Um… Why? Facebook refuses to advertise against Jewish Foundation hate

As social media censorship Growing more in-depth and still as authoritarian as ever, one question among social media marketers is what kind of content can be posted and promoted.

The gray, opaque rules given aren’t particularly helpful, and what will be allowed or result in a serious slap can be difficult to predict.

However, an ad against anti-Semitic hate may not be considered “hateful” or deserving of censorship.

Well, for reasonable people, perhaps. Not Facebook. In a move that will surprise many (though probably won’t surprise those who remember when Facebook censored the Declaration of Independence).

This is what the Jewish Telegraph Agency reported happened, and what union officers believe happened:

Just before Hanukkah, the Jewish Federation of Broward County in Florida tried to buy a Facebook ad, a simple post call attention to Anti-Semitism issue as a new nationwide section The campaign is called “Shine the Light”.

But Facebook’s automated system rejected the ad without explanation, leading union officials to suspect the post was accidentally installed by a filter designed to block hate speech.

“Unfortunately, Facebook has inexplicably rejected our ads, presumably because they contain the words ‘hate’ and ‘anti-Semitism’, said federation board chairman Alan Cohn and chairperson. Interim President and CEO Mark Freedman wrote in a letter to the company Tuesday. “We believe this is an unintended but disastrous consequence of your efforts to curb hate speech.”

Just More News (pun intended) that:

Facebook has censored Jewish organizations before, with most of the problems arising after the platform banned Holocaust disavow ads.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial and Museum told the JTA in June that “it’s a real problem” when the organization tries to promote events.

They may be right in assuming that the algorithm unintentionally censored the ad. Even Facebook isn’t crazy enough to claim that an ad against hate speech is… hate speech.

However, the case demonstrates the dangers of social media censorship, especially algorithmic censorship: it frequently flags wrongdoings and inadvertently penalizes promoting ideas that even rather limited platforms are also not intended for censorship.

With an appeals process that is not transparent and often takes months, if it happens, those who rely on social media for promotion or their livelihood could be severely impacted by material flagging mistakes. harmless as it is “dangerous” or “hate speech. ”

Perhaps this incident and the resulting backlash will remind Facebook of why a more restrictive approach to moderation leads to fewer problems and better results.