60 companies say Facebook unfairly rejected their ads for women’s health products

Five dozen companies specializing in women’s health products and services say Facebook has frequently rejected their ads for containing ‘adult content’, according to a report by the Center for Intimate Justice released this week. Facebook’s advertising policies prohibit reproductive health products or services that focus on sexual pleasure, but anecdotes from companies that the Center for Intimacy Justice interviewed or interviewed paint a picture of a platform that applies these guidelines in a seemingly arbitrary and sexist way.

The 60 companies that participated in the report have all had ads rejected by Facebook at one point or another. About half said their accounts had also been suspended by the social media giant. Such a company is joylux. it offers vFit Gold, a product that women can use to strengthen their pelvic floor. “Because of the nature of our product, its appearance”, Colette Courtion, CEO of Joylux Recount The New York Times Facebook and other companies think it’s “pornographic” in nature.

Since 2017, Joylux says Facebook has closed its ad account twice. He says the company never provided a reason for those actions. He also claims that Facebook has automatically refused ads that include “vagina.” This is something Meta, Facebook’s parent company, disputes. A company spokesperson told Engadget this does not apply a general ban on keywords like “vagina” and “menopause”. Instead, he says he considers “how each ad is positioned.”

Center for Intimate Justice

With the help of an agency that specializes in attractive ad disapprovals, Joylux has managed to get its ads on Facebook for the past few years. However, the company had to modify its copy to the point where these ads are no longer useful to consumers. “We can’t show what the product looks like and we can’t tell what it does,” Joylux said. The New York Times.

A spokesperson for Meta told Engadget that its app isn’t perfect and sometimes makes mistakes. The company also noted that it put its current policy in place in part because it tried to consider what people from different countries and cultures would gain from ads promoting adult products.

“We welcome advertisements for sexual wellness products, but we prohibit nudity and have specific rules about how these products can be marketed on our platform,” the spokesperson said. “We have provided details to advertisers about the types of products and descriptions we allow in ads.”

What makes Facebook’s actions in these cases frustrating for the 60 companies that participated in the report is that they believe Meta hasn’t applied the same standards to ads targeting men. “Right now, it’s arbitrary to say a product is or isn’t allowed in a way that we think has really sexist undertones and a lack of understanding of health,” Jackie Rotman, founder of the Center for Intimacy Justice, Told The temperature.

At this point, the organization found an ad promoting an erectile dysfunction pill that promised a “hot, humid American summer.” Another, promoting a lube, said the lotion was “made just for men’s alone time”.

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Maria J. Book