Friday, August 21, 2009

Housing Discrimination Rampant on Internet?

From a press release from the National Fair Housing Alliance:

  • In a report released [Tuesday], the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) documents how thousands of illegal housing advertisements appear with impunity on the Internet every day. "FOR RENT: NO KIDS! How Internet Advertisements Perpetuate Discrimination" calls upon Congress to stop the flood of discriminatory housing advertisements on the Internet by amending the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

***

  • Although newspapers have been held liable under the Fair Housing Act for publishing discriminatory housing advertisements with statements such as "no kids," or "couples only," the publishers of similar ads on the Internet have not. A loophole in the Communications Decency Act of 1996 has allowed Internet advertising providers to escape liability under the Fair Housing Act by holding them to a different standard than print media.

***

  • [Tuesday's] report follows a lawsuit NFHA filed last month [press release, lawsuit] against American Classifieds, LLC, the nation's largest classified advertisement publisher, for publishing housing ads in 17 states saying that children are not allowed.

For the entire press release, see Housing Discrimination Rampant on Internet (National Fair Housing Alliance Report Urges Congress to Stop Online Discrimination).

For the report, see FOR RENT: NO KIDS! (How Internet Housing Advertisements Perpetuate Discrimination).

No comments: