To start with the end of the story, Facebook did apologize and allowed the photo at the end, but this case shows how Social media networks have control over what photos are perceived “OK”, or “accepted”. The story starts when Cherchez la Femme, an Australian group that promotes an agenda of “unapologetically feminist angle”, said that an ad for their upcoming even was rejected by Facebook. The ad featured Tess Holliday, a plus-sized model wearing a bikini. According to Facebook, grounds for rejection were: violating the company’s “ad guidelines”.
Which guidelines? Facebook’s ad team said that it violated the “health and fitness policy”. Here, Cherchez La Femme producer Jessamy Gleeson explains on the groups page: Gleeson is definitely not happy, this is what she told the group on facebook: To my surprise, Facebook rejected my boosted ad request because it promoted an “idealised physical image”. I appealed this decision through Facebook, thinking that someone must have gotten a little confused about what we were doing by using an image of the divine Tess Holliday for the event banner. Ads may not depict a state of health or body weight as being perfect or extremely undesirable. Ads like these are not allowed since they make viewers feel bad about themselves. Instead, we recommend using an image of a relevant activity, such as running or riding a bike.” At the end, Facebook reconciled and approved the ad. It also apologized to Cherchez La Femme: “Our policies are in place to protect the community from offensive ads. This is not the case here and I’m sorry for our incorrect review,” said a Facebook team member in a statement to the group. “We processes millions of ads per week, and there are instances that we incorrectly disapprove an image.” And Gleeson is (rightfully) still not happy, in an interview to Mashable she says: I must say that I agree with Gleeson on this. Facebook should have a heavy hand on the trigger when removing photos from the network, especially as Facebook is de-facto the place where a lot of public conversation happens. [via mashable]
