoting jobs in certain blue-collar professions such as trucking, firefighting, manufacturing and construction to men. Similarly, Facebook is more likely to show ads to female users for roles historically considered to be women’s work, such as housekeeping, home care and child care, the complaint alleges. Facebook delivers these ads in a biased fashion even in situations when the marketer has deemed them to be eligible to be shown to the general adult population, the complaint charges.