Facebook rejected Chabad Beth Meir HaCohen’s attempt to boost an advertisement for a course on how to fight antisemitism.
The Journal obtained Facebook’s October 24 rejection of the ad, simply stating that “it doesn’t comply with our advertising policies.” The ad featured the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explaining the varying manifestations on antisemitism and ending with text urging people to sign up for the four-part course, titled “Outsmarting Antisemitism.” The video itself remains on Facebook.
Rabbi David Elizrie, who is teaching the course, told the Journal that he had sent information verifying his identity to Facebook more than a year ago and that it was “illogical” for Facebook to reject the ad. “If Facebook is looking for hate speech… I would imagine that a human being would have looked at it and realized that this is the most absurd thing in the world: a Jewish organization running a course about antisemitism is told it doesn’t meet their guidelines,” he said and asked where Facebook’s “common sense” is.
Facebook did not respond to the Journal’s request for comment as to why the ad didn’t meet their guidelines.
The ad’s rejection comes as Facebook is under fire from a whistleblower alleging that the social media giant’s internal research showed that they’re not adequately regulating hate speech on their platform. Additionally, a recent Wall Street Journal report stated that Facebook employees have “consistently pushed to suppress or de-platform right-wing outlets such as Breitbart,” per The New York Post.
