Sunday, March 22, 2015
Yes, I am Christian
For as long as Facebook has been used for political campaigning and social confabulation, there have been particular groups which have experienced targeting by bigoted trolls and biased mediators.
Attractive conservative actors Stacey Dash and Kevin Sorbo are set to star in the upcoming film
“I Am A Christian,” and as such, producers plugged the film on Facebook in an attempt to raise some of the $500,000 for production costs, The Daily Caller Reports.
The film’s title comes from the exact words that Meriam Ibrahim, a pregnant woman sentenced to hang by an Islamic court for converting to Christianity, spoke when she was asked to deny her faith to spare her life. The film will tell the story of Meriam’s miraculous survival after a sentence that outraged the world.
But when Facebook caught wind of the promotion, they quickly censored the ad, giving the most ridiculous reason.
“Are you a Christian?” the producers wrote in a post with their ad graphic. “We challenge you to change your profile picture to this ‘I Am A Christian’ photo for one week! Change your picture now, and challenge your friends to do the same. Stand up and declare Yes, I Am A Christian!!!”
Facebook’s response?
“Your ad wasn’t approved because it doesn’t follow Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines for language that is profane, vulgar, threatening or generates high negative feedback,” Facebook responded vaguely. “Ads can’t use language that insults, harasses or demeans people, or addresses their age, gender, name, race, physical condition or sexual preference.”
Confused as to who exactly the ad was insulting, the producers messaged Facebook, receiving an even more absurd message back from “Frank” of the Facebook Ads Team.
“Your ad wasn’t approved because it doesn’t follow our language policies,” Frank wrote. “We’ve found that people dislike ads that directly address them or their personal characteristics such as religion.”
“Ads should not single out individuals or degrade people. We don’t accept language like ‘Are you fat?’ ‘Wanna join me?’ and the like. Instead, text must present realistic and accurate information in a neutral or positive way and should not have any direct attribution to people,” he added.
So, Frank, a representative of Facebook’s views, thinks that being a Christian and being “fat” are both insults and something that shames us?
The advertisement didn’t offend me, but Frank’s response sure is pushing it.
Franks reasoning is not only outrageous, it goes against successful business acumen. Every major corporation in the world knows you’ll make more money by marketing to the group of people to whom your product or service caters. For example, advertising Justin Bieber’s latest album to men 55 years and older isn’t going to do your sales any good, because men 55 years and older aren’t Bieber fans. Instead, it would benefit sales more if advertisements are geared towards girls aged 13 to 17. The same applies to religious beliefs, or any beliefs for that matter.
Although the producers have set up an indiegogo campaign to which you can donate, the marketing has taken an unnecessary hit because of the censorship.
It’s safe to say that the official decision was made by one or a few of the higher-ups at Facebook, and that the reasoning behind the decision being that ads are unsuccessful when they “address them or their personal characteristics such as religion” was just an excuse. If that were the case, every weight loss program would flop when it asked if potential customers desired to get rid of their unwanted belly fat.
Facebook is once again proving their favoritism by refusing Christians to express pride in their beliefs, all while blacks, Latinos, Muslims, homosexuals, feminists, and even self-proclaimed hipsters are allowed to proclaim and encourage unity and pride in their identities.
Show Facebook that they are wrong in deciding for us that we don’t want to see an ad encouraging the vast majority to be proud of their faith by sharing this on Facebook and Twitter with #IAmAChristian.
H/T [The Washington Times]
