My store and my business are my absolute joy. They are doing real, tangible good in the world. But now I'm being disallowed and forced to self-sensor because of who I am.
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"is associated with individuals of a specific race or ethnicity" well ok that's literally everyone, but we know they just mean non-white people. no critical race theory talk. 🙄
All Christmas stuff has to go because it's for individuals with specific religious beliefs. Honestly, they might as well just cancel META business tools with this.
Horrible. And the world is going to be poorer for it.
Hard not to hate everything these days.
Thank you for sharing all of this. I hope we see real solidarity against these ghouls in the coming days/months. This is so backward. It can't prosper.
"caters to individuals of a specific gender identity"
Like how broad is this? I know their aim is to hurt queer people but this wording would include anything gender specific. Even like men's deodorant. So ridiculous on so many levels.
Meta is revamping the infamous Hollywood Hays Code in support of suppressing speech while white supremacists continue to pass legislation intended to re-segregate the county. @aclu-norcal.bsky.social https://www.aapf.org/theforum-hollywood-censors-ball
Basically all of those things are important parts of marketing segmentation. They won’t let anyone anyone advertise a product that’s targeted at any specific group of anything?? Unhinged. And bad business.
Yes! If you see ‘he’ or ‘she’ used, that's gender in the most literal sense. If two people are married, that's sexuality. The title ‘Mrs’ gets you both at once!
This is horrible. But not surprising. Gonna have to work out how to live without social media I think especially if this place turns out to be toxic too as is looking likely after the recent statement regarding moderation 😕
Does this mean Gamers are in trouble as well because my good friend headlock gaming does mostly mortal kombat streams so what this means for the headlock/mortal kombat community on Facebook?
First of all, I’m so so sorry, this is awful. I’m struggling to understand though, are they saying
“We make assumptions about users based on ad clicks & sell that for targeting. To prevent us from doing this with these specific characteristics we’re banning any ads which would lead us to do that”?
“We’ve been asked to exclude this specific data from that thing we do with data. We’re not going to stop doing the thing that we do, so we’re just going to enforce don’t ask, don’t tell”.
I'm just thinking about all the arts organizations (including one I'm on the board of) that use Instagram and are focused on specific identities. Really, Meta?
This is worrying. If you’re open to speaking to a journalist about it, I’d be interested in hearing more - and can at least try to get some answers from Meta
Oh god, your right! Lets see... maybe they can go fuck themselves? or get fucked? But both of those could be fun. Hmm... maybe they can fuck off to the layer of hell they spawned from. Yeah, that sounds appropriate.
Wait - so, I can’t post an event to help elect Democrats? Or is it that I can’t post a link to a website that promotes voting for Dems? And I can’t - on my business page - post links from my health coach website that talks about health conditions? That seems ridiculous - or am I reading this wrong?
The events it’s referring to are tracking events (analytics). The OP is sending sensitive information about people to Meta via their website and Meta wants them to stop. The OP is misinterpreting this and making it about ads or the content of the website, but they just need to remove the Meta pixel.
In the past I'd say that someone needs to show this crap to the press but since the election they've made it clear they're showing their bellies, so I doubt anyone would cover it.
If you read the email, they are not prevented from running ads. This has to do with data collection, not ads policy. This is probably due to privacy concerns. Meta was fined last year for violation of GDPR. This person would only be affected if they were passing sensitive info back 2 meta via pixel
I’m confused. Anyone in marketing knows that they have to target a “market” with certain characteristics. I’m a chiropractor. You mean, I can’t advertise my business??? Cuz it’s healthcare and related to a specific condition like “back pain” or something??? Goodbye meta.
Yes you can advertise your business. The email has nothing to do with ad policy. It is about data collection. Example you can’t collect someone’s PHI on your website and share it with Meta using the pixel. Meta was sued for violating GDPR last year. That’s likely what this is all about.
If you read it more closely it’s saying they don’t want the OP to send them sensitive data like this. It’s not about allowing the ads, it’s about the OP’s website sending tracking events with PII.
Thank you, it was really dense language so I appreciate the translation. It's strange to see some demographic data not allowed that they track for their own in house audiences.
probably not, since that’s a mostly by-women-for-women category that’s come under a lot of accusations of moral impurity. like I get what you’re saying but in this case I don’t think it’s true.
historically speaking the appeal to “they leave the cishets alone” principle has rarely applied to cishet women’s ability to enjoy their own sexuality.
Project 2025 also seems to target romance. First queer rmances but longterm anything with even a hint of sex in it.
Plus KOSA which could also target romance, including cis het romance.
LGBTQ books and authors are the most vulnerable to censorship and persecution, but anyone writing erotica or steamy romance is also on shaky ground. It's a good time for author solidarity.
This reads as though they'll no longer be allowing targeting based on gender at all. I don't doubt it'll hit LGBTQ authors and readers hardest as CPC ads to targeted audiences are more important for queer books. I'm just confused by the broad wording and whether that is what it means.
I agree, I was just seeking clarification because literally every piece about it on google reads like ai gibberish.
From what I've found, they are removing the ability to exclude by gender or use gender in an imported data source, but you can still target by gender in the audience category.
Yeah they basically mean anyone that isn't a cis man or cis woman. Even though those are gender identities. It's like dipshits that say their gender is "NORMAL".
when they say specific gender identity they just mean trans. like how legal restrictions on gender affirming healthcare never impede cis patients from accessing gender affirming care
Tbh I'm not shocked because meta thinks I'm Loki, god of Mischief... And I got temp banned for it. The AI mod they use is dumb AF and there is no human recourse.
Speaking as an author in a similar position to @novaecaelum.bsky.social, those platforms don’t generate the revenue that Meta does. I love the fediverse and I definitely do get sales there … but it’s nothing like advertising on Meta.
I would love to know more information on transferring things like posts or images or even groups to other platforms? In process of removing everything from meta.
Can I just ask why are you conforming? You are jumping through hoops to please Zuckerberg & feed his sucking up to Trump & Musk. Why? You might lose business? What business do you keep from doing this?
Good lord. The guidelines are so specific & also so broad that there's no point of advertising or using meta at all cause they disallow everything. Wtf?
By that do you mean never “see” them (as in it’s invisible but happening) or that they aren’t enforcedbut people change their behavior yo avoid enforcement?
Both things happen. Effective censorship erases itself from the official record, & people changing their behavior tends to make it less visible outside of the official record. (If I'm misunderstanding, let me know.)
If your connections outside the censored system are robust, then you might see it happening. But connections are often less robust than we think - e.g. I had the experience a few times on Twitter of learning purely by chance that someone's account had been suspended (or fediblocked, on fedi).
#LGBTQI+ readers groups are huge on FB. I promo my #mmromance books on Fb and Instagram. I have lots of friends and acquaintances in groups. As Zuck is actively trying to destroy our communities we'll just have to find new places to be, like Bluesky.
#booksky #writiingcommunity #writerbeware
Some good LGBTQA+ newsletters would be nice. Or a website with an attached forum. One owned by people in the community and not reliant on big corporations that bent the knee.
Thank you for sharing! I read a lot of #mmromance & Bluesky is now my go-to to find the authors I like. The algorithms at FB & IG make it so hard to see them in my feed anymore. I lose touch before I know it. Here, I follow people/#s, but I also made my own list so I never miss any posts. FB sucks!
This has been happening. As a kids magazine, written w girls ages 5-12 in mind, the few ads we’ve tried to run on FB are often rejected for being “political.” If it features a woman leader or says something like “for girls who aren’t afraid to make some noise” (which is our tagline) it’s rejected.
It’s been…confusing. We really don’t run many ads but we often have to rework them before they’re approved. And it’s often a mystery as to what part is being flagged as “political.”
Gotta love all the mother fucking billionaires caving to orange Hitler already.
I’m sure these rules run afoul of EU laws somehow. Do you have any friends in europe that can check/report this? I’d love to see more countries shut down these shitty social media sites for discrimination.
Not a lawyer, but it could be against the European antidiscrimination law which expressedly forbids discrimination because of race or sexual orientation.
These new rules should also be vulnerable to US law. They explicitly censor communications from protected classes of people, in other words, groups with a history of de jure & de facto discrimination in the US.
This screams for intervention by a liberal judge.
Yeah but they have to get lucky enough to get a liberal judge. And hope it doesn’t get appealed. And facebook is going to make any lawsuit goddamn expensive unless you can get the ACLU involved.
Understood. I’m a gay man… Still, I’m all for fighting the bastards in any & all ways. I was just noting what seemed like a major problem & vulnerability with Meta’s new rules. A scientist not a lawyer
Is "associated" with specific races, ethnicities, religions?? I really need to show this to my friend who does a lot of campaigning for Palestine...this is disgusting.
On the (minimal) upside, I've seeing your books talked about a bunch, and this definitely pushed me to finally get the lot of 'em.
And we all know this will never be leveraged against cis white people, just like „associated with a specific political party“ won’t ever be used against GOP sycophants.
I get that you need to make money, but I would take my $ and go elsewhere before I changed a single word on my website. They'll just push us into smaller and smaller boxes if we comply. Stop giving companies like this your ad money. Clearly they don't want it (or us).
I would love to do this, but it’s not so easy to stop a business—with business loans and rolling bills and paid contractors—in motion. People depend on me for their income, too, and I need to keep up living expenses. This might be a gradual shift, but right now damage control is it to keep going.
Makes sense, didn't know you owned a whole publisher as opposed to being a single author. It's gonna be a tough time the next few years for sure, I can feel all the doors closing.
I hope you'll look into the new app in beta testing right now . It's called neptuneappdotcom and they're specifically addressing all of these concerns. It has huge potential. Are you on tiktok now?
Cis straight identity is seen as the default identity, so it's not considered an identity at all by many people. It's why bigots can say "Cis is a slur" with a straight face. Being told they have an identity too makes them mad, because identities are for other people who they see as lesser
This is straight (heh) from the conservative play book and is just barely trying to hide what they are doing. All they have to do is not enforce it against straight cis people. See book bans that would definitely include the bible but don't include the bible.
right, absolutely. But so much effort for such bullshit! it seems like it would be exhausting and unnerving to be a dishonest hateful asshole. All. The. Time.
I learned about and bought your Stars and Green Magics series through an ad on Instagram. Same w a lot of Harper Bliss books, which would also be restricted. I’ve added you to a feed I admin that includes a lot of authors and queer readers and artists and reposted this there.
This is horrible. I hate Meta for this. How can people find queer books if the authors aren't allowed to say they are queer books? It's even more evil than it looks. And that is evil. Big hugs! 🫂 I wish I could help you but I don't know how.
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O RLY
Ads for men's underwear or "wine mom" t-shirts should have to go too.
Hard not to hate everything these days.
Thank you for sharing all of this. I hope we see real solidarity against these ghouls in the coming days/months. This is so backward. It can't prosper.
Like how broad is this? I know their aim is to hurt queer people but this wording would include anything gender specific. Even like men's deodorant. So ridiculous on so many levels.
Cis woman IS a gender identity.
https://www.aapf.org/theforum-hollywood-censors-ball
I know that's who they'll target, but there isn't a human alive who couldn't be targeted with that list.
They should have saved themselves trouble and said "anyone we want for any reason we want and we aren't going to explain why".
They said don’t mention poverty, it makes them sad.
“We make assumptions about users based on ad clicks & sell that for targeting. To prevent us from doing this with these specific characteristics we’re banning any ads which would lead us to do that”?
Meanwhile the pundits keep saying Bsky is an echo chamber and needs more right wing hatemonger free speech.
I'm not a business but i love to draw fanarts of my fav queer books :(
Or the classic case of piss off queers, we don't care if it's illegal we only care about the feds.
I’m rarely on FB or Insta anymore. I go on just for the few friends and family I keep up with on there.
FB denied several requests to remove someone pretending to be me. Literally said they weren’t duping me even though they used my name & my pix.
Fvck META
Which is to say, yes, fuck meta.
(Nothing about swearing!)
Your business page might be fine, unless you boost it.
That's pure craziness!
In the past I'd say that someone needs to show this crap to the press but since the election they've made it clear they're showing their bellies, so I doubt anyone would cover it.
Dark days ahead. :(
So sorry for you. And me! I need gay books!
"associated with individuals likely facing personal hardship"??!
Inhuman.
"associated with individuals of a specific race or ethnicity"
WHICH specific race or ethnicity, Zuckerberg?
I'm afraid we're on our own.
https://www.oversightboard.com/
Plus KOSA which could also target romance, including cis het romance.
From what I've found, they are removing the ability to exclude by gender or use gender in an imported data source, but you can still target by gender in the audience category.
If this is what they are going to do with Facebook, imagine what they are going to do with mainstream media?!?
#ShoutoutNorthKorea I guess.
I deleted my Facebook and IG years ago. Is it providing enough to its users to justify what supporting Zuckerberg means?
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I am just thinking that probably many letters like this have gone out so maybe if you don’t comply they will never get around to you?
Otoh that may be pre-datamining thinking
#booksky #writiingcommunity #writerbeware
I’m sure these rules run afoul of EU laws somehow. Do you have any friends in europe that can check/report this? I’d love to see more countries shut down these shitty social media sites for discrimination.
But someone would have to sue and make a case.
This screams for intervention by a liberal judge.
I don’t trust the courts to help us anymore.
On the (minimal) upside, I've seeing your books talked about a bunch, and this definitely pushed me to finally get the lot of 'em.
Marketing speak is so gross
so sorry this happened to you