> How, exactly, are they supposed to know that?

Because situations have more than one possible outcome. Lumping everyone into a single cohort based on a majority rule (e.g. people who buy pregnancy-related products often buy baby-related products later) is a kind of insensitivity that would be frowned on if applied in person.

> The bigger issue here is everyone expecting Facebook to somehow be omnipotent.

I'd argue that Facebook (or its advertising algorithm in this case) is operating _as if it is_ omniscient when really there are lots of shortcomings that can and do cause harm. It should be reigned in instead of forgiven.

The same way they know to present the ads in the first place? If they can do one, they can do the other, right?

It just happens infrequently enough that they haven't had to care about it. Yet.

I would imagine that in this case, some of their social media folks are seeing the problem. Target got word that they were accidentally telling some parents their kid was pregnant. Enough retweets and articles should hit the any social team worth the name.

If I employ a human too stupid to not insult my customers, I would probably fire him.