Facebook is apologizing for letting advertisers use phrases like « Jew-haters » as a targeting criteria and for not noticing it until it was pointed out.
The company is also tightening policies and tools that let businesses target advertisements to its 2 billion users, hoping to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
The move follows a ProPublica report that found advertisers could use terms such as « how to burn Jews » to target ads to people with these terms in their profile.
Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, wrote in a post on Wednesday that the company « never intended or anticipated this functionality being used this way—and that is on us. »
Sandberg said Facebook is taking steps to ensure that material violating its community standards cannot be used to target ads.
Explore further: Facebook revamps policy after report on anti-Semitic targeting
