[stickfigure]

This is silly. By definition, if you're advertising on Facebook, you're selecting for a certain demographic. It's a bit broader than the AARP but by picking any medium you are discriminating against the people who don't follow that medium.

It's also weird to say you shouldn't be able to target certain demographics. An ad that resonates well with seniors might resonate poorly with millennials. You might want to attract both! So you run multiple ads. Or you target youngsters on Instagram and oldsters in the NYT.

This is not something Facebook is in any position to police.

[wahern]

I was curious about the source of Facebook's liability. It turns out their liability stems from the Fair Housing Act (FHA), 42 U.S. Code § 3604(c) (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/3604) which has been repeatedly interpreted over the years to apply to publishers directly.

Facebook has a duty to screen housing advertisements for discriminatory indications or intent. The question of whether this sort of disparate impact discrimination meets the criteria for 3604(c) is a different matter. (My uninformed guess is that it does not, but Facebook is being attacked on all sides so will probably be judicious regarding when and how hard it pushes back.)