The CIJ has requested the FTC take legal action and investigate Meta’s policies, urge the platform to improve its advertising appeal process and order Meta to increase resources to monitor advertising acceptance and rejection, among other requirements.
In January 2022, the CIJ published a report, in partnership with pelvic health startup Origin, that sampled 60 organizations serving women and people of diverse genders on their experience with Meta. All brands in the sample, including a startup helping with the consequences of endometriosis and a nonprofit offering sexual health education in Kenya, had their ads rejected. Further, 50% of organizations had their accounts suspended by Meta.
In October 2022, Meta updated its advertising policies, including those around sexual health products. The company said the updates were less substantive changes than ones to improve clarity, though claimed enforcement has improved. In practice, sexual health ads have still been routinely rejected since October, said Jackie Rotman, founder and CEO of CIJ. Wang agrees that Meta’s censorship has not improved since October.
Uneven enforcement
Flex is a disc that people can use on their periods, with one of its primary use cases being mess-free period sex. In order to explain how the product works in its advertisements, Flex needs to show blood, though this has been labeled as “too graphic” by Facebook, according to Wang.
“Since we couldn’t initially say period, period sex, or show period blood as red, we had to fight all of the platforms (including Meta) at the executive level to have their policies changed,” Wang said. “But from time to time the policies go back and then (without notice) block our ads, so we go back to the drawing board.”
A key talking point of the CIJ is the inconsistencies in Meta’s policies. The policy explicitly states that ads can’t promote products focused on sexual pleasure or enhancement, like sex toys, but can advertise products to prevent erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation.
