Facebook enables gender discrimination in job ads, European human rights rules
48 comments
·November 8, 2025JuniperMesos
paperhatwriter
Can you explain why you think this?
mrighele
Not op, but if I was paying for ads on a platform, I want to make the best use of my money, and target users that may more likely react positively. If this means that ads looking for mechanics are more likely to be seen by men, so be it, why should I show them to somebody not interested ?
Unless somebody says explicitly "no women", there is no discrimination in my opinion.
cm2012
The algorithm is responding to people's revealed preferences in what job ads they want to see
hydrogen7800
All discrimination can be described as "revealed preference". A very convenient way of ignoring systemic harm.
wiseowise
How far are you willing to stretch this? What about skin color? Nationality? Religion?
standardUser
> I don't think anyone is meaningfully harmed by being algorithmically shown job ads stereotypical of one gender rather than another
If you show me a lower paying girl job instead of a higher paying boy job, and I apply for and get the girl job, how is the company tricking me into applying for the lower paying job based on my gender not a problem to you? How was I not harmed by having a better opportunity hidden from me based on my presumed gender?
fastball
You are not owed either job. Getting a high-paying "boy job" is your own responsibility if you want one.
standardUser
Who said anyone was owed a job? The problem is that hiding listings from people based on their gender obviously impacts who gets what jobs.
seneca
> If you show me a lower paying girl job instead of a higher paying boy job, and I apply for and get the girl job, how is the company tricking me into applying for the lower paying job based on my gender not a problem to you? How as I not harmed by having a better opportunity hidden from me based on my presumed gender?
Not highlighting something to you is not the same as hiding it from you. If you want a job atypical of your demographic, you have the ability to look it up and apply for it. The fact that you might not do that does not justify forcing people to do dramatically less efficient advertising by knowingly including cohorts unlikely to engage with what they're offering.
ivan_gammel
The most efficient advertising of jobs is not gender-based, it’s skill-based. Ideally you need to show your ads to candidates with exact match to job description and then some more if the pool is too small. It has nothing to do with gender.
standardUser
You seem to be suggesting that companies should be allowed to trick us so long as there is some conceivable amount of work we can do individually to uncover the trick. But because society exists for people and not companies, most of us prefer laws that stop companies from tricking us in the first place.
onraglanroad
Well I don't really care what you think or agree with and I'm quite happy to see Meta reprimanded.
Since all you offered were your feelings, there isn't anything of substance to follow up on beyond that.
inglor_cz
Are the anti-discrimination laws based on anything else than feelings of their proponents with regard to what is wrong and what is right?
If this sort of discrimination was economically ineffective, you would see the market itself slowly adjusting towards a more efficient equilibrium, even without explicit laws.
vlovich123
Discrimination is not rooted in economic efficiency so I don’t follow the argument that market forces would correct it.
onraglanroad
They're based on the notion that gender discrimination is outdated. It's certainly a particular ideology but I think it's a worthwhile one.
I don't judge things by economic effectiveness; slavery was economically effective at one time but it was still wrong.
standardUser
Anti-discrimination laws exist because of the exceptionally well-documented tendency of people in positions of power to judge people based on their gender, sexuality, creed or the color of their skin.
HappyPanacea
What is gained from allowing such bias?
rvnx
Situation: Men are clicking on job of mechanics, more than women.
Consequence: men are now more likely shown mechanics job.
What is gained: more accurate content, more interesting content, more engagement.
As a result: men are more likely to be shown jobs interesting for men, and women are more likely to be shown jobs interesting for women.
Which means: Increased chances to find a matching job, and to save time doing so.
null
piva00
It also means perpetuating the bias, more men will then apply for the job while maybe some women that could get interested didn't get it shown, reinforcing the already existing issue.
Why do we want to perpetuate biases without a chance to allow it to potentially be corrected?
troupo
Nope. What you eventually get is women not getting a variety of jobs they could apply to and a death of men in professions that actually need more men (e.g. nurses, teachers etc.)
We already been through this. It's not ancient history
drnick1
Ads are built the way they are because they are more effective. This presumably means women would rather be grade school teachers than car mechanics.
Second, some "institute" shouldn't be telling a company or anyone really what it can or can't show on its website. The Internet should remain a free place. If you don't like Facebook, don't use it.
JuniperMesos
What's to be gained by making it illegal under French law?
thaumasiotes
Advertising will simultaneously become a lot more expensive and less effective. The ability of job seekers to find jobs they're willing to apply to will go down.
Are those not goals of yours?
personomas
Totally agree. EU and Europe is going insane with crazy ass laws to punish american companies and regulate everything to death, while they allow their states get away with becoming totalitarian. #unreal
piva00
I invite you to stop the screeching speech, it's self-defeating and usually the sign of a mind incapable of nuance.
Learn nuance, it's going to help you in life...
gogasca
Are those algorithms actually doing the right thing? Most of mechanics are men, same for pre-school teachers are women...these are facts not discrimination or bias.
nicole_express
I mean, "right" is a social construct. It is likely more effective ad targeting, but European law outlaws this despite that, because they believe it is better social policy, decided through the democratic process.
Like, if it was a bad idea to do, there'd be less reason to outlaw it, right? Since there'd be no incentive for companies like Facebook to do it anyways.
jl6
Are these ads in the sense of unsolicited adverts, or is this some kind of job search engine where people are actively asking Facebook to find a job for them?
tremon
Why does that distinction matter?
jl6
If Facebook have actively hidden job opportunities from someone who is actively searching for employment, that seems like clear and harmful discrimination. If they have just shown targeted ads to someone, possibly mixed into the general adstream, then that seems like a nothingburger.
> The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights said in a February 18 decision that Facebook’s algorithm reinforced gender stereotypes by mainly showing “typically female professions” to female Facebook users in the Netherlands and that Meta (META), the social platform’s owner, should have monitored and adjusted its algorithm to prevent that.
> For example, ads for mechanic positions were predominantly shown to men, while those for preschool teacher roles were primarily directed to women. Global Witness said its experiments in the Netherlands, France, India, Ireland, the United Kingdom and South Africa demonstrated that the algorithm perpetuated similar biases around the world. The non-profit’s investigation led to four complaints from the Dutch human rights group Bureau Clara Wichmann and the French organization Fondation des Femmes.
I don't think any of this should be illegal. I don't think anyone is meaningfully harmed by being algorithmically shown job ads stereotypical of one gender rather than another, and I have no problem with any organization at all that does this, whether it's Meta or anyone else. I do not agree with the position of any of these European human rights organizations, and I'd probably be in favor of reforming French anti-discrimination law to explicitly legalize what Meta is doing here.