Business coach Richard Fletcher is bringing attention to the current state of how Facebook for Business reviews advertisements on the social media website that supposedly do not comply with its ‘community standards’. 

With one in six posts on the average newsfeed being a promoted advertisement, he understands Facebook has a monumental job in reviewing and maintaining an advertising service free from explicit imagery or controversial content that may cause concern. However, he establishes that with the current pandemic leaving fewer bodies at desks at Facebook HQ reviewing ad complaints, their utilisation of algorithms leaves much to be desired. 

Easily triggered into thinking run of the mill advertisements are scammers, Facebook is not just removing single ads but closing the whole accounts of many smaller businesses who will greatly suffer as a result of their entire income being cut off in a heartbeat. With smaller businesses having less time, manpower and other resources to contest Facebook’s closure of their account – they are left to wait for days, weeks or months as Facebook makes its verdict of the future of their business presence on the platform. Richard sees this as surely a dark sign for many of the smaller businesses looking to scale that rely on Facebook for organic growth.

This is the latest development in a series of concerns for Facebook’s advertising platform. Many companies including Coca Cola and Unilever have recently participated in a boycott of all Facebook ad spending, citing the companies proliferation of divisive content and hate speech in the run up to the U.S. presidential election. Facing a massive loss in revenue from big businesses and more calls to revise its ad-reviewing algorithms from medium and smaller sized businesses create a formidable call for Facebook to really shake up how it manages its ad services.