Facebook Has Blocked Targeted Advertising By Sexual Orientation

Following the revelations about Cambridge Analytica's data mining practices, which harvested the private information of millions of Facebook users, the social media giant is cracking down on targeted advertising. One step Facebook has already implemented is keeping companies from targeting users based on sexual orientation. While GLAAD has lauded the move, claiming that it keeps companies from targeting LGBTQ users maliciously, others are more skeptical.

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Buzzfeed News reports LGBTQ organizations that use targeting advertising as a way to reach marginalized communities are not happy about the new policy.

The move has left organizations offering services to the LGBT community unable to directly target their audiences....

...The Trevor Project, a national 24/7 phone, chat, and text line aimed at suicidal LGBT youth, says the shift has disrupted its work and that it's in talks with Facebook about reinstating the option to target ads based on sexual preference. But the discussions have so far been "fruitless," the Trevor Project's chief growth officer Calvin Stowell told BuzzFeed News.

"It's really important to have that targeting be available," Stowell said. "We're advertising our services -- obviously they're life saving."