I think what makes Facebook different from your average newspaper or notice board is that Facebook allows you to create de facto “no blacks” or “no women” ads, even if you never put any discriminatory language in the actual ad. With a newspaper, magazine, radio station, etc. You could probably make the argument that a “room for rent” message on church bulletin board is a different sort of notice than a general ad placement for an apartment; I can ask around with my friends to see if anyone wants to split rent and move into a new apartment with me without falling afoul of the Fair Housing Act, for example. Heck, you can probably skirt around the law even if you’re trying to be discriminatory with your public ad buys by making the argument that anyone who wants to pick up that magazine or tune into that radio station has the opportunity to see/hear the ad, as long as you’re not putting discriminatory intent into the ad itself (this defense will probably fall apart if someone notices a pattern of effectively-discriminatory ad placement, but in those cases I think the liability would rest entirely with the ad buyer). With Facebook, however, that opportunity can be explicitly denied to certain people through the use of filters that target protected groups.
I would agree that Facebook is just a neutral party, except that we’re not talking about regulating people’s individual ability to post to their friend group saying they need a roommate. We’re talking about Facebook going into the business of selling ad space (like a newspaper’s classified section) and operating as a commercial entity. I would absolutely expect Facebook to comply with all of the relevant legal requirements for every jurisdiction in which they offer ad placement services, because businesses should comply with the law. “It’s on the computer” and “but it’s hard to operate a global mega-corporation if we have to pay attention to every country’s particular requirements for doing business” are not valid excuses.
“Move fast and break things” cannot and must not include “the law” in the list of things to be broken.
