[ad_1]
Facebook has banned advertising at The Epoch Times, the publication related to Falun Gong and the conservative press, while the social network is struggling to implement a consistent advertising policy.
Facebook announced the ban on Friday after NBC News published a report this week saying The Epoch Times had overshadowed its link to recent Facebook ads promoting President Trump's content and conspiracy.
Epoch Times, created in 2000 by a group of Chinese-American affiliated with the Falun Gong religious group, has experienced in recent years a surge of popularity from conservative and pro-Trump social media to create a broad base of social media. On its website, the site offers conspiracy content such as anti-vaccination theories, while its YouTube channels promote the Pro-Trump QAnon marginal movement and other topics.
The official Facebook accounts of Epoch Times were banned by the social network in July. But according to the NBC report, he then posted new ads on Facebook without revealing their link to the point of sale. The ads were served under page names such as "Honest Paper" and "Pure American Journalism" and purchased by MarketFuel Subscription Services and Perpetual Market, which are deceptive names for the Epoch Times, according to NBC News.
"In the past year, we have removed the accounts associated with The Epoch Times for violating our advertising policies," Facebook representative Tom Channick said in a statement. "We have acted on additional accounts today, and they are no longer able to advertise with us."
Stephen Gregory, publisher of The Epoch Times, said in a statement that Facebook had not yet responded to requests for clarification on why its ads had been removed. So he started "publishing his ads on a number of other new Facebook pages". added that "these advertisements were openly Epoch Times ads for our subscription".
But The Epoch Times was apparently able to circumvent these rules before being caught.
According to Joan Donovan, director of the research project on technology and social change at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center, this tactic is similar to that used by the Russian Internet research agency to clear up misinformation within social movements by creating impostor pages. "The militarization of advertising is crucial to increase the audience of this misinformation," she said.
Ms Donovan added that researchers and journalists have essentially become "glorified content moderators", looking for advertising content contrary to Facebook's rules.
Epoch Times has spent about $ 2 million on Facebook ads, according to NBC News, many of whom are in favor of Trump. Facebook declined to comment on the amount of publishing expenses on its platform.
[ad_2]
Source link