Yesterday we told you that Facebook banned the advertising account of conservative children’s book publisher Heroes of Liberty. Well now, Facebook has apparently reversed its decision and are calling it an ‘error’.
The weird thing is they never bothered to let Heroes of Liberty know their ad account was re-enabled.
Update: Facebook informed several people and several members of Congress that we’ve been reinstated. They never actually told *us.* But our account looks restored, for now. We’d like to be reassured it was a mistake and that we can safely invest there. https://t.co/V4tTEfQbAC
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) January 4, 2022
Brit Hume tweeted about it yesterday and last night Facebook’s spokesman claimed it was an error and the account was re-enabled:
This should not have happened. It was an error and the ad account’s been restored.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) January 4, 2022
I’ll look into it now
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) January 4, 2022
That was last night. The tweet above from Bethany Mandel was from this morning, meaning Facebook still hasn’t explained to her that her account had been re-enabled or why there was an ‘error’.
Also the ‘error’ claim is garbage and doesn’t make any sense. Mandel went through the appeal process and was still denied:
After Heroes of Liberty appealed, Facebook sent another message. “After a final review of this ad account, we confirmed it didn’t comply with our Advertising Policies or other standards,” the message reads. “You can no longer advertise with this ad account and its ads and assets will remain disabled. This is our final decision.”
If it had been an error, the appeals process would have caught it. The ban was intentional. The only reason the account was reinstated is because Bethany’s story caught the attention of a lot of people and some higher ups and Facebook happened to notice.
Facebook still owes Heroes of Liberty an explanation and, if they really want to make it right, should give them some free advertising for their trouble.