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Facebook EEOC Complaints

Last Update: September 25, 2019

What's at Stake

The ACLU, Outten & Golden LLP, and the Communications Workers of America filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Facebook and 10 other employers for unlawfully discriminating on the basis of gender by targeting their job ads on Facebook to male Facebook users only, excluding all women and non-binary users from receiving the ads.

Facebook has come under heavy scrutiny regarding its paid advertising platform, and whether it allows and encourages advertisers to engage in prohibited discrimination based on protected categories like race, national origin, age, and now gender.

The charges filed allege that Facebook delivers job ads selectively based on age and sex categories that employers expressly choose, and that Facebook earns revenue from its choice to place job ads that exclude women and older workers from receiving the ads.
The employer and employment agency advertisers named in the EEOC charges are:

  • Abas USA, a global software developer
  • Defenders, a leading installer of home security systems
  • Nebraska Furniture Mart, a major retailer of home furniture
  • City of Greensboro, NC Police Department
  • Need Work Today, an employment agency that procures workers for farm, construction, trucking and aviation employers
  • Renewal by Andersen LLC, one of the largest window replacement and installation companies in America
  • Rice Tire, a tire retailer and provider of auto repair services with locations throughout Maryland and Virginia
  • JK Moving Services, the largest independent moving company in America
  • Enhanced Roofing & Modeling, a roofing and remodeling company based in the Washington, D.C. metro area;
  • Xenith, an athletics equipment manufacturer and retailer

UPDATE (March 19, 2019): The case against Facebook settled, and the charges against individual employers are still pending.

UPDATE (September 25, 2019): In July, 2019, the EEOC found reasonable cause that several of the employers that had posted discriminatory ads had violated federal law. Read our latest Press Release about this case.

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