After action from EFF and ACLU, Facebook is reversing course on its decision to ban marijuana reform ads on the social media site, supposedly because the marijuana leaf is similar to tobacco.
The ads featured marijuana leaves, occasionally with photos of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, urging Facebook users to join campaigns to make marijuana reform an election issue. The ads read variously: ”Registered to vote? Make your voice heard on historic marijuana ballot measures this November” or “Marijuana Reform in 2012 | Obama and Romney are mum on marijuana reform. Learn how to make them start talking.”
As EFF states, they and ACLU of Northern California “reached out to Facebook to draw more internal attention to the fact that the company was censoring speech that was clearly political in nature. Facebook confirmed that the ads were erroneously rejected, that they do not violate Facebook’s policies, and that they would be quickly reinstated.”
In light of the political speech censorship, EFF is now calling for Facebook to audit its ad review program to ensure censorship of political speech does not happen again.
Smoke that up, motherfuckers.