Ombudsman Appealed Regarding Discriminatory Advertisements

During a routine monitoring process, the Ombudsman Office identified a rental housing advertisement on an online listing platform containing discriminatory language that explicitly excluded certain groups of people.

In response, the Ombudsman of Azerbaijan submitted an official appeal to the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The Ombudsman takes the view that the rules governing content publication on online platforms must fully comply with the human rights, equality, and prohibition of discrimination principles.

In the appeal, the Ombudsman emphasized the necessity of strengthening control over content moderation on listing websites, promptly identifying and blocking discriminatory language, and establishing accessible grievance mechanisms for users.

Furthermore, the Ombudsman proposed exploring the integration of AI tools to automatically detect hate speech, discriminatory language, and other harmful content. This includes implementing automated filtering and alerting, as well as restricting the publication of non-compliant content where necessary.

The Ombudsman considers it essential to prevent the digital discrimination, foster a legal culture in society, and build robust regulatory and monitoring frameworks in this domain.

To this end, the Ombudsman requested that the Ministry take all necessary measures within its authority and provide an update on the actions taken.