Facebook Inc. was accused Thursday of discriminatory housing practices by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The administrative charge said the social media company is violating the Fair Housing Act by “encouraging, enabling, and causing housing discrimination through the company’s advertising platform.”

HUD General Counsel Paul Compton said in a statement: “Even as we confront new technologies, the fair housing laws enacted over half a century ago remain clear—discrimination in housing-related advertising is against the law. Just because a process to deliver advertising is opaque and complex doesn’t mean that [it] exempts Facebook and others from our scrutiny and the law of the land.”