GOOD MORNING MIDNIGHT

Hi internet!

Disclaimers first: For the past, like, eight years I have been paid to be good at the internet for various & sundry companies you’ve definitely heard of, and for the past, like, five or six years I have been writing a lot about why it sucks that life sucks more if you’re some kind of lady, and have received more than my fair share of letters from unhappy young fellows who would like me to be dead/raped/etc.   I AM ONE OF YOU, O INTERNET FEMINISTS. I totally get it.

That said, I’m still facepalming really, really hard about #FBRape.

It appears that the general public doesn’t understand that Facebook ads target you as a person, regardless of the content of the page.  Facebook ads are unrelated to the content they show up next to, and are never an endorsement of any content anywhere else on Facebook.  When one buys Facebook ads, one targets users by “interest” and category - so, say, 18-24 year olds who have “liked” a page from another fashion retailer, or people over 21 who have expressed an interest in feminism and volunteering. (Yes, social justice buys ads too - I’ve run the campaigns.) There is no section where you pick where your ad displays, or associate it with any given content.  And nobody, no matter how nefarious their product, would ever pick to advertise on pages related to “sexual assault” or “pedophilia,” for legal reasons alone.  The ads in the right hand column appear independent of content and are as associated with the offensive page you’re viewing as your friends’ icons in chat, which also show up in the right hand column. 

None of these advertisers — which run the gamut from corporate giants to tiny non-profits that work to educate women in developing nations — want their pages associated with racist, misogynist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, violent, or otherwise offensive content.  None of them.  Besides being horrific, that would generally be really shitty for business. But they have as much control over their ads displaying on offensive pages as they would over someone spray-painting a dick or racial slur on the side of a train in which they also advertise.

Also, keep in mind that the folks you’re actually harassing on these pages aren’t in fact some evil corporate octopus figure who wants to endorse misogyny, but probably some other 23 year old internet kid (possibly even a lady and a survivor of sexual assault) who’s their entry-level community manager or digital customer service rep — and they’re probably literally crying in the bathroom right now because all day they’ve had to watch “rape” “you condone rape” “how do you sleep at night” “rape” “you’re terrible” “how dare you” “rape” pop up in their HootSuite feed every seven seconds.  You know who isn’t seeing that or feeling harassed and panicky or triggered by having to see “rape” 3,000 times today? Whatever lowlife losers are creating rape-joke Facebook pages.

Advertisers and corporations should have social responsibility, yes, absofuckinglutely.  But they aren’t responsible, related to, or probably even aware of content created elsewhere on Facebook by terrible people who think sexual assault is something to joke about. #FBRape is not actually reaching the source of the problem. It is not reasonable to expect every advertiser on Facebook (which, again, includes orgs which you are probably passionately devoted to) to pull all their money out, or to assume that depriving Facebook of ad funding is somehow going to enable them to develop better moderation and responsibility. 

If you have a problem with advertising and a specific company or want to dismantle capitalism, deal with that specifically. If you are horrified by content created independently by the masses, deal with that - or create better, more positive content instead. If you are offended by a Facebook page, flag the page. Flag all those pages.  Spend 15 minutes a day hunting down offensive pages and reporting them, if you want. Click the little gear icon and click “report.”  There are literally humans there whose job is to look at what was flagged and assess and delete it - let them know. And remember that those people are actual humans just trying to get through their day, too.