Facebook’s anti-bias vows may not kill suit against advertisers

The US judge voiced doubt about whether the case can go forward as a class action against hundreds of employers and employment agencies that used age-targeted Facebook ads.

Facebook’s vow to block ads on its platform from being programmed to discriminate based on demographics ended a string of lawsuits against the social network, but companies that allegedly used the site to weed out older applicants for jobs aren’t off the hook yet. 

Amazon.com Inc and T-Mobile US Inc were named as defendants in a 2017 lawsuit by the Communications Workers of America among hundreds of companies nationwide that the union claims have systematically deployed Facebook’s algorithms to exclude job seekers over 40.