Last week, activists launched a campaign that urged companies toboycott Facebook advertising because the social media network allows users to post images of domestic violence against women, while banning advertisements aboutwomen’s health. More than a dozen companies have pulled their advertising as a result, including online bank Nationwide UK, Nissan UK, and J Street.
Many larger companies have been slower to respond, including two companies that market brands specifically to women. Dove, a Unilever brand that is running a “self-esteem” ad campaign for women, is facing pressure on Twitter, while Procter & Gamble’s response was, “We can’t control what content they [our advertising] pops up next to. Obviously it’s a shame that our ad happened to pop up next to it.”
Zappos replied that users who are upset by an ad appearing next to a date rape image “click the X to delete the ad.” Though Zipcar has not stopped advertising it “expressed to Facebook the critical need to block this content from appearing.” And Audible has responded that it will not take down advertising. “Audible does not condone or endorse violence against women,” but it “takes pride in and respects the rules that govern our Facebook community and because of this we do not delete negative posts. However, we must delete, and will continue to delete, any content that contains offensive, graphic images.”
Facebook’s rules, however, appear to be enforced unevenly. A Facebook spokesperson told ThinkProgress that content featuring battered women, rape, and violence falls under “poor taste” or “crude attempts at humor” and does not violate its policies. And while Facebook screens anti-Semitic, Islamaphobic, and homophobic hate speech, the same standards do not apply to images of violence against women. At the same time, Facebook rejected an ad aboutbreast cancer because it showed a woman’s breast.
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