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Facebook Blocks Ads For Pot Legalization Campaign

DiscoBiscuit

weed fiend
Veteran
Facebook Blocks Ads For Pot Legalization Campaign
Ryan Grim 08-24-10 HP

For a typical college student, if it didn't happen on Facebook, it didn't happen. That gives the social networking behemoth an out-sized influence on the confines of political debate, if that debate falls outside what Facebook deems acceptable discourse.

Proponents of marijuana legalization, which is on the California ballot in 2010, have hit a Facebook wall in their effort to grow an online campaign to rethink the nation's pot laws. Facebook initially accepted ads from the group Just Say Now, running them from August 7 to August 16, generating 38 million impressions and helping the group's fan page grow to over 6,000 members. But then they were abruptly removed.

Andrew Noyes, a spokesman for Facebook, said that the problem was the pot leaf. "It would be fine to note that you were informed by Facebook that the image in question was no long[er] acceptable for use in Facebook ads. The image of a pot leaf is classified with all smoking products and therefore is not acceptable under our policies," he told the group in an email, which was provided to HuffPost.

Noyes is on vacation and didn't respond to an email. A request sent to Facebook's general press address generated an auto-reply indicating that the company receives many requests and intends to respond. [Scroll down for a Facebook statement.]

Facebook's ad rules, however, only ban promotion of "[t]obacco products," not smoking in general. Since the 1970s, shops selling marijuana paraphernalia have sought ways around the law by disingenuously claiming their products are "for tobacco use only." The Just Say Now campaign is arguing the exact opposite: No, really, it's for marijuana, not tobacco.

The censorship is a blow to the campaign, which is gathering signatures on college campuses calling for legalization and registering young people to vote. "It's like running a campaign and saying you can't show the candidate's face," said Michael Whitney of Firedoglake.com, a blog that is part of the Just Say Now coalition.

Conservative college students condemned the site's restrictions. "Our generation made Facebook successful because it was a community where we could be free and discuss issues like sensible drug policy. If Facebook censorship policies continue to reflect those of our government by suppressing freedom of speech then they won't have to wait until Election Day to be voted obsolete," Jordan Marks, the head of Young Americans for Freedom, told HuffPost in an email. YAF was founded in the 1960s and William Buckley's estate; Buckley was a longtime supporter of marijuana legalization. Marks is a member of the Just Say Now board.

Aaron Houston, the executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, said that Facebook was out of touch with its customers.

"Their business will suffer if they don't reverse this decision. We're way beyond reefer madness and censorship. Facebook should get with the times," he said.

While Facebook is banning the ad, a number of conservative and liberal blogs and news outlets have agreed to run it beginning on Tuesday. The Nation, The New Republic, Human Events, Red State, Antiwar, Reason, Drug War Rant, Stop The Drug War, Daily Paul, Lew Rockwell, The Young Turks, MyDD, AmericaBlog, Pam's House Blend and Raw Story are among them.

To protest Facebook's decision, Just Say Now is launching, naturally, a Facebook petition, cognizant that the social networking company often responds to user feedback. The group is also asking people to replace their profile picture with an image of a censored pot leaf.

"By censoring marijuana leaves, Facebook is banning political speech. This is unfair, and unacceptable," reads the petition. "Facebook should reverse its decision and allow the free discussion of U.S. drug policy that the country is ready for."

UPDATE: The Libertarian Party has had the same problem. Spokesman Kyle Hartz emailed HuffPost to say that after initially approving the ad, Facebook reversed its decision and censored the ad on July 23rd.

"Thanks for writing in to us," a Facebook representative wrote to the party. "I took a look at your account and noticed that the content advertised by this ad is prohibited. We reserve the right to determine what advertising we accept, and we may choose to not accept ads containing or relating to certain products or services. We do not allow ads for marijuana or political ads for the promotion of marijuana and will not allow the creation of any further Facebook Ads for this product. We appreciate your cooperation with this policy."

UPDATE II: Facebook spokesman Noyes says in a statement: "The image in question was no longer acceptable for use in Facebook ads. The image of a marijuana leaf is classified with all smoking products and therefore is not acceptable under our policies."

Ryan Grim is the author of This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America
 
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T

tokinafaty420

Delete your facebook accounts. Its just a large data mining operation. It even has financial backing by the US government.
 
C

Cookie monster

fuckfacebook1.jpg
 

confused

Member
I deleted my facespace about four months ago and feel sorry for people when I see them on it. Seriously people, you look at facespace while at the bar?

Delete your facebook, best decision ever.
 

!!!

Now in technicolor
Veteran
I use Facebook ads (for non Cannabis stuff) and they're very anal about nearly everything, not just drug related material. I'm not surprised they would disapprove of a pot leaf image. Your ad can be 100% legit and they'll disapprove it based on 1-2 words or the URL of the ad. Advertising guidelines are generally strict.
 
C

Cookie monster

Facebook is great it even has it's own hitlist app. :hide:

Police in Colombia are puzzled over the deaths of three teenagers in the southwestern town of Puerto Asis whose names appeared on a hit list posted on Facebook.

CNN reports that the list gave warning that the 69 people named on the list had three days to leave the town or be executed. Police don’t know who posted the list or what their motivation is. ”It is still not clear,” Colombian national police spokesman Wilson Baquero told CNN. “This is part of the investigation.”
At first police thought the list was a joke. But then three teens from the list were killed in the past 10 days and a second hit list, with the names of 31 women, was posted. Panicked parents are reportedly sending children named on the list out of town.
Colombian federal officials have sent investigators to the town. They note that the Los Rastrojos criminal gang and the FARC Marxist guerrillas are both active in the region. Facebook did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
It is unclear what requests Colombian police may have made to Facebook for IP information that could help them track down the people who posted the lists. It is also unclear whether Facebook would have automatically granted such requests. Facebook policy is not to comment on specific cases, though they will talk about their law-enforcement initiatives more generally.
Facebook has procedures in place for law enforcement around the world to request information housed on the social networking site’s servers. In most cases a warrant is required before Facebook would hand over information, though it has a rapid-response system when time-sensitive requests are made and public safety is at stake. There is a 24-hour hotline for law enforcement manned in relay by both the Palo Alto and Irish offices. However, at times tensions have surfaced because of Facebook’s low employee to user ratio and skeletal presence on the ground in most countries. Police and governments in places such as Australia have demanded greater cooperation from Facebook.
 
J

JackTheGrower

Facebook Bans Just say Now

Facebook Bans Just say Now

For the full article here


(CBS) It's not clear what Facebook was smoking, but the world's largest social networking site has snubbed out an effort by pro-marijuana advocates to run ads on the site which promote the legalization of marijuana.

That's according to the Huffington Post's Ryan Grim.

The issue is particularly relevant to medical marijuana supporters. Three of the four ballot initiatives the organization "Just Say Now," hopes to influence, increase access to the drug for medical purposes.

The three states going to the ballot box are Arizona, Oregon and South Dakota. The group also supports a ballot imitative in California that seeks to legalize marijuana outright. Medical marijuana is already legal there.
 
J

JackTheGrower

I was watching and they say this is a violation of their Tobacco rules.
 
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