HubSpot said it was a mistake to use Facebook's age-targeting feature for a job advertisement after an investigation by ProPublica and The New York Times found the Cambridge-based company and dozens of others engaging in the practice.
The story by ProPublica and The New York Times, published Wednesday evening, raised the question of whether it's fair for employers to target specific age groups for job ads — especially when older workers are having difficulty finding work — and whether Facebook and other advertising platforms should be held responsible.
In interviews for the story, several experts questioned whether age-targeted job ads are in compliance with the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which forbids prejudice against people age 40 or older in employment or hiring situations. Debra Katz, an employment lawyer in Washington, said, "it's blatantly unlawful."
In defense of the practice, Facebook said, "Used responsibly, age-based targeting for employment purposes is an accepted industry practice" that "helps employers recruit and people of all ages find work." The company has also said that it's protected by the Communications Decency Act. LinkedIn said it now has a self-certification step in place that requires employers to say they will not discriminate based on age if they're creating job ads while Google said it will still permit the practice.
Among their findings, ProPublica and The New York Times found a job ad on Facebook from HubSpot that targeted people aged 27 to 40.
"Use of the targeted age range selection on the Facebook ad was frankly a mistake on our part."
In a statement to BostInno, HubSpot spokeswoman Ellie Bothelho said the job listing had been posted on many sites, including the company's jobs page, and that it was one of several paid experiments the company ran between October and November. She said the company is open to meeting any qualified candidate, regardless of age or any other demographic characteristic.
"Use of the targeted age range selection on the Facebook ad was frankly a mistake on our part given our lack of experience using that platform for job postings and not a feature we will use again," Bothelho said. She added that the candidate for the advertised position in question ultimately did not come through Facebook.
The Cambridge-based company previously came under fire for alleged ageism in "Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble," a 2016 book by local journalist Dan Lyons that recalls his experience working at HubSpot.
In addition to writing about the way his co-workers treated him as one of the few older employees, Lyons pointed to a 2013 New York Times interview with CEO Brian Halligan, who talked about building a "culture specifically to attract and retain Gen Y'ers" and that "at least in the tech world, experience and gray hair are really overrated."
In response to the book, HubSpot's co-founders Halligan and Dharmesh Shah had said that the company has been working to improve workplace diversity. The company has since released its first diversity report and detailed its various diversity initiatives.
Editor's note: Added clarification to action taken by LinkedIn.
