Nick Loeb claims Facebook refuses to run ads for anti-abortion 'Roe v. Wade' film
Nick Loeb is accusing Facebook of refusing to run advertisements for his upcoming anti-abortion film, Roe v. Wade. Loeb, Jon Voight, Stacey Dash and Joey Lawrence all appear in the controversial movie, which also features cameos by Milo Yiannopoulos and Tomi Lahren.
“They don’t like conservative content so they shadow-banned us,” Loeb tells Page Six. “This is a PG movie, no profanity, no gore. They are afraid this movie will overturn Roe v. Wade.”
Loeb, actress Sofia Vergara’s ex-fiancé, alleges that Facebook blocked access to the film’s crowdfunding site last year. Shadow banning is when a user or their content is blocked or partially blocked on an online platform. Many conservatives argue that social media platforms — like Facebook and Twitter — often censor them. It’s something President Trump has tweeted about before.
Twitter “SHADOW BANNING” prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2018
Loeb, who produced, co-wrote and co-directed the film, claims Facebook won’t give him an explanation for rejecting the promotion. The ad is apparently a photo of Voight as Chief Justice Warren E. Burger with a link to a Hollywood Reporter story on the secret project.
A Facebook spokesperson tells Yahoo the ads in question involve advocacy for a topic under the company’s issues of national importance. (In May, Facebook made significant changes to the way ads with political content work on the platform in an effort to be more transparent with users.) Abortion is one of the issues that require advertiser authorization and labeling for ads targeting the United States. In order for the ad to run, advertisers have to reveal who paid for it. This might include having a “Paid for by…” disclosure.
It appears there are steps Loeb can go through in order to have his ad run on Facebook. Filmmakers of the RBG documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsburg were purportedly given the same directive, per Page Six.
According to Loeb’s GoFundMe page raising money for the release, “Roe v. Wade is the untold story of how people lied, how the media lied, and how the courts were manipulated to pass a law that has since killed over 60 Million Americans.”
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