Social media giant Facebook has apologised to the Royal National Institute for the Blind after it lifted a ban on an advert by the organisation which it originally said was “degrading”.
Facebook apologised to the RNIB yesterday and said in a statement that “Facebook is a place for people and organisation to campaign for the things that matter to them,” and confirmed it will allow the RNIB’s ‘See the Need’ advert to be shown on the social media platform.
The ‘See the Need’ advert, originally launched by the RNIB on its YouTube channel on September 14 where it garnered over 50,000 views, depicts a woman describing how it feels to be told by a doctor that she will lose her sight.
When the RNIB attempted to pay to run the advert on Facebook, the company initially blocked it, saying the advert contravened its guidelines on language that is “profane, vulgar, threatening or generates high negative feedback”.
It is reported that a spokesperson from Facebook UK’s advertising team told RNIB that: “We’ve found that people dislike ads that directly address them or their personal characteristics.
“Ads should not single out individuals or degrade people. We don’t accept language like “fear of losing your sight, losing your job?” 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.”
Facebook has subsequently performed a U-turn on the issue and told RNIB that it is now free to show the advert on its social media channel. In an email to RNIB, Facebook said: “As the previous correspondence mentioned, we do not allow ads to directly assert the physical condition of the audience”.
“However, in this case, the intent is not to assert that the viewer is struggling with blindness, thus the language used in the copy and video are compliant. The ad has been re-approved, and you are able to set them back to active.
“In this instance we made a mistake, and have contacted the charity to let them know and to apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Natasha Dickinson, group head of marketing and communications at RNIB said: "We're really pleased that Facebook has acknowledged that they made a mistake in banning our advert.
"We accept that mistakes sometimes happen and hope that in future Facebook will work more closely with us and other charities to stop this type of situation happening again.”
The spokeswoman also told Civil Society News that the organisation has recieved two complaints about the advert which at the time of publication has received more than 60,000 views on YouTube.
