Firms like Amazon, Verizon, and Goldman Sachs use Facebook’s ad-targeting systems to direct jobs to young people, so older folks never see them. That’s according to a new report from ProPublica and the New York Times.
What they found: “Dozens” of companies have been found to be placing recruitment ads that are limited to particular age groups. As an example, Verizon targeted ads at 25-to-36 year-olds, complete with images of millennials sitting at desks in shiny offices.
Why that matters: Debra Katz, an employment lawyer, tells the site that the practice is “blatantly unlawful.” The federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 prohibits organizations from preferential hiring of people under age 40. T-Mobile, Amazon, and others have been named in a lawsuit claiming the companies used Facebook’s ad platform to engage in a pattern of age discrimination.
Don’t settle for half the story.
Get paywall-free access to technology news for the here and now.
