Facebook Approves Ads Featuring Violent Hate Speech Against Women Journalists

Facebook is once again under fire this week for controversial ads it allows on its platform, with advocacy group Global Witness reporting that the social media giant approved ads featuring extreme and violent misogynistic hate speech against women journalists.

The advocacy group submitted the ads as a test of Facebook’s ad systems, and modeled them after real-life examples of hate speech directed at journalists. The ads were explicitly violent and offensive, “referring to women as vermin, prostitutes, or psychopaths and calling for them to be beaten and killed.” Shockingly, all the ads were approved by Facebook within just 24 hours.

“Social media corporations are not practicing what they preach, allowing even the most extreme and violent forms of content to be published and risking complicity with perpetrators of online violence,” South African journalist Ferial Haffajee said. “Along with many other journalists, I have tried to use the social media platforms’ reporting mechanisms and even contacted the companies directly, but it is to no avail. They knowingly turn a blind eye while playing host to assaults on women’s rights and media freedom.”

Facebook is often accused of ignoring hate speech in ads in favor of maximizing profit. And while it’s impossible to prove the company’s motives, cases like this illustrate why that’s so easy to believe.




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