In The Atlantic, The Leadership Conference and Upturn Highlight Discrimination in Digital Ads
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Contact: LaGloria Wheatfall, [email protected], 202.548.7160
WASHINGTON – In an article in The Atlantic, Corrine Yu, senior director of special projects at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and Aaron Rieke, managing director at Upturn, discuss how discriminatory digital ads can harm civil rights.
“Laws such as the Fair Housing Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 have long helped hold newspapers and their advertisers accountable for discriminatory marketing. But today, digital platforms—which deliver exponentially more ads than their newsprint predecessors—are making these core civil-rights laws increasingly challenging to enforce. The opacity of the digital-ad ecosystem is a major barrier to ensuring justice and equal opportunity.”
Yu and Rieke note that while there is still much to learn about the mechanics of digital advertising, the need for Facebook and other digital platforms to redouble their work to address potential digital discrimination is clear.
They write, “As internet marketing plays a growing role in shaping people’s life opportunities, it’s vital for Congress, the courts, and tech companies to tackle these issues head on. Digital discrimination may look different from the discrimination of decades past, but it is no less real or urgent.”
The full piece can be found here.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.