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The Libertarian Party contacted us this morning following the launch of our campaign to get Facebook to relent on their decision to ban the Just Say Now logo with a marijuana leaf from advertising.
Libertarian Party spokesman Kyle Hartz said Facebook had also censored their logo, which likewise contained a marijuana leaf:
Here at the Libertarian Party, we have faced the exact same problem with facebook ads. Our ad, picture below, was also approved and then banned. Once I appealed their decision, they responded saying,
“Thanks for writing in to us. 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”
Considering marijuana ads are not explicitly banned in their guidelines, I was pretty upset by this decision. The marijuana legalization ad was the best ad we ever had, we were paying less than one cent a click.
If you are interested in fighting back against this policy, we would love to join the fight.
Kyle Hartz
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
One of the hardest part about ending prohibition is getting people to talk about it. We’ve worked really hard to put together a left/right coalition that makes it easier for people to speak out without fear of being attacked as “hippies.” Facebook’s decision makes it that much harder.
Or, as Jay Rosen put it:
We’re not trying to sell pot to people. We’re trying to have a political discussion about US drug policy, as is the Libertarian Party. In a 2.0 world of online graphics, banning the use of the subject image is not a mature decision about political discourse. It’s a decision made to appease somebody’s finger wagging grandparents.
Ryan Grim has more on the Huffington Post.
Xeni Jardin has more on Boing Boing.
We’re asking people to switch out their Facebook avatars with the Just Say Now pot leaf and a “censored by facebook” banner. You can find it here. (Here’s mine, I frankly don’t think I’ve ever looked better.)
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doubt it was someone’s grandparents – this has the cloven hoofprints of some rent-a-hack like lil Timmy Rosales all over it
p.s. anyone know if a Stay Off of Facebook For A Day ! protest campaign amongst it’s young adult demo would have any real impact in terms of revenue ?
or maybe we ask everyone to log off at 4:20 every day
just typing out loud
Great idea!
That’s funny. Might work, too.
After the questions about FB security emerged a few months back, I pulled the plug on my account. The asshole who runs the company was quite cavalier on the issue, an attitude which I found a bit offensive. And now this? Plus ca change, I guess…
So much for their excuse that it was the smoking of marijuana to which they objected! (Especially when the preferred form of ingestion for cancer patients is via baked goods.)
Perfect!
Yanno, I wonder how many other entities with fan bases large enough to cause Facebook some serious pain if they ever found out about each other have been screwed by this?
I suspect we’re about to find out.
Also, the ads in question do NOT promote the use of marijuana. It is an expression of one of the most fundamental rights of all Americans, to advocate a change in existing laws.
I have had people on my back to join facebook since it started. This is just another reason not to.
Hope you’re right.
Guess I’m out of the loop, what’s the significance of 4:20 or was it a time chosen at random?
Oh man, are you evah!
Same here. Being fundamentally alienated from the institutional structures of society and lacking any semblance of herd instinct I’ve never been tempted to join.
Don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. I missed that one, too. Pass the bong, Dude…
Forty years later and I’m supposed to remember that? *g* I was prolly too stoned to remember it the next day anyhow.
Explanation.
I owes you a drink!
Luddite here: how do I make the censored-graphic my FB avatar? I go to the page but don’t see anywhere the little button that says “make this my profile pic.”
Thanks!
Facebook is, on the internet, exactly what shopping malls are in the real world. Private “common” areas that don’t have to follow any notions of equal access or free speech. It’s a sad reality of the dominance of corporate rights over public interest.
Facebook is a social site built on really awful principles of screwing over its users and having complete control. It would be best to completely ignore Facebook, but sadly that’s where a lot of people are now. I don’t think it will last, though. AOL used to be Facebook and it’s completely gone.
It allows me to get great vids and pix from folks at Caturday. That’s about all I use it for. Also get stuff from other peace/social justice folks/groups.
Steven Hager, creative director of High Times and the first person to document the 420/Waldos story went to my high school. Jim Wilson aka Chef Ra (and close friend of Raven) grew up across town.
For the record, I never waited until 4:20 on a school day. I always rolled eleven joints the night before and smoked the first on the way to school. To be honest I usually had a couple left over at the end of the school day.
LOLOL!
Go to your profile page and run your curser over your profile pick.
You should see a little popup that says “change profile picture”
Right click and save to your computer, then upload to FB in one of your albums and select it that way :)
first pass
although . . . working on ‘nother one they should like even less :D
oo you’re good
:)
Get a group together and a colaborated effort for all the groups/causes/etc. that people here manage, and we can blast that to millions of people.
Go to the “get it here” link in the last line above in Jane’s post. Scroll down past the “submit form” button. Click on “Share this image and make it your FB profile picture.” Save the image then go to your profile and change your profile pic, which will involve uploading the new image.
Southern Dragon explained to me that one has to download the censored/graphic to our computer then “choose” it from our facebook page.
Facecrap is another out of control corporate monopoly which limits and controls millions of Americans and is quite Anti-American. Please write your congressmen and the President right away.
There needs to be serious anti-trust action by the Justice Department against this private monopoly of social networking in the US by Facebook. Facebook as a company needs to be broken apart the same way ATT was broken up. The same applies to Google, another out-of-control corporate monopoly which despotically controls Americans and tramples daily on our freedom of speech, freedom of privacy, and freedom of association for Google and Facebook’s private profit.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTA) and the Federal Communication Commission(FCC) also need to immediately take action against these money grubbing, out of control corporate censors at Facecrap.
Wonder if FB has ever heard, “Fuck with the bull, get the horns”?
I know all my slacker friends will go for it – saw it spread like wildfire when JSN was launched and got my 20 something nephew to register himself and 5 friends to vote – all of which in turn had to get 5 friends to register – oh snap! the job’s a game ! :D
LOL ROFLMFAO awww, shit, yer killin’ me
I think AT&T needs to be broken apart again….
The Longhorns :)
“FACEBOOK: WE DON’T LIKE IT
Site Blocks Ads For Marijuana Decriminalization Campaign”
Now the top Headline on HP
eff-in A !
surrender Zuckerberg !
@Jane
I’ve noticed in the couple posts about this topic that people have commented about gaming apps on FB called Pot Farm and Potville. Do you think the game developers would be interested in carrying these ads? Do the developers get to dictate their own policy for advertising within their privately owned portal?
I could see a great response for JSN.com if those 38 million ads were seen inside Potville…
cbl, yer en fuego!
changed my av too.
hope FB has entered a world of pain on this.
Methinks the dude has found himself asshole deep in alligators.
Yep. One of the babies done gone and come very close to recreating the badness that was Ma Bell.
I snark on the shoulders of giants !
really Mark, quit delaying the inevitable, just buy the damn Jane Hamsher voodoo doll and get it over with
I just got a mental picture of a Jane Hamsher voodoo doll with a Professional Left badge on her shirt. In the hands of Rahm Emanuel. *shudders*
Jane and Pups:
We have to put our heads together (excuse the pun) to make this go totally viral and have such a wide impact that forces the Facebook censors to rescind their draconian policy or pay the price by losing members in droves…it is always seemingly too easy for these asshats to amass a huge following and then start acting like disciplinarians for the world! It must stop…ie: Google and net neutrality
so far I have heard some good ideas…how else can we help…strategies? It is a war regardless if we want it to be or not…I am an artist, what can I do? and where?
My sainted Victorian-era Irish Granny used to tell us, “fools’ names and fools’ are often seen in public places.” That’s FB all over. (:>
okay firedogs, am actually going to take the time to put together a Log Off at 4:20 page
how long, an hour ?
ideas ?
that fucker should own the franchise
Present.
I think an hour is as good a place to start as any. I’m gonna hit the google and see if I can dig up a figure for facebook’s hourly ad revenue. If nobody’s on, nobody’s clicking.
How about a Rahm Emanuel voodoo doll? We might as well make a few bucks too.
Maybe a logo contest…with a blog…perhaps something like the BP logo contest by Greenpeace…example: ‘Post your logo here for the NEW Face of Facebook’…and tie it to their censorship…it could generate some heat for them…just an idea!
According to allfacebook.com, facebook’s ad revenue is expected to surpass 1.2 billion this year.
Which would put the hourly figure at $136,986.30ish. If we could knock out, I dunno, 5% of that for an hour a day until they relent, we’re talking serious dollars.
Facebook is an evil private corporation. They are NOT bound by the US Constitution and they have proven that they have no decency (just like Google). Facebook is about total control over you and your personal information.
OF COURSE Facebook will censor anything they want for no reason.
But I saw a job listing that said the only way to apply was through their Facebook account, saying, “Normal people are on Facebook”.
Facebook is now, and always has been, evil, just like Google.
Quit Facebook, shut down your account, don’t let people you care about sign up.
I think he spends too much time being an anonymous source for people to know who he is :|
[edited by Moderator. Do not insult other commenters] like Southerndragon!
Dear US Department of Justice Anti-Trust Division,
Facebook is another out of control corporate monopoly which limits and controls millions of Americans and is quite Anti-American. There needs to be serious anti-trust action by the Justice Department against this private unregulated monopoly of social networking in the US.
Facebook as a company needs to be broken apart the same way ATT was broken up in order to prevent Facebook from completely controlling the social networking industry for decades.
Facebook, is an out-of-control corporate monopoly which despotically controls many millions of Americans and tramples daily on our:
1) freedom of speech and of the press, (limits and controls speech -what may be said and how, bans topics, people, images, political content, citizen redress of grievances to government)
2) freedom of privacy, (sells private info to individuals, companies and foreign powers, no user input)
3) freedom of association (limits and controls who and how users may associate with others)
4) Anti-trust laws (an unregulated monopoly with no controls by the FCC or others).
Anti-trust laws would apply to Facebook for many reasons. As of 2009, 74% of young Americans have a Facebook or MySpace account. Sixty-five percent of online Americans aged 12 to 17 years old use the social networking site Facebook according to the most recent data.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTA) and the Federal Communication Commission(FCC) also need to immediately take action against these money grubbing, out of control corporate censors at Facebook.
America as a country is now in great jeopardy from this completely unregulated monoply. The future of American elections, freedom of the press and the survival of democracy itself is at stake.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
alright, here I go
see y’all on the crackbook !
Spell my name right and it’s MISTER SouthernDragon to you.
OK…How about “Facebook: It’s 4:20…don’t Bogart our free speech!”
Uh, the transgressions are monumental across the converged tel-sat-media-cos internationally with the IT industry going right along with it. No, these folks have topped Ma Bell. Funny and still now more pertinent than ever: Ernestine Tomlin vs. J. Edgar Hoover. You can get the sordid details (techspeak translated into English for humans) at Wired.Com’s Threat Level. Start with today’s recommended reads and keep going: “Facebook Lawsuit Throws the ‘Book’ at Social Networking Site for Teachers,” “Touchscreen E-Voting Machine Reprogrammed to Play Pac-Man,” and “Researcher Arrested in India After Disclosing Problems With Voting Machines.”
cbl2′s newly designed facebook group for protesting this horseshit
If we assume that FB is a CIA project, it would be predictable that they would try and keep the drug trade for themselves. Gary Webb demonstrated they have been known to do just that.
Do your worst. Anything less is unacceptable. And don’t stop until FB supports the Just Say Now campaign.
Hook’em!! Can’t wait for college football season to start. Not for nothin’ was the unofficial nickname of the late 90′s- early 2000 Texas Longhorns (think Ricky Williams and Matthew McConauhey’s naked bongo playing…but not on the sidelines) Football team the “Bonghorns”.
Kind of OT, but was (pleasantly) surprised that Mack Brown still allowed Matthew to watch the team from the sidelines after that incident – Mack will not tolerate illegal drug use by his players ’cause that will get the NCAA to come after you like a duck on a june bug – but it didn’t matter to him that the third biggest native Texan stoner (the First Stoner of Texas is Willie Nelson, the second is Woody Harrelson) preferred to watch the games up close than in his private box. I guess what mattered to Mack was that he was a Longhorn fan…Go Horns!
Public boycotts of corporations can have an effect. I read in TPM that Target’s shareholders are pissed about the “Great (Not-as) Evil (as-Walmart) Bullseye‘s” ham handed efforts to manipulate the MN governor’s race. That would not have happened if the LGBT community had not raised a stink about it.
National Socialism, the original social network.
I think it is rather odd that Facebook pulls these ads when they have game applications like Pot Farm, Which Famous Stoner are You and Pass the Joint.