Meta Begins Rolling Out Machine Learning-Powered System to Ensure Fair Distribution of Ads

Meta said Monday that the Variance Reduction System, the machine learning-powered technology it initially discussed last June to ensure the equitable distribution of ads on its platforms, is now live for housing ads in the U.S. Vice president of civil rights and deputy general counsel Roy L. Austin Jr. said in a Newsroom post Monday that the plan is to extend VRS to credit and employment ads in the U.S. at some point in 2023. The Department of Justice reached a settlement with Meta last June regarding a complaint filed in August 2018 with the Department of Housing and Urban Development over discriminatory uses of ad targeting options from then-Facebook. The HUD complaint was related to housing ads, but the same issues were raised regarding credit and employment ads, and Meta said at the time that it would apply plans it shared in the settlement to all three categories. DOJ civil rights division assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke said in a statement, "This development marks a pivotal step in the Justice Department's efforts to hold Meta accountable for unlawful algorithmic bias and discriminatory ad delivery on its platforms. The Justice Department will continue to hold Meta accountable by ensuring that the Variance Reduction System addresses and eliminates discriminatory delivery of advertisements on its platforms. Federal monitoring of Meta should send a strong signal to other tech companies that they, too, will be held accountable for failing to address algorithmic discrimination that runs afoul of our civil rights laws."