With 14 months or so to go until the election, it appears Facebook has drawn a very clear line on what ads are and are not allowed on its precious safe-space.
As President Trump attempts to build support among women, tech site Gizmodo proudly reports that Facebook has banned Trump’s pro-women re-election ads.
The reason is simple – they target “women”.
The ad contravenes Facebook’s advertising guidelines which list thirty varieties of prohibited content, including “Asserting or implying Personal Attributes” – which includes gender (which includes being a “woman”)…
So, it would appear that daring to imply/infer the women in the image are women triggered Facebook’s pre-crime algos and got the harmless advertisement banned from the social media site.
The ad was reported to Facebook’s PC-police by the website ‘Popular Information’:
“We’ve notified the campaign that the ads violate policy. They can’t continue to run unless fixed,” a Facebook spokesperson told Popular Information.
However, as Natalie Winters notes, this is not an isolated incident.
An ad inviting donations in honor of First Lady Melania Trump’s birthday used the phrase “Attention Ladies” and was promptly taken down for violating the same policy.
…And this is why we can’t have nice things.
