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Facebook Halts Potential Anti-Semitic Ads Following Report

Facebook has disabled advertisers' ability to target profiles that contain hate speech in the wake of a report that it approved ads aimed at users with anti-Semitic interests, NBC News reported.

A ProPublica investigation published Thursday revealed that for $30, it was able to target its articles to those who had expressed interests in the topics "Jew hater," "How to burn jews," or "History of 'why jews ruin the world.'"

All three ads were approved by Facebook within 15 minutes, ProPublica said, adding that the anti-Semitic categories were created by an algorithm and removed when Facebook was made aware.

But Facebook said that the posts were possible because a "small percentage" of users put "offensive responses" in their profiles' education or employer fields. Those fields can no longer be targeted by ads.

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