Facebook censorship row

 As facebook becomes ever more popular with around 600 million members it has also become increasingly powerful. Although they are not immune to condemnation and  have received heavy criticism for their privacy failings in recent months, they are also receiving renewed criticism from across the political spectrum for censoring certain groups they feel are politically sensitive or controversial.

In recent days, they have again come under renewed denigration for their actions against a group supporting the legalisation of cannabis. The “Just say now” campaign on facebook supports a petition for President Obama to support states rights to legalise cannabis and had received a high level of support in the United States.  After letting the adverts run on facebook for over a week, the adverts where suddenly pulled without any warning, leading to widespread condemnation from the organisers of the campaign. A representative from facebook attempted to explain the decision, “the image of the pot leaf is classified with all smoking products and therefore is not acceptable under our policies.”

Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake and the Just Say Now advisory board responded by saying, "In a nutshell, they allowed us to serve our ads for 10 days (38 million impressions), then suddenly reversed their approval and told us we could no longer show the image of a marijuana leaf”. However, facebook’s advertising policy doesn’t ban “smoking products”, just “tobacco products”. Facebook does also permit alcohol advertising, featuring adverts with alcohol products and packaging. Therefore, the reasoning provided by facebook is far from satisfactory.  What seems like the most likely explanation for this sudden reversal of policy by facebook is pressure from fellow advertisers who probably complained to facebook about their advertising appearing next to adverts calling for cannabis legalisation.

Why not join the facebook group http://www.facebook.com/justsaynow and show your support.