Study: Facebook delivers biased job ads, skewed by gender

This July 30, 2019 photo shows an update information of Facebook application on a mobile phone displayed at a store in Chicago. (AP Photo/Amr Alfiky, File
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Updated 09 April 2021
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Study: Facebook delivers biased job ads, skewed by gender

  • Facebook ads were skewed by gender beyond what can be legally justified by differences in job qualifications, says University of Southern California researchers

Facebook is showing different job ads to women and men in a way that might run afoul of anti-discrimination laws, according to a new study.
University of Southern California researchers who examined the ad-delivery algorithms of Facebook and LinkedIn found that Facebook’s were skewed by gender beyond what can be legally justified by differences in job qualifications.
Men were more likely to see Domino’s pizza delivery driver job ads on Facebook, while women were more likely to see Instacart shopper ads.
The trend also held in higher-paying engineering jobs at tech firms like Netflix and chipmaker Nvidia. A higher fraction of women saw the Netflix ads than the Nvidia ads, which parallels the gender breakdown in each company’s workforce.
No evidence was found of similar bias in the job ads delivered by LinkedIn.
Study author Aleksandra Korolova, an assistant professor of computer science at USC, said it might be that LinkedIn is doing a better job at deliberately tamping down bias, or it might be that Facebook is simply better at picking up real-world cues from its users about gender imbalances and perpetuating them.
“It’s not that the user is saying, ‘Oh, I’m interested in this.’ Facebook has decided on behalf of the user whether they are likely to engage,” she said. “And just because historically a certain group wasn’t interested in engaging in something, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have an opportunity to pursue it, especially in the job category.”
Facebook said in a statement Friday it has been taking meaningful steps to address issues of discrimination in ads.
“Our system takes into account many signals to try and serve people ads they will be most interested in, but we understand the concerns raised in the report,” it said.
Facebook promised to overhaul its ad targeting system in 2019 as part of a legal settlement.
The social network said then it would no longer allow housing, employment or credit ads that target people by age, gender or zip code. It also limited other targeting options so these ads don’t exclude people on the basis of race, ethnicity and other legally protected categories in the US, including national origin and sexual orientation.
Endlessly customizable ad targeting is Facebook’s bread and butter, so any limits placed on its process could hurt the company’s revenue. The ads users see can be tailored down to the most granular details — not just where people live and what websites they visited recently, but whether they’ve gotten engaged in the past six months or share characteristics with people who have recently bought new sneakers, even if they have never expressed interest in doing so themselves.
But even if advertisers can’t do the targeting themselves, the study shows what critics have stressed for years — that Facebook’s own algorithms can discriminate, even if there is no intent from the job advertisers themselves.
“We haven’t seen any public evidence that they are working on the issues related to their algorithms creating discrimination,” Korolova said.
Since it isn’t possible to show every user every advertisement that is targeted at them, Facebook’s software picks what it deems relevant. If more women show interest in certain jobs, the software learns it should show women more of these sorts of ads.
LinkedIn said the study’s findings align with its internal review of job ads targeting.
“However, we recognize that systemic change takes time, and we are at the beginning of a very long journey,” the company said in a statement.
US laws allow for ads to be targeted based on qualifications but not on protected categories such as race, gender and age. But anti-discrimination laws are largely complaint-driven, and no one can complain about being deprived of a job opportunity if they didn’t know it happened to them, said Sandra Wachter, a professor at Oxford University focused on technology law.
“The tools we have developed to prevent discrimination had a human perpetrator in mind,” said Wachter, who was not involved in the USC study. “An algorithm is discriminating very differently, grouping people differently and doing it in a very subtle way. Algorithms discriminate behind your back, basically.”
While Domino’s and Instacart have similar job requirements for their drivers, Domino’s delivery workforce is predominantly male, while Instacart’s is more than half female. The study, which looked at driver ads run in North Carolina compared to demographic data from voter records, found that Facebook’s algorithms appeared to be learning from those gender disparities and perpetuating them.
The same trend also occurred with sales jobs at retailer Reeds Jewelers, which more women saw, and the Leith Automotive dealership, which more men saw.
The researchers call for more rigorous auditing of such algorithms and to look at other factors such as racial bias. Korolova said external audits such as the USC study can only do so much without getting access to Facebook’s proprietary algorithms, but regulators could require some form of independent review to check for discrimination.
“We’ve seen that platforms are not so good at self-policing their algorithms for undesired societal consequences, especially when their business is at stake,” she said.


Burkina Faso suspends BBC, VOA radio broadcasts over killings coverage

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Burkina Faso suspends BBC, VOA radio broadcasts over killings coverage

  • Authorities handed two-week suspension for covering of report accusing the army of extrajudicial killings
  • Human Rights Watch report says military executed about 223 villagers, including at least 56 children
LONDON: Burkina Faso has suspended the radio broadcasts of BBC Africa and the US-funded Voice of America (VOA) for two weeks over their coverage of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accusing the army of extrajudicial killings, authorities said late on Thursday.
In the report based on its own investigation, the rights watchdog said the West African country’s military summarily executed about 223 villagers, including at least 56 children, in February as part of a campaign against civilians accused of collaborating with jihadist militants.
HRW said the Burkinabe army has repeatedly committed mass atrocities against civilians in the name of fighting terrorism, and it called on authorities to investigate the massacres.
The country’s communication council said HRW’s report contained “peremptory and tendentious” declarations against the army likely to create public disorder and it would suspend the programs of the broadcasters over their coverage of the story.
Authorities also said in a statement they had ordered Internet service providers to suspend access to the websites and other digital platforms of the BBC, VOA and Human Rights Watch from Burkina Faso.
“VOA stands by its reporting about Burkina Faso and intends to continue to fully and fairly cover events in that country,” Acting VOA Director John Lippman said in a statement.
“The Voice of America strictly adheres to the principles of accurate, balanced and comprehensive journalism, therefore, we ask the government of Burkina Faso to reconsider this troubling decision.”
HRW conducted its investigation after a regional prosecutor said in March that about 170 people were executed by unidentified assailants during attacks on the villages of Komsilga, Nodin and Soro.
Burkina Faso is one of several Sahel nations that have been struggling to contain Islamist insurgencies linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State that have spread from neighboring Mali since 2012, killing thousands and displacing millions.
Frustrations over authorities’ failure to protect civilians have contributed to two coups in Mali, two in Burkina Faso and one in Niger since 2020.

Russia arrests Forbes reporter over Bucha posts

Updated 26 April 2024
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Russia arrests Forbes reporter over Bucha posts

  • Sergei Mingazov was detained with the accusation of spreading false information about the army

MOSCOW: Russia has arrested a journalist from the Russian edition of Forbes magazine for social media reposts over accusations of Russian atrocities in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, his lawyer and Forbes said on Friday.
Rights groups say hundreds of Russians have been arrested, fined and jailed for criticizing Russia’s offensive on Ukraine under tough military censorship laws.
Russian authorities have particularly targeted people for comments on Bucha, the Kyiv suburb where Russian troops have been accused of massacring civilians.
Moscow has rejected those charges and accused Kyiv and the West of staging the scenes of dead civilians and testimonies of torture.
“Sergei Mingazov was detained and is being held in a temporary detention center” in the Far East city of Khabarovsk, the journalist’s lawyer Konstantin Bubon said in a Facebook post.
He faces up to 10 years in prison under charges of spreading “false information,” Bubon said.
“In short, for reposting a publication about the events in Bucha” on a Telegram channel, he added.
His Telegram channel, which has around 430 followers, features a number of reposts from April 2022 that allege Russian troops killed civilians in Bucha.
Russian forces controlled the Kyiv suburb for a month at the start of the campaign.
Pictures of dead civilians found on the streets made front pages around the world, triggering outrage in the West.
Forbes Russia said Friday it had not been able to contact Mingazov.
A Russian reporter was last month sentenced to seven years in jail for articles on alleged Russian war crimes, including at Bucha.
And opposition politician Ilya Yashin is serving eight and a half years in jail on similar charges after discussing the claims in a YouTube video.
Moscow has outlawed criticism of its offensive and has made independent reporting on the campaign effectively illegal.
Numerous foreign and Russian reporters have left the country over the last two years under the fear of arrest.
The Reporters Without Borders advocacy group said Russia arrested 34 journalists during 2023.
They included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, a US citizen, and joint US-Russian citizen Alsu Kurmasheva — both of whom are still in pre-trial detention.


Saudi Vision 2030 changed everything, says CEO of Publicis Communications KSA

Updated 25 April 2024
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Saudi Vision 2030 changed everything, says CEO of Publicis Communications KSA

  • Adel Baraja brought over 2 decades of global experience
  • Role includes overseeing the group’s Saudi operations, fostering talent

DUBAI: Advertising and marketing network Publicis Groupe appointed Adel Baraja as CEO of Publicis Communications Saudi Arabia in late February as part of its efforts to strengthen its presence in the Kingdom.

Publicis Communications is the creative communications arm of the network housing agencies such as Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi.

The appointment reinforced Publicis Groupe Middle East’s commitment to accelerating growth within Saudi Arabia while enhancing collaboration and expanding capabilities to deliver transformative work for clients.

Baraja brought with him 22 years of global advertising and brand-building experience.

He had started his professional life in engineering before realizing it was not for him.

He told Arab News: “I wanted to be with clients and that’s when I took my first pivot toward client management (and) sales, and I found my calling in marketing.”

He spent his early days working across advertising agencies in Germany, Spain, and Portugal, before returning to Saudi Arabia where he first interacted with Publicis Groupe. At the time he was hoping to find a job at Leo Burnett, but turned out to be a better fit for one of its clients, Saudi Telecom Company.

He then took a break from advertising agencies to work across industries in companies like Dow Chemical and Volkswagen.

And then, he said, came a “critical moment” in his career.

He added: “I never considered (working in) government before, but six months prior Vision 2030 was introduced, and that was everything.

“It was a meticulous plan — a road map towards something that I had never experienced or seen before. So, I got my first role in government in 2017.”

He led the newly established promotion and nation-branding sector at the Saudi Export Development Authority, growing the Saudi Made portfolio of companies from 20 to more than 2,000 companies during his tenure.

He also held the position of deputy minister of investment promotion at the Ministry of Investment before joining Publicis Groupe Middle East.

Communications had always been a “savvy topic” in the Kingdom, but it was heavily focused on and driven by the private sector, he said.

Vision 2030 changed it all, and “the government sector became a big spender in the communication sector and a driver to creativity,” he added.

With these changes, the demand for local talent is higher now than ever before, and fostering that talent is a strong priority for Baraja and Publicis Groupe.

Baraja is tasked with overseeing the integrated growth strategy of Publicis Communications in his new role, as well as working with educational institutions to empower Saudi youth for careers in advertising, media, and digital marketing.

He said that Bassel Kakish, CEO at Publicis Groupe Middle East and Turkiye, told him that the company needs to be developing and fostering local talent, hiring more locally, and ensuring gender equality, training more women in the advertising and creative industries.

Baraja said: “We are competing against other industries to get that share of talent, so we need to promote our industry and our company.”

Looking ahead, the company is investing in the future, which means increased focus on technology through acquisitions such as that of tech company Epsilon in 2020 and e-commerce company Corra in 2023.

Publicis last year announced the acquisition of a full stake in Publicis Sapient AI Labs, an artificial intelligence research and development joint venture launched in 2020 which aims to strengthen Publicis Sapient’s data and AI capabilities.

Baraja added: “That kind of investment shows the focus toward the future and the transformation of the business.”

There is a lot of discussion around AI replacing marketing and agencies, he said, but he believes: “We are well equipped to address this challenge and to prove that we can deliver even better communications, and better and well-designed campaigns and media performances.”


TikTok CEO to fight US ban law

Updated 24 April 2024
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TikTok CEO to fight US ban law

WASHINGTON: TikTok’s chief executive said on Wednesday that the company expects to win a legal challenge to block legislation signed into law by US President Joe Biden that he said would ban the popular short video app used by 170 million Americans.

“Rest assured — we aren’t going anywhere,” CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video posted moments after Biden signed the bill that gives China-based ByteDance 270 days to divest TikTok’s US assets or face a ban. “The facts and the Constitution are on our side and we expect to prevail again.”

Biden’s signing sets a Jan. 19 deadline for a sale — one day before his term is set to expire — but he could extend the deadline by three months if he determines ByteDance is making progress. Biden is seeking a second term against former President Donald Trump.

In 2020, Trump was blocked by the courts in his bid to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat, a unit of Tencent, in the United States.

Chew added: “Make no mistake — this is a ban on TikTok.” He emphasized that TikTok would continue to operate as the company challenges the restrictions.

Driven by widespread worries among US lawmakers that China could access Americans’ data or surveil them with the app, the bill was overwhelmingly passed late on Tuesday by the US Senate. The US House of Representatives approved it on Saturday.

The four-year battle over TikTok is a significant front in a war over the internet and technology between Washington and Beijing. Last week, Apple said China had ordered it to remove Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China over Chinese national security concerns.

TikTok is set to challenge the bill on First Amendment grounds and TikTok users are also expected to again take legal action. A US judge in Montana in November blocked a state ban on TikTok, citing free-speech grounds.

The American Civil Liberties Union said banning or requiring divestiture of TikTok would “set an alarming global precedent for excessive government control over social media platforms.”

However, the new legislation is likely to give the Biden administration a stronger legal footing to ban TikTok if ByteDance fails to divest the app, experts say.

If ByteDance failed to divest TikTok, app stores operated by Apple, Alphabet’s Google and others could not legally offer TikTok or provide web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications or TikTok’s website.

The bill would also give the White House new tools to ban or force the sale of other foreign-owned apps it deems to be security threats.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said he was concerned the bill “provides broad authority that could be abused by a future administration to violate Americans’ First Amendment rights.”

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Monday that President Joe Biden was “pushing” for a ban on TikTok and would be the one responsible if a ban were imposed, urging voters to take notice.

Biden’s re-election campaign plans to continue using TikTok, a campaign official said on Wednesday. Trump’s campaign has not joined TikTok.

Biden signed legislation in late 2022 that barred US government employees from using TikTok on government phones.


Advertising network MCN launches influencer practice in Mideast

Updated 24 April 2024
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Advertising network MCN launches influencer practice in Mideast

DUBAI: Regional advertising group Middle East Communications Network has launched a dedicated influencer practice in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkiye to help clients across the group’s agencies, including FP7McCann, MullenLowe, UM, and Weber Shandwick.

Rami Gholmieh has been appointed to lead the practice as the regional director of influencer marketing, while Razan Zahra will serve as director of influencer relations.

“At the heart of our influence practice lies a commitment to two fundamental principles: effectiveness and efficiency,” Gholmieh told Arab News.

“The challenge lies in creating balance between leveraging channels to encourage content sharing and investing into paid promotions. Ultimately it requires a nuanced approach, tailored to the specific objectives and audience dynamics of respective brands.”

The practice takes a “de-siloed” approach to help agency brands across the group deliver influencer marketing campaigns, according to MCN.

L: Rami Gholmieh, regional director of influencer marketing. R: Razan Zahra, director of influencer relations.
L: Rami Gholmieh, regional director of influencer marketing. R: Razan Zahra, director of influencer relations.

The influencer marketing industry is rapidly growing, with 76.9 percent of marketers saying influencer marketing is a top priority, and 46.2 percent increasing budgets last year, according to a 2023 survey.

The growth and evolution of the industry is partly the reason why MCN chose to launch a dedicated practice now despite influencer marketing having been around for years.

With “the evolving dynamics of consumer engagement and brand interactions combined with new platforms and changing consumption patterns, a dedicated and fully integrated practice within the broader ecosystem is required to create tailor-made solutions for our clients,” the company said.  

As the digital and social media landscape becomes more complex, MCN’s influencer practice aims to help brands by “understanding the social voice, (acquiring) knowledge of real-time cultural insights, (and) possessing platform expertise, the ability to co-create, and journey awareness,” concluded Gholmieh.