Earlier this week, we announced the creation of this website via a Facebook post using the photo you see above. This photo is part of an editorial by Joey Rosado. The Colored Girl: Rebirth is the brainchild of Victory Jones and Tori Elizabeth. This showcases women of every shade of brown in beautiful neutral toned clothing. When I was searching for images for brown skinned women and saw this, my heart skipped a beat… It was like what I’d be looking for my whole life.
So we make a sneak peak of the site and post it on Facebook. Having used the “Boost” option a few times for other things, I though, “Wow. This is a beautiful image and message, let’s promote this!” So I did. A few minutes after submitting the ad, I received notification that it had been approved.
We were good to go.
Until Monday morning when I received additional notification saying that the ad had been pulled (the ad, not the actual post… It’s still there) because it violated Facebook’s ad policies.
Could anyone let me know what you see in this image that violates policy?
Three Black women clothed and covered but not wearing bras… Maybe? But then, why was it approved in the first place?
These are Facebook’s ideas of overly sexual and suggestive images. The photo we used doesn’t fall into either category. We surmise one of two scenarios has played out…
- Some Bitter Betty saw all of these beautiful women and felt left out and thus reported the ad. Or
- Facebook approves ads without looking at them and upon checking this out, some Bitter Betty saw all of these beautiful women and felt left out and thus pulled the ad.
I’ve seen worse on things on Facebook that the Support Team did not deem as violation of Community Standards.
We are taking this as a direct action against celebrating and honoring women of color. Countless friends of ours, their friends and other activists have been banned for the most minor infractions up to and including posting a close up of their faces. Even reposting screenshots of offensive things written by white people and reported but not removed have caused people of color to be banned.
Mark Zuckerberg can post “Black Lives Matter” on his fancy digital screen outside FB HQ as he wants to. Facebook proves time and again that they truly want to silence our voices.
We chose to appeal the removal of our ad. A few hours later, I received this response.
While I appreciate the reversal, it doesn’t wash away the anger of having it pulled in the first place. We will be on Facebook building our brand, but they better believe that they are NOT the only means of spreading this fire.
This fire will catch with or without Facebook.
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