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Employers who want a demographically balanced group of applicants may not get it, despite their best efforts. Facebook has often shown job advertisements to whatever gender the position or industry dominates. The findings suggest that bias in the algorithms of the website, the Wall Street Journal reports. During a monitoring period towards the end of last year, Facebook showed out of proportion with men’s ads for Domino’s Pizza delivery managers, while women saw ads for shopping for Instacart. The finding applies to work of different skill levels, including highly technical. This points to “a platform whose algorithm learns and perpetuates the existing difference in employee demographics,” wrote researchers from the University of Southern California. Facebook said Friday it is taking action against bias in advertising.
‘It’s not that the user says,’ Oh, I’m interested in this. “Facebook has decided on behalf of the user whether they are likely to get involved,” said Aleksandra Korolova, the study’s author. “And just because historically a certain group has not been interested in participating in something, it does not mean that they should not have the opportunity to pursue it, especially not in the job category.” According to the AP, the practice may violate the violation laws. The federal government has said that protected classes of people should not be harmed by the way advertisements are presented. The study found no evidence that ads on LinkedIn were skewed. The company said it was in line with its findings, although it was still concerned about the issue. Korolova said LinkedIn may be better at blocking bias, or that Facebook may be better at recognizing users’ clues and maintaining gender imbalances. (Read more gender bias stories.)