To Think This Isn't Discriminatory - Really Shocked

[IceCreamSurprise]

I am advertising a room in my house for rent (i.e. a lodger) and specified "females only". Facebook Marketplace has removed the listing because it is discriminatory. I am sure the Equality Act permits exceptions to the discrimination rules where accommodation is provided in your own home.

I have been literally plagued by dodgy men demanding to view, no discernable proper names or photos, refuse to provide any form of ID and keep demanding to view and sending messages until I block them. I suspect I missed blocking one of these men and he reported me out of spite.

I appealed the decision and it came back immediately that my appeal was refused, I was being "discriminatory" and breaching their rules.

Now Facebook isn't that important to me (although responses received on other mediums haven't been much better) but am I being unreasonable to think this is shocking of FB. I just want to protect myself against being in a vulnerable position in my own home with a stranger, FGS!

[underneaththeash]

I'd re-post the ad state underneath - this advertisement is allowed to state "women only" under the Equality Act 2010, part 7, paragraph 26: 734

[NotDavidTennant]

Under UK law it's not discriminatory but obviously Facebook can set it's own policies on what is allowed in adverts on their site. I think your only recourse would be to write to them and complain about their policy.

[nutellachurro]

@underneaththeash

I'd re-post the ad state underneath - this advertisement is allowed to state "women only" under the Equality Act 2010, part 7, paragraph 26: 734

It doesn't matter

FB has its own policies, the post will not meet those policies and therefore will just get pulled again

[Proteinpudding]

@underneaththeash you're expecting a lot from a free website that doesn't care about the non paying user base. Why would they employ someone to fact check legislative references? Much easier for them to pull the ad automatically, saves hassle for them without any impact on their business (other than the OP deciding not to use them again)

[Pixiedust1234]

I think wording it differently might help. Perhaps stating priority will be given to female applicants. Or female applicants will be viewed more favourably?

Idk, there's some awesome wordy people here who could present it better. You shouldn't have to do this but play them at their own game. Good luck.

[Franklyfrost]

Men advertising for female lodgers to offer them reduced or no rent in exchange for sex is a thing. So there’s a blanket ban on asking for female tenants on some sites as it’s a legal grey area.

[Ariela]

@underneaththeash

I'd re-post the ad state underneath - this advertisement is allowed to state "women only" under the Equality Act 2010, part 7, paragraph 26: 734

If you stuck that phrase in with 'women-only ' - that might work to get past FB algorithms. Also rename and resize your photos - I think FB keep tabs so you can't re-post the same advert same photos again.

[ProfessorSlocombe]

Facebook tries very hard not to be bound by UK laws (or indeed any laws, but that's another matter). And as a private company, they are allowed to have their own rules which may preclude adverts like the OPs.

[Gerwurtztraminer]

This guidance is published by the Equality & Human Rights Commission and has this Q & A (page 11)
Can a woman advertise accommodation for a female tenant?
"it is lawful to restrict the sex of a new tenant if the property qualifies as ‘small premises’ under the Act, and the person who wishes to let or sublet the property or their relative lives in the property and will share facilities, such as a living room, bathroom or kitchen, with the new tenant"

So yes you can ask for females only and it's not discrimination.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/advertising_-_faq.pdf

[Comefromaway]

Seeing as I am part of a facebook group that is specifically for women renting/looking for rooms I think they are wrong.

Can you challenge it?

[jcyclops]

Your FB advert was discriminatory as it discriminated by sex. It was not however illegal under UK law as it is covered by a specific exemption in the legislation. It breached FB rules against discrimination. FB must, at a minimum, ban discrimination that is illegal in the UK, but they are entitled to go further if they want. For example they remove any photo that shows a nipple. Such photos are not illegal in the UK.

[SheeWeee]

@jcyclops

Your FB advert was discriminatory as it discriminated by sex. It was not however illegal under UK law as it is covered by a specific exemption in the legislation. It breached FB rules against discrimination. FB must, at a minimum, ban discrimination that is illegal in the UK, but they are entitled to go further if they want. For example they remove any photo that shows a nipple. Such photos are not illegal in the UK.

It was NOT discrimnatory. It was discriminating (in a good sense)

Discrimnatory means making or showing an unfair or prejudicial distinction between different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. There is nothing UNFAIR about a woman only wanting to live with women, and you know that.

[Thelnebriati]

Facebook are wrong and they cannot rewrite the law. If you are a resident LL, you are allowed to have preferences.
www.spareroom.co.uk/content/default/discrimination

[NicolaSixSix]

Yet FB won’t do a thing about the far right, incels, racists, and so on. That’s all free speech!

[ProfessorSlocombe]

@Thelnebriati

Facebook are wrong and they cannot rewrite the law. If you are a resident LL, you are allowed to have preferences.
www.spareroom.co.uk/content/default/discrimination

That's as maybe.

Now how do you make them ? Remember even our own government was unable to speak to their CEO. How far do you think you'll get ?

[nutellachurro]

@Thelnebriati

Facebook are wrong and they cannot rewrite the law. If you are a resident LL, you are allowed to have preferences.
www.spareroom.co.uk/content/default/discrimination

They aren't rewriting the law

They have policies as to what they allow on their site

This doesn't fit said policies

[Thelnebriati]

Policies have to comply with the law; Facebook are discriminating against women who are entitled to ask for female flatmates.

[Coyoacan]

I presume this means that Californians can no longer ask future roomies to be vegan, non-smokers with a great sense of humor

[nutellachurro]

@Thelnebriati

Policies have to comply with the law; Facebook are discriminating against women who are entitled to ask for female flatmates.

No they're not

[DaisyMcTitface]

Facebook are wrong. What you’ve done isn’t discriminatory under the Equality Act.

As you live in the property yourself there are exceptions to the discrimination laws, so you can specify which sex you let to. (You would not be allowed to specify which race, there are never any exceptions for this - and possibly not sexuality, but I’m not 100% on that). But you can discriminate with regard to sex and age without breaking the law.

To be clear, you ARE discriminating by only wanting to let to women, but given the circumstances, the law allows you to.

[Boreded]

It’s just an algorithm. Change women to wom3n or f3male and you will be fine

[oakleaffy]

@Bubblebubblebah

Have you stated "no men" or was the advert worded differently? Like "women only apartment" or similar. Might help

Still might get a penis owner turning up saying women can have penises….

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

This is ridiculous, but agree it will be AI looking for code words/phrases on the verboten list. Sadly not surprising that all the creepy men have come out of the woodwork.

The above suggestion to put f3male, w0men or similar is a good one. Either that or something like "If you have a todger, you can't be my lodger"

[IceCreamSurprise]

@nutellachurro

They aren't rewriting the law

They have policies as to what they allow on their site

This doesn't fit said policies

You cannot use the fact that you run a business and have your own terms and conditions to avoid the law. By not allowing me to exercise my legal rights, I am being discriminated against on the ground of sex.

It also doesn't matter whether Facebook has a Californian base or not. I am a British citizen living in Britain who has been discriminated against in Britain.

I feel sorry for all those women in California forced to advertise accommodation to males when they don't want to. Its worth remembering though that the US does not have the same human rights protections from the ECHR and EU Treaties (most of which are still part of UK law) that most European countries have, and its quite likely that Facebook have got this wrong.

I am going to write to them. Since I cannot seem to process this appeal further, as should be possible on Facebook, because for some reason the avenue which should be available to me to do so appears to be not working.

The advert stated "Female lodger wanted to share 2 bedroom house with professional female owner, own room and share of facilities including shared kitchen and bathroom".

The advert has been up for a couple of weeks without issue and hasn't fallen foul of any automatically generated checks. It seems that an aggrieved person has reported it. There are several other adverts for rooms and flats to rent in my city on FB marketplace right now which specify "Women only" or "Female Tenant only" or similar which have been there for a few weeks and which are visible today.

The potential in the US for FB to run into a law suit here is obvious if they will not let women use their site to advertise based on their safety preferences and a woman ends up raped or murdered or stalked as a result. It also doesn't matter if its for free or not, FB make money out of being FB and people using it because of FB marketplace amongst other things. There is a business benefit in allowing free advertising.

Some great suggestions as to the wording to use. Ridiculous that I have to do this.

[IceCreamSurprise]

@Gerwurtztraminer

This guidance is published by the Equality & Human Rights Commission and has this Q & A (page 11)
Can a woman advertise accommodation for a female tenant?
"it is lawful to restrict the sex of a new tenant if the property qualifies as ‘small premises’ under the Act, and the person who wishes to let or sublet the property or their relative lives in the property and will share facilities, such as a living room, bathroom or kitchen, with the new tenant"

So yes you can ask for females only and it's not discrimination.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/advertising_-_faq.pdf

Thank you for finding this *Gewurtztraminer". I was sure I was right about me being allowed to discriminate on grounds in relation to accommodation offered in my own home, but it was really difficult to find the sources.

The fact that this information isn't easy to find is a bit odd. Many women (and men) seem confused about this important issue.