Facebook should be treated as content creator: US attorneys

San Francisco: For the efforts it makes to "customise" audience for its advertisers, Facebook should legally be considered as a "content creator" just as any other media outlet, according to US attorneys involved in a case relating to the social networking giant's ad policies, the media reported.

This assertion may have immediate legal ramifications and open the way for news publishers and users demanding reward from Facebook for the content that they provide, The Outline reported on Saturday.

The attorneys with the southern district of New York argued that when Facebook mines user data to "create" and "customise" an audience for a particular advertiser, it amounts to creating user content.

The arguments were filed on August 14 as part of an ongoing lawsuit asking whether or not Facebook's ad policies constitute discrimination, according to a report in the New York Law Journal.

The case involves Facebook arguing that it should not count as discrimination when they only show housing ads only to a particular community.