Facebook disabling "multicultural affinity" group advertising tool
Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg. Photo: Thibault Camus / AP
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a letter today to Congressional Black Caucus chairman Cedric Richmond that it is disabling a tool that allows advertisers to exclude “multicultural affinity" segments from their audiences. She also declared that Facebook is "determined to do better" on multicultural marketing.
Why it matters: Rep. Robin Kelly said in a press release earlier this month that Facebook's "Ethnic Affinity" advertising option makes Facebook "complicit in promoting restrictive housing practices." Sandberg said in her letter that Facebook would strengthen policies to prohibit discriminatory advertising, and that until Facebook can "better ensure that our tools will not be used inappropriately," the tool is being disabled.
The "multicultural affinity" groups are groups of people "whose activities on Facebook suggest they may be interested in ads related to the African American, Hispanic American, or Asian American communities," per Sandberg's letter.
Rep. Kelly calledFacebook's decision "a positive step forward," and said she will "continue watching the issue closely."
Rob Goldman, Vice President, Ads Growth & Solutions, said in a statement: "People, businesses and organizations around the world use Facebook to advertise. It's important we make sure they use our tools responsibly. And a key part of this is working to stop ads that discriminate against people. We have guidelines to prevent this and other types of abuse, and we've strengthened how we enforce those guidelines over the years. We've also made mistakes and learned from them. ProPublica recently found that safeguards we put in place earlier this year were not as comprehensive as they should have been. This was a failure in our enforcement. We must do better."
Goldman outlined several steps Facebook is taking, including a review of the "exclusion" ability for advertisers, making it easier for people to report violations of ad guidelines, and more.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will arrive in Washington tomorrow a diminished figure — limping into her fourth term after six months of torturous coalition talks and touching down in the afterglow of Emmanuel Macron’s state visit.
Flashback: Days after Trump’s election in November 2016, Barack Obama flew to Germany and hailed Merkel — then TIME’s reigning Person of the Year — as “my closest international partner these last eight years.” Headlines declared that she had, however reluctantly, become the "leader of the free world."
Flash forward: Since losing ground in September’s election, Merkel has been in something of a strategic retreat internationally. A recent Der Speigel cover story bemoaned “Germany’s Incredibly Shrinking Role on the World Stage.”
According to Erik Brattberg, director of the Carnegie Endowment’s Europe program, that retreat involved leaving some distance between her and a U.S. president who is toxic in Germany — though cold air was clearly flowing in both directions.
While she’ll never match Macron’s chummy relationship with Trump, she’ll have more freedom to engage with him now that she has formed a government.
With Macron having moved the ball as far as he could on the Iran deal, and an E.U. exemption from Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs expiring Tuesday, her chief focus is likely to be trade.
Peter Foster, the Telegraph’s Europe editor, says that if Merkel makes progress there, it will be a characteristic "triumph of substance over style."
"After Macron, Merkel will inevitably look ponderous, dour even. But she has been around long enough to know that the Trumps and Macrons of this world have a habit of coming and going."
"Even as she enters the endgame of her political life, she will be quietly confident about whose legacy will endure. She will note that Macron may have upstaged her on the back-slapping stakes, but to scant effect — it looks certain that Trump will pull out of the Iran deal. Merkel still has the chance to pull off a substantive diplomatic achievement."
The bigger picture: With perhaps 3 years left as chancellor, and more than a dozen behind her, don't expect Merkel to take drastic steps to burnish her legacy.
“She sees her legacy as keeping Europe and the West together at a difficult time. That’s how she wants to go down in history.”
