Shared with permission by Lions Of Liberty.

From time to time I like to experiment with “boosting” posts on Facebook in an attempt to reach a wider audience. I felt my recent interview with Ben Swann on the root of police militarization was a post worthy of such boosting. But apparently Facebook felt differently, and my ad was rejected.

So what was Facebook’s reasoning for refusing my hard-earned money? When I inquired, this was their response:

Thanks for writing in. I’m here to help.

Well, fantastic! We’re off to a great start!

Your ad was rejected because it doesn’t follow our ad guidelines. Ads may not promote the sale of ammunition, firearms, knives, daggers, swords, bows or other weapons. Any ad leading people to a destination where they can purchase any weapon is not allowed. The post remains published, but isn’t running as an ad.

Keep in mind that ads can promote advocacy or interest groups that help connect people who have interests related to these products, as long as it doesn’t lead to the sale of any weapons.

I see…I’m not allowed to advertise the sale of any weapons. Ok, got it. Only problem is that I don’t advertise the sale of any weapons anywhere on this website or anywhere in the post linked to. So what gives?

Then I noticed the attachments in the email, which were the following two screenshots, not from Lions of Liberty, but from BenSwann.com.

 

 

The horror! So essentially someone from Facebook looked not only at my site, but the website of my guest as well, and decided that they didn’t like the ads they saw there in regards to guns. Seems like quite the rabbit hole they traveled down to reject my ad.

I responded to Facebook that this wasn’t even from my website, but based on the way their email ended I don’t expect a response.

This decision is final and we may not respond to additional inquiries about this ad.

Thanks for your understanding.

But I don’t …understand…

Of course, I wouldn’t argue that Facebook doesn’t have the right to reject my ad, or reject any content published by anyone on their website. But it certainly seems indicative of an odd culture at Facebook – or perhaps it’s a reflection of society or government pressure – to be decidedly against anything remotely resembling the promotion of guns.

That being said, I highly encourage you all to head over to BenSwann.com – did you hear he’s giving away an AR?!

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Listen to the interview: