{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0453","record_version":1,"title":"Meta held to account over discriminatory algorithm","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":43.5,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":3.2,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":0,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"66e7fbe15b865656e5aff6ae868b64bb57e79d822e5e7e4488a4c310a92a85a9"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":"deciding whom to show job advertisements to","safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-03-30","incident_class":"bias_disparate_impact","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"A Meta advertising algorithm, used on Facebook to decide whom to show job advertisements to, was found to show gender bias. Global Witness reported that ads for mechanic jobs were shown overwhelmingly to men, while nursery nurse jobs were advertised overwhelmingly to women. Complaints were filed in three countries, including the UK, the Netherlands and France. The Netherlands national human rights body found that Meta Ireland's advertising algorithm had a discriminatory effect and breached Dutch law. Later, France's equalities regulator, Defenseur des Droits, found that Meta's algorithms unlawfully discriminate and gave the company three months to fix the problem. Meta argued that the countries lacked jurisdiction. At the time of the source, the French response was still awaited.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null,"primary_risk":"RK16"},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"major","severity_because":"Test: a regulator involved. The French equalities regulator Defenseur des Droits found that Meta’s algorithms unlawfully discriminate.","harm_class":["discriminatory"],"affected_description":"Job advertisement audiences, split by gender: mechanic jobs shown overwhelmingly to men, nursery nurse jobs overwhelmingly to women","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/digital-threats/meta-held-to-account-over-discriminatory-algorithm/","publisher":"Global Witness","date":"2026-03-30","type":"press","title":"Meta held to account over discriminatory algorithm - Global Witness","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.intended_use":"C","event.incident_class":"C","impact.harm_class":"C","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.primary_risk":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","context.country":"D","system.developer":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.intended_use":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"More than four years ago, we discovered that the algorithm used by Facebook (now called Meta) to decide whom to show job advertisements to appears to show gender bias."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"More than four years ago, we discovered that the algorithm used by Facebook (now called Meta) to decide whom to show job advertisements to appears to show gender bias."}],"impact.harm_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Ads for jobs as a mechanic, for example, were shown overwhelmingly to men, while nursery nurse jobs were advertised overwhelmingly to women."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Ads for jobs as a mechanic, for example, were shown overwhelmingly to men, while nursery nurse jobs were advertised overwhelmingly to women."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The country’s equalities regulator, the brilliantly named Defenseur des Droits, found that Meta’s algorithms unlawfully discriminate."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The country’s equalities regulator, the brilliantly named Defenseur des Droits, found that Meta’s algorithms unlawfully discriminate."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"More than four years ago, we discovered that the algorithm used by Facebook (now called Meta) to decide whom to show job advertisements to appears to show gender bias."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Ads for jobs as a mechanic, for example, were shown overwhelmingly to men, while nursery nurse jobs were advertised overwhelmingly to women."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"We submitted complaints in three countries – the UK, the Netherlands in partnership with Bureau Clara Wichmann represented by the human rights law firm Prakken d’Oliveira, and in France together with Fondation des Femmes and Femmes Ingénieures and supported by the law firm Cabinet Shefet."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The country’s national human rights body found that Meta Ireland uses an advertising algorithm that has a discriminatory effect and therefore does not fulfil its duty of care to its Dutch users."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The country’s equalities regulator, the brilliantly named Defenseur des Droits, found that Meta’s algorithms unlawfully discriminate."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"It gave the company three months to fix the problem."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"As in the Netherlands, Meta again relied on the argument that France does not have the jurisdiction to rule over them, something our former senior legal counsel has written about in more detail."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"We are waiting to hear what it has done to ensure it complies with French law, and call upon the Defenseur des Droits to take robust action against the company if the changes don’t go far enough."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"The only source is a press piece by Global Witness, the campaign group that discovered the bias and brought the complaints, so its account of the rulings is second-hand; no ruling or Meta statement was provided. No incident date is stated; the article date 2026-03-30 is not recorded as date_disclosed because the text does not state it as a disclosure date. Detection is attributed to the complainant as a public researcher on the source's own account. Whether the ad-delivery system is an autonomous agent is not stated, so agent_involved and failure fields are left out. No control was stated to have held, failed or been bypassed in this incident; the US settlement changes concern a separate matter and are not reported as controls. No remediation by Meta is stated, so remediations is empty. Severity major is my judgement under the regulator-involved test. Jurisdiction disputes and the outcome of the French response remain unresolved in the sources. Developer and country details beyond Meta Ireland and the named countries are not stated as a single context.context.country is left out because several countries are involved. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (Publisher not yet named · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"unknown","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"Meta's Facebook ad algorithm decided whom to show job advertisements to.","quote":"More than four years ago, we discovered that the algorithm used by Facebook (now called Meta) to decide whom to show job advertisements to appears to show gender bias.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"went_wrong","text":"Job ads for mechanics were shown overwhelmingly to men and nursery nurse jobs overwhelmingly to women.","quote":"Ads for jobs as a mechanic, for example, were shown overwhelmingly to men, while nursery nurse jobs were advertised overwhelmingly to women.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/digital-threats/meta-held-to-account-over-discriminatory-algorithm/"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Civil rights organisations sued Meta in the US over housing ad targeting, a separate matter.","quote":"Between 2016 and 2018, civil rights organisations sued Meta in the US for discriminating over whom it showed housing adverts to.","source_index":0,"when":"Between 2016 and 2018"}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/digital-threats/meta-held-to-account-over-discriminatory-algorithm/"]}}