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    Facebook Pulls Anti-Stimulus Ad For Hate Speech?

    Posted:
    02/12/09
    Filed Under:Breaking News, Media
    This morning, CNS News reported that Facebook had pulled an ad for the anti-stimulus website NoStimulus.com, citing rules against profanity, extremism, and hate speech. Phil Kerpen, national policy director for the group which paid for the ad, explained what reasoning Facebook had provided for their decision.

    Kerpen said Facebook told Americans for Prosperity that the ad violated two of its advertising rules – Rules 8 and 9.

    Rule 8 says that ads may not "contain, facilitate or promote "adult" content or content that is "offensive, profane, vulgar, obscene or inappropriate" or "defamatory, libelous, slanderous and/or unlawful."

    Rule 9 prohibits a variety of content, including:
    --"Inflammatory religious content";
    -- "Politically religious agendas and/or any known associations with hate, criminal and/or terrorist activities";
    -- "Political content that exploits political agendas or uses 'hot button' political issues for commercial use regardless of whether the advertiser has a political agenda";
    --"Hate speech, whether directed at an individual or a group, and whether based upon the race, sex, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, marital status, sexual orientation or language of such individual or group";
    -- and "Content that advocates against any organization, person, or group of people, with the exception of candidates running for public office."


    NoStimulus.com is a web site which encourages voters to oppose the legislation before Congress, via contact with elected representatives and through a massive petition with over 400,000 signatures. The petition will be presented to Congress this afternoon.

    There was a flurry of activity in the wake of the decision by Facebook, as the CNS News story was picked up by the conservative blogosphere and CNS readers. I contacted Erik Telford of Americans for Prosperity, the non-profit conservative group who is behind the NoStimulus website to get a statement on the ad. Mr. Telford informed me that the ad has since been re-instituted and Facebook has apologized for the "error." (This story has been UPDATED below the fold._
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    While it's true there could be a number of explanations for the ad getting pulled in the first place, one must at least suspect that users were reporting the ad as offensive. (Read: left-wing users.) This would be similar to the mass erasure of hundreds of conservative blogs by Google's Blogger service, thanks to left-bloggers exploiting the reporting system that occurred not too long ago. Of course, you might conclude that Facebook was making a political decision based on their own politics, something that is also not unknown to the right-o-sphere.

    I contacted Facebook for their statement and have just received their response:

    "As part of our efforts to remove other ads with misleading offers related to the stimulus package, we erroneously removed the ad in question. We have since restored that ad and expressed our regret to the advertiser for the error. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Part of Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share their opinions, and we encourage users to start vibrant debates on important issues. Already with the stimulus package, we have seen users create Facebook Groups and lead discussions on all sides of the issue."


    There are still questions, of course. You have to wonder why they were initially told they violated rule 8 and 9. Certainly Facebook's explanation would fall under rule 9, but rule 8? Still, the ad is back in rotation and the petition continues to garner widespread support. The damage from this incident will be minimal at best, perhaps even a net positive having drawn more attention to the NoStimulus.com website.

    Update: CNS News has posted a follow-up. Note this section from the original article, which Edwin Mora highlights again:
    "At Facebook, we strive to create a trusted environment for our users and advertisers," Facebook spokeswoman Erin Zietler said in an e-mail on Wednesday, Feb. 11. "We encourage users to report any advertisements they find offensive or misleading, and we offer the ability for them to provide immediate feedback on our ads. We have a team dedicated to investigating ads and user complaints.

    "In this case, users informed us about misleading offers in many ads with promotions related to the U.S. economic stimulus package," the spokeswoman said. "We are in the process of removing ads with these types of misleading offers as they are brought to our attention."


    This does paint a picture: Leftwingers determined to silence opposition to the stimulus making dozens of false reports in order get a conservative message pulled from view. Sound familiar? Just speculation on my part, but the dots do connect.

    Is the NoStimulus Site Hate Speech or Offensive Extremist?

    Do you believe conservative speech is being silenced by companies like Google?






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    Caleb Howe

    Caleb Howe is a freelance writer based in Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC. ... more

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