The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights has ruled that Meta discriminated on the basis of gender through its algorithm for promoting job advertisements. A European human rights body has ruled that Facebook's algorithm has gender bias in promoting job ads. Activists say this is a critical step in holding big tech companies accountable for the design of their platforms.

The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights said in a ruling on February 18 that Facebook's algorithm reinforced gender stereotypes because it mainly showed "typical female occupations" to female Facebook users in the Netherlands. Meta, the social platform company that Facebook owns, should have monitored and adjusted its algorithms to prevent this from happening.

The institute's ruling comes after reports revealed that Facebook users in Europe were missing out on job opportunities due to gender bias.

This 2023 report is based on survey results shared by the international non-profit organization Global Witness. The organization investigated Facebook job ads and found that job ads in the Netherlands and five other countries often target users based on historical gender stereotypes.


For example, ads for machinist jobs are shown primarily to men, while ads for kindergarten teacher jobs are shown mostly to women. Global Witness said experiments conducted in the Netherlands, France, India, Ireland, the United Kingdom and South Africa showed that the algorithm has similar biases across the world. The nonprofit's investigation triggered four complaints from the Dutch human rights group Bureau Clara Wichmann and the French organization Fondation des Femmes.

The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights said in a February ruling that Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd., which manages Facebook ads in Europe, failed to prove that its advertising algorithm did not engage in prohibited sex discrimination. The Dutch agency said Facebook must modify its advertising algorithm to prevent further discriminatory behavior.

The EU has several directives prohibiting discrimination based on gender, including in the area of ​​online advertising.

The institute's ruling also states: "Meta (Ireland) has acknowledged that a gender data point may be part of the algorithm. Meta (Ireland) has not disputed that this data point may contribute to gender stereotypes through the algorithm."

Meta spokesperson Ashley Settle previously said the company applies "targeting restrictions" to advertisers when setting up campaigns for job, housing and credit ads. According to Meta, these audience targeting restrictions are in place in the United States, Canada, and more than 40 European countries and territories, including France and the Netherlands.

"We will not allow advertisers to target these ads based on gender," Settle said in a 2023 statement. "We will continue to work with stakeholders and experts in academia, human rights organizations and other fields to explore the best ways to study and solve algorithmic fairness issues." At the time, Meta did not respond to questions about how its advertising system algorithms are trained. In a 2020 blog post about its ad delivery system, Facebook said ads are shown to users based on a variety of factors, including their "behavior on and off the platform."

Berty Bannor of "Clara Wichman's Office" applauded the ruling of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, which she believed was of great significance.

"Today is a good day for Dutch Facebook users, who now have a viable mechanism to hold multinational technology companies like Meta to account and ensure that the rights they enjoy in real life are also upheld in the digital space," Benno said.

She added: "I think this is a start to show that anti-discrimination laws apply to big tech companies just as they do to the offline world."

Rosie Sharpe, senior campaigner for digital threats at Global Witness, said the ruling "marks an important step in holding big tech companies accountable for the design of their services and the discriminatory impact their algorithms can have on people."

She added: "We hope this ruling will serve as a springboard for further action in Europe and beyond."

While the ruling by the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights is not legally binding, experts say the court will need to consider the institute's findings if the case escalates further.

Anton Ekker, a Dutch lawyer who specializes in artificial intelligence and digital rights, said the institute's ruling could lead to Dutch data protection regulators imposing fines on Meta or ordering changes to specific algorithms, especially those that reinforce inequalities and cause disproportionate harm to marginalized groups based on gender, race, ethnicity or religion.

He said that if Meta did not take action on its job advertising algorithm, the NGO might choose to take further legal action to stop its algorithm from being used for discriminatory purposes.

Benno said the ruling in the Netherlands comes at a time when digital rights protections, especially for women and marginalized groups, have been severely weakened.

Last month, Meta said it would end its diversity, equity and inclusion program, revise its policy on hateful conduct on its platform and cancel its third-party fact-checking program in the United States.

Meta Inc. is making major changes to its hateful conduct policy, hours after saying it would eliminate fact-checkers.

Over the past decade, Meta has faced various discrimination claims, including lawsuits in the United States over housing, employment and credit advertising. As a result, the company has modified its algorithms for these ads in the United States.

Global Witness's Sharp said it was "outrageous" that the same changes were not being implemented globally. She believes that algorithms and artificial intelligence increasingly influence daily life and pose significant risks to social justice.