COVID hit the two hard. They’re in the United States currently, and can’t file for unemployment. But, like many artists who found their main source of income—live music—evaporate due to COVID-19, they had to get a little creative. That included music videos with behind the scenes specials for Patreon subscribers. They tried to advertise this on their Facebook page.
That’s where they encountered another obstacle: being LGBTQ in the United States.
According to Sera, writing for the ACLU, Facebook called their video “sexually explicit.” Through the process of elimination, Sera and Frankie realized that the problem wasn’t the video itself or the position they took on the preview photo. It was the fact that they are both women.
It seems Facebook censored an ad because it featured lesbians.
Testing Facebook’s Bias
Making the claim of bigotry is not one anyone takes lightly. Make a mistake or get caught in a lie, and people will accuse you of trying to stage a publicity stunt. It can kill your livelihood and even open you up to lawsuits. But Sera and Frankie of Unsung Lilly aren’t making this claim lightly.
Their ad was initially rejected. It featured the image you see at the top of the page. Facebook said it was “adult” and “sexually explicit.” Nothing about that image is suggestive. The two uploaded a different thumbnail, and tried again. This one didn’t have them in a romantic pose, but instead a more platonic pose. Facebook accepted this. To see if it was simply because their pose, two women uploaded a photo of a heterosexual couple making the same pose. This one was accepted. After numerous attempts to get a photo of themselves accepted, they found Facebook was fine with the pose, just not fine with the same sex couple.
Facebook’s Response
Facebook says they rejected the band’s ads “incorrectly.” The official Facebook position was that their rejection had nothing to do with the LGBTQ content, but, rather, the video itself. However, they did not answer why the video itself was only a problem when the thumbnail showed two women in a romantic pose. Unsung Lilly used the same exact video for each of their tests, and the only one that Facebook rejected was the one that featured women touching their foreheads together.
Not Buying It
If Facebook’s telling the truth, that the only issue was the video, why did they permit it when the same video was part of the ad with a heterosexual couple as the photo?
The ACLU is asking Facebook to audit their community standards and advertising policies to ensure they remove and educate against bias. They want Facebook to tell users exactly why they rejected an ad or content. Rather than simply hiding behind a broad category, they’d have to admit exactly what they didn’t like about an ad. Finally, the ACLU is requesting that Facebook introduces a better way for people to contest the removal of their ads or content. Combined with transparency, this would force Facebook to re-review the ad or content, preferably with a different reviewer. This would ensure fairness.
I’m not buying Facebook’s excuse either. I’ve seen many ads for underwear on my Facebook feed. Facebook’s response that a single shot of someone dancing in their underwear is not believable, seeing as Facebook allows such ads elsewhere. Trust me, once Facebook realizes you’re gay, you get a lot of ads for women’s boxer shorts and butch clothing stores. These kind of ads are definitely allowed on Facebook.
Facebook allowed the video when the women weren’t in an obviously romantic pose. They allowed the video when a heterosexual couple used in the same romantic pose as the original. Facebook was fine with the video. They weren’t fine with the two women posing with their foreheads touching, a clearly romantic gesture.
Facebook claimed they denied the ad by mistake. If that’s the case, what are they doing to make the process more transparent and more fair? If you don’t want to correct a mistake, I have a hard time believing it wasn’t done intentionally. Why do these longstanding biases still exist? That’s exactly what Unsung Lilly, the ACLU, and the LGBTQ community want to know.
Sources:
- Sera Golding-Young, ACLU
- Patrick Kelleher, PinkNews
- Unsung Lilly