Facebook has been accused of microtargeting gay conversion therapy ads and videos promoting “sexual purity” to young queer users in the UK.
An investigation by the Telegraph found multiple ads selling the idea that gay people could be turned straight. When users clicked the “Why am I seeing this ad?” button, they were told it was because they were interested in “gender issues.”
Here’s one of the ads, titled “Homosexuality Was My Identity,” which was reportedly targeted to users who said they’d “liked” LGBTQ pages:
The ad suggests gayness is something to be overcome and relinquished with the help of Jesus.
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Tessa Ann Schwarz, who identifies as a lesbian, was shown the ad on her feed.
“I don’t know why Facebook has permitted this group to target LGBTQ people, who have intentionally sought out community and education amongst peers, for shaming and hatred masked as love,” she told the Telegraph.
Meanwhile, Alistair Ryder, a young gay man, was shown an ad for the book Evangelical Man, Same-Sex Attraction, a fun summer beach read that promotes celibacy as the solution to gaining “sexual purity.”
“There was nothing overtly homophobic about the ad I saw itself,” Ryder said, “but it was written in a way to try to appeal to people who may be depressed or self loathing due to their sexuality.”
Of course, Facebook didn’t hand-approve these ads, but that’s the problem — how can the giant of a company properly regulate its fully-automated targeted ad market?
In the above cases, it was up to users like Ryder and Schwarz to flag the ads as inappropriate. Only then did a moderator step in and remove them, as they violate the company’s “misleading or false content” ad policy, which states that “ads, landing pages, and business practices must not contain deceptive, false, or misleading content, including deceptive claims, offers, or methods.”
Critics like Griff Ferris of the UK civil rights group Big Brother Watch say the process is flawed.
“Targeted advertising is aggressive and manipulative, using personal and private information to exploit people’s innermost fears, desires and prejudices,” he told the Telegraph. “Therefore it must be restricted to protect people’s rights.”
UPDATE: In response to this post, Facebook issued Queerty the following statement via email:
“We do not allow ads that promote gay conversion therapy or that imply personal attributes about people, like their sexual orientation. We quickly removed these ads after further review. While enforcement is never perfect, we’re always working to find and remove ads that violate our policies.”
An earlier version of this post contained a different ad policy attributed to Facebook. It has since been corrected.
Vince
I love how they try to disguise themselves off as just normal people when in reality it’s always some anti gay religious organization behind it.
At least kids have it allot easier today. They can easily ignore it. Back in the 80s you didn’t have anything but this kind of crap.
QueerTruth
If Facebook and Instagram publish conversion therapy ads – then bye. I will drop both accounts. That’s ridiculous
mshole
Agreed! How stupid is Facebook to allow something like this after so much poor publicity and bad personal information violations? (yes, I realize that question is rather redundant!)
Vince
I don’t think they can do much until someone complains though. These ads are deceptive and these sites don’t have the time to be verifying their content.
NateOcean
Agreed! Perhaps the only alternative is to use Facebook profiles and to target religious conservatives with gay porn ads. Seems fair.
Facebook has also been accused of targeting click-farms (places you can pay to click your pages and up your ratings). But why is Facebook concerned? Because it cuts into their *own* business of selling clicks.
This is just an awful company.
misterjack
I’m glad I never signed on to Facebook.
Terrycloth
Facebook is too nosy. Never liked it .still dont ..so glad I was smart and never signed up…I’ve seen how it works and got a tour from friends with their computer….thanks but no thanks..
elemirion
Someone is paying for those adds and it needs to stop, its propaganda and is proven to not work. I think personally we should start gay conversion therapy, force the straights to live our lifestyles, and see if it works, I bet a lot of them would come out of the closet
inbama
The Air Force hired this quack. https://thinkprogress.org/air-force-academy-defends-employment-of-ex-gay-therapist-49d76b8b3426/
Hussain-TheCanadian
This is outrageous; do straight people say “heterosexuality is my identity “? Maybe we should start buying ads on Facebook too : “straight men have you tried a c*ck before? Chickens are overrated, step in the world of c*cks, cant complain if you havent tried it”.
Sam6969
Hearing carefully the guy in the ad’s story he never truly accepted his homosexuality, but repressed his self-rejection for years; and someday, as he felt a need for spirituality and connection in a depression time, he finally mistook his need for spirituality with a literalist and homophobic view of the Bible and the religion (the mixed concepts are carried on all along the video). It matched both his need for spirituality and his repressed self-rejection that had resurfaced. Then people used him for their ideological and political agenda to make this ad…It is sad.
MinnesotaNotNice
I finally got sick of the shit that was going on with Facebook and after 10 years of having an account, I deleted it last month. I don’t miss it at all and should’ve done it years ago.
basicguy58
I watched this clip and it made me angry. The only message I see here is that same old message I’ve heard from so called “christians” since I was in college in the ’70’s. That is, ” if you want to be gay you can’t be Christian.” For so many young people coming from a religious family background, that’s like being handed a pistol and telling to then to shoot themselves. The damage something like this video can do is unimaginable! I saw what it did to a college age student, I don’t even want to think what it would do to a teenager. Facebook has to be more practice and less reactive or they are going to start losing mainstream users who are slow to jump on some of the more reactionary bandwagons. Surely, Facebook can afford to hire the best brains in the world to find a way to screen these ads BEFORE they reach the public! Perhaps Facebook should quit sherking it’s responsibility and protect it’s users!
russellhm
This act should be made illegal, an invasion of privacy, by Facebook. Conversion Therapy is first, a misnomer. Theraphy is not involved, but coersion and physcial brutality are. And all of the “counselors” who claim conversion are still gay and practicing, often on new recruits, confusing and scaring them. They should all be shut down, boarded up, destroyed.