[joelrunyon]

Nope.

I'm just saying that if you remove the ability to target ads based on specific person characteristics, you remove a piece of what makes fb so valuable of an advertising platform (that is to target people so microscopically).

Just pointing it out.

[solatic]

The number of products to which such non-discrimination law applies to is vanishingly small though. It's not illegal, for instance, to racially target advertisements for flagship smartphones towards white people (since white people tend to be richer and thus have more disposable income), not that any marketing agency would do that in practice.

Completely avoiding bias in advertisement is an exercise in futility. Are you a toy manufacturer? Advertise on children's TV shows - not that such a marketing strategy states that adults will never buy the toys, or that the business of adults buying such toys for themselves is unwelcome. Are you a cosmetics manufacturer? Advertise in cisfemale interest magazines - not that such a marketing strategy states that noncisgender individuals will never buy cisfemale-targeted cosmetics, or that the business of noncisgender individuals buying such cosmetics for themselves is unwelcome.

[joelrunyon]

> Completely avoiding bias in advertisement is an exercise in futility.

That's not the point of the ad system. The point is to optimize inventory + bidding. So you can bid on all of those -sure, but if you have the capability to break down children toy ads to children + to adults - you do it and have different strategies for both (broad based appeal to kids and buy-action to parents). You can be more precise with the ads + the spend so it makes sense to do it.