Face Book deleting pages advertising E cigs

[Fiamma]

http://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk/ashtray-blog/2012/08/facebook-electronic-cigarettes.html

Look down below the larger print to the outlined box headed Facebook Marketing

No advertising of tobacco products INCLUDING electronic cigarettes.

 

[asha23]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Camel-cigarettes/304295216138

Er....

 

[Demarko]

Welcome to Facebook

Huh.
Oh, and "tobacco Stores" is one of their business categories.

 

[Vocalek]

Welcome to Facebook

Huh.
Oh, and "tobacco Stores" is one of their business categories.

How do you spell "hypocrite"?

 

[mwplefty]

What's so weird is that half of the people posting on the Camel page say that they just started smoking, and they look like they are in their 30's or 40's.

 

[amienichole]

How do you spell "hypocrite"?

Totally agree!!!!

 

[Rhapsodies Fire]

Perhaps those pages should be reported. I'm seeing a definite lack of consistency....

From their Advertising Guidelines:

Drugs and Tobacco
Ads may not promote or facilitate the sale or consumption of illegal or recreational drugs, tobacco products, or drug or tobacco paraphernalia.

But it also says at the bottom...
We reserve the right to reject, approve or remove any ad for any reason, in our sole discretion, including ads that negatively affect our relationship with our users or that promote content, services, or activities, contrary to our competitive position, interests, or advertising philosophy. These guidelines are subject to change at any time.

So I've read their page terms, statement of rights & responsibilities, and also the community standards and don't see any mention of ecigs anywhere. Of course, it is late, and it's entirely possible my tired eyes missed it.

But I am confused....were they removed because they are an ecig related business, were they removed for advertising, or both?

 

[rolygate]

It may be that E-CigaretteDirect achieved enough visibility that FB then had to delete their page. Commercial promotion of ecigs is against their TOS. It seems that no ecig community pages are being deleted.

You could say that orgs like FB and Google exhibit hypocrisy because they accept pages and/or ads for products which are clearly against their ToS; or it could be that they don't have enough staff to filter these materials out immediately, and can only do this when the resource sticks its head above the parapet; or maybe it's a case of someone knowing about it but nothing being done until it has to be.

Probably a combination of those things. Google for example are massively understaffed and pretty much ignore any kind of customer service unless you pay them (by advertising). They can afford to do that, with a monopoly for all practical purposes. FB are probably in the same boat - no staff resources for handling issues of this type unless the issue can't be ignored.

You can get away with it as long as you don't make too much noise. Ecigs are related to smoking as far as these web businesses are concerned, and therefore contravene the ToS. Keep your head below the parapet and you might get away with it; make a huge amount of noise on Google or FB and you'll get the chop. ECD really worked it and were therefore candidates for being noticed.

An ecig business has a couple of choices here: use FB and similar resources but keep a low profile; or work it to the limit and sooner or later get banned.

Using words like 'smoking', 'smokers', 'nicotine' or even 'e-cigarettes' is going to raise a flag. Shotgunning FB with ads and posts featuring that material is likely to result in being closed down. They don't want us because they don't need us, political correctness is a safe mode for them; they don't need niche communities, just the big numbers in popular everyday groupings.

 

[DC2]

Drugs and Tobacco
Ads may not promote or facilitate the sale or consumption of illegal or recreational drugs, tobacco products, or drug or tobacco paraphernalia.

But it also says at the bottom...
We reserve the right to reject, approve or remove any ad for any reason, in our sole discretion, including ads that negatively affect our relationship with our users or that promote content, services, or activities, contrary to our competitive position, interests, or advertising philosophy. These guidelines are subject to change at any time.

OTHERWISE STATED AS: So when electronic cigarettes become mainstream, they will revisit their position on this issue.

 

[Rhapsodies Fire]

So just to see how this works, I reported one of the above tobacco related pages and got this response from FB

Thanks for your recent report of a potential violation on Facebook. After reviewing your report, we were not able to confirm that the specific page you reported violates Facebook's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

Learn more about what we do and don't allow by reviewing the Facebook Community Standards: https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards.

Just to clarify, when reporting a page, there isn't an option to select that the page in question is violating their statement of rights and responsibilities, community standards or anything else. The options are for things like harrassment, suicide, self harm, abuse and hate related stuff.

 

[superfrog]

This is what I sent to FB, and plastered all over my wall...

Not that I'm expecting, frankly, that this will go far at all, but I'd like to voice my concern in regards to a notice that I received via FB and other social media devices. From my understanding, you will be deleting vendors who advertise Personal Vaporizers, otherwise known as Electronic Cigs. I find blatant bias in this action as to target this specific community. I understand your terms of service, and quite frankly, I don't understand why you DON'T support tobacco harm reduction. Your particular venue has the ability to provide maybe millions of smokers the opportunity that thousands, hundreds of thousands of us already have, the opportunity to regain our health, confidence, and social acceptability again.

Bias? Where you ask? Every day, on one of your 'SPONSORED' ads that comes up on my computer is at least one TOBACCO or WORSE related page. Most recently is "http://www.facebook.com/supersmokeshop?sk=app_184217821649480#!/supersmokeshop". If the link doesn't work, search SuperSmokeShop.com. THERE IS A POT LEAF RIGHT IN THEIR AD GRAPHIC. Why I am targeted for this ad, I have no idea. AND I KNOW THIS IS NOT THE ONLY PAGE OR AD OF THIS NATURE.

So, in short, the perception I have is that you SUPPORT, SPONSOR, and PROMOTE actual tobacco use and drug use (which KILLS) over tobacco HARM REDUCTION (which is saving lives).

By semantics, personal vaporizers or E-Cigs are tobacco products only. They have the same OR LOWER proven harm compared to pharmaceutical Nicotine Replacement Treatments.

Expect a number of feedbacks such as this, and I wouldn't be surprised if a number of us finally washed our hands of your service entirely.

And for the record, I am an enthusiast. I do not and never have worked for the e-cig industry. They, though, have saved my life, and the health of my family. After a good number of years and failed attempts, these devices actually reduced and removed smoked tobacco from my family’s life.

If you need more information on tobacco harm reduction, there is a number of publications linked from CASAA.org, a non-profit watchdog group (of which I am not a member but do support their cause).

 

[Fiamma]

This is what I sent to FB, and plastered all over my wall...

Good job superfrog