Facebook to tighten ad targeting after antisemitic 'fail', says Sheryl Sandberg

Chief operating officer announces policy change after social network allowed advertisers to seek out 'Jew haters', saying company 'never intended' such usage

Facebook is tightening controls on its advertising targeting tools, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg announced in a statement acknowledging that the ability for advertisers to target "Jew haters" until last week was "totally inappropriate and a fail on our part".

The policy change follows an embarrassing report by ProPublica on Thursday that the company's ad-buying system allowed advertisers to target users interested in antisemitic subjects. Subsequent reporting found additional bigoted terms in Facebook's system that could be used to target advertisements.