Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) has started to deploy a technology designed to prevent potential biases in the system that is used to deliver housing advertisements. This effort is a part of Meta’s settlement with federal authorities.
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The company’s new ad technology, formally called the Variance Reduction System (VRS), aims to improve the equity of housing ads displayed on its social media platform, Facebook. The update comes after Meta faced lawsuits last June, claiming that the company enabled landlords and home sellers to put up discriminatory housing ads. Apart from other rectifications, like a penalty of $115,054, Meta had agreed to settle the matter with the Justice Department by developing new technology to address the issue.
Meta plans to implement the new system on other ads such as employment and credit over the next year.
[6:07 PM] Chandrima Sanyal
The U.S. Justice Department said that Meta’s new VRS system will be supervised by an independent, third-party reviewer, Guidehouse, to see whether the tool meets certain metrics. Nonetheless, the VRS system was hailed by the Justice Department as a key solution to address the issue of unlawful algorithmic bias with machine learning.
Is META a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Wall Street is cautiously optimistic about Meta, with a Moderate Buy rating based on 29 Buys, eight Holds, and three Sells. The average price target of $148.08 indicates an upside of 14.37% over the year.
