Age Discrimination by Platforms

This Essay explores how platforms in the workplace (both social media and hiring platforms) might enable, facilitate, or contribute to age discrimination in employment. The Essay starts with evidence of age discrimination on popular platforms particularly with regard to design elements used to redline, dissuade, or cull older applicants. It then presents the challenging legal issues raised by the mediation of such discriminatory practices by a platform, notably in regards to proof of both disparate treatment and disparate impact. The Essay then puts forth a three-part proposal to combat age discrimination in the face of platform authoritarianism. Those proposals include: 1) education regarding the use of ageist language in job ads; 2) the reinforcement of the disparate impact cause of action for the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) via codification; and 3) new EEOC guidelines for design and documentation requirements for job advertisement, recruitment, and hiring platforms.